High philosophy influences the masses as external coercion, not as transforming thought
Evidence
The first mistake of the Popular Manual is that it starts, at least implicitly, from the assumption that the elaboration of an original philosophy of the popular masses is to be opposed to the great systems of traditional philosophy and the religion of the leaders of the clergy—i.e. the conception of the world of the intellectuals and of high culture. In reality these systems are unknown to the multitude and have no direct influence on its way of thinking and acting. This does not mean of course that they are altogether without influence but it is influence of a different kind. These systems influence the popular masses as an external political force, an element of cohesive force exercised by the ruling classes and therefore an element of subordination to an external hegemony. This limits the original thought of the popular masses in a negative direction, without having the positive effect of a vital ferment of interior transformation of what the masses think in an embryonic and chaotic form about the world and life. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1504
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- DEFINE: Distinguishes how high-cultural systems shape popular consciousness: negatively, as external hegemony, rather than transforming it from within.