Urbanites unite ideologically against the peasantry across class lines

Evidence

In this type of city there exists, among all social groups, an urban ideological unity against the countryside, a unity which even the most modern nuclei in terms of civil function do not escape (and there are such nuclei). There is hatred and scorn for the “peasant”, an implicit common front against the demands of the countryside— which, if realised, would make impossible the existence of this type of city. Reciprocally, there exists an aversion—which, if “generic”, is not thereby any less tenacious or passionate—of the country for the city, for the whole city and all the groups which make it up. This general relationship is in reality very complex, and appears in forms which on the surface seem contradictory; it had a primary importance in the course of the struggles for the Risorgimento, when it was even more absolute and operative than it is today. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 508

Categorization

• XREF: This ‘urban ideological unity against the countryside’ is a concrete instance of hegemony-forming common sense — carries directly into how subaltern and ‘Other’ populations get framed in the Islamophobia literature.
• DEFINE: Illustrates how an ideological common front can unify groups whose material interests diverge.