Masses differ from classes by lacking common-interest articulation

Evidence

One must therefore distinguish between historically organic ideologies, those, that is, which are necessary to a given structure, and ideologies that are arbitrary, rationalistic, or “willed”. To the extent that ideologies are historically necessary they have a validity which is “psychological”; they “organise” human masses, and create the terrain on which men move, acquire consciousness of their position, struggle, etc. To the extent that they are arbitrary they only create individual “movements”, polemics and so on (though even these are not completely useless, since they function like an error which by contrasting with truth, demonstrates it). — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1342 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Masses are people unintegratable into common-interest organizations — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 746; Smallholders form a class through mere numerical aggregation, not collective organization; Impartiality’s false symmetry neutralizes opposition and suppresses class content (+5 more)

Related

• Representation requires organic cohesion, not merely formal delegation from masses to leaders (similarity 0.86)
• Organic ideologies organize masses while arbitrary ones only produce individual movements (similarity 0.86)
• Masses are people unintegratable into common-interest organizations (similarity 0.86)
• Organic elites express their social mass while volunteers detach themselves from it (similarity 0.85)
• Immanentist philosophies fail by remaining confined to elite circles (similarity 0.80)
• Mass movements radicalize because masses grasp only simple shared ideas (similarity 0.79)
• Mass ideology must be distinguished from its great philosophical cornerstones (similarity 0.79)
• Mass ideology differs from the elite philosophical cornerstones that must be engaged. (similarity 0.79)
• Gramscian ideology links unconscious common sense to conscious mass organization. (similarity 0.79)
• Masses distill perverted attitudes shared across all classes (similarity 0.78)
• Large activated masses are ruthlessly radical because they grasp only simple ideas (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Smallholders form a class through mere numerical aggregation, not collective organization #complicates (0.80)
• Articulated unity relates parts through differences and subordination, not identity #expands (0.80)
• Organic ideologies organize masses while arbitrary ones only produce individual movements #expands (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1342
• The same sign carries differently oriented class accents simultaneously #expands (0.75)
• Impartiality’s false symmetry neutralizes opposition and suppresses class content #expands (0.72)
• State prestige can substitute for a class’s missing intellectual and moral authority #expands (0.72)