Choose a quote from a journal article and use it to put forth your own argument - Essay Example

The term hegemony, historically, signifies a city, state or country that has exerted power and might over other cities and/or countries, indirectly rather than directly through military rule. Modern day use of the word hegemony refers to a group of people exercising power over another group, suppressing and influencing their existence and aspects of life. A very common example found in society today could be of the wealthy and rich class being able to exercise might over the poor solely due to the latter’s ability to utilize money and wealth to affect elements of society and control the lives of the poor.

The subaltern is a highly complex term that is used to refer to certain kinds of dispossessed people who fit the model of the oppressor or the oppressed as the individual so marginalized that he/she does not even carry the ‘voice’ of the oppressed. So we can say that if the oppressor is ‘Other’ and the oppressed is ‘Self’, then the subaltern is the one invisible to both the Other and the Self. Some scholars suggest that the term subaltern reflects the term proletariat. “Some thinkers use it in a general sense to refer to marginalized groups and the lower classes – a person rendered without agency by his or her social status.

” (Young, Robert J.C., 2003). . Reflecting the concepts of hegemony and subalternty in the Karl Marx’s theory, we can say that the subalterns are under the spell of false consciousness; a state that does not allow them to realize the fact that they are being oppressed by the hegemons, and accept their condition and position in society as fate. They are under the false impression that nothing can absolutely be done to improve their statuses. Since hegemony is practiced through the use of wealth, the hegemons have used the value of their wealth and riches to form a structure called the media and have used it’s influential power to further marginalize and oppress the subalterns.

The subalterns are said to have no ‘voice’ and no strength, therefore it is believed impossible for these groups to rebel and earn their positions and statuses. “There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” (Arundhati Roy). It is clearly evident that the subalterns did not by cause of nature exist in such a marginalized, oppressed and ‘voiceless’ form, rather these characteristics were forced upon them by hegemony.

However, according to Karl Marx’s theory, the subalterns will eventually develop a voice for themselves, a rebellious voice and utilize it’s power. Following the theory of Historical Materialism, the subalterns will gradually through a lot of push and pull, emerge out of their state of false consciousness and realize that they are being led falsely astray by their oppressors. The power and influence of wealth and the media will no longer be able to play their roles in creating an illusion of helplessness for the subalterns to believe in; instead