Superb! A clearly explained and interesting analysis. I have several acquaintances who are well educated AND culturally hegemonic and I gave up trying to have any meaningful discussions with them a long time ago.
"I gave up trying to have any meaningful discussions...". This is my experience also. There are many topics that are simply off-limits, with the hegemonic positions taken as a given. On these issues only little details can 'safely' be discussed, arguing about the core is taboo. Makes for a dull social life (essentially sticking to discussing trivia), so I make up for it by reading David McGrogan's excellent substack and others.
Subaltern - the word used in Gramsci-inflected theory to refer to a member of the ‘native’ population under colonial administration who is excluded from politics. A useful perspective.
But to press the Imperial analogy further still you could argues that UK Parliament now functions as in the role of Proconsul - one meaning of which is "An official in a modern colony who has considerable administrative power". But this power depends upon the authority of the Empire.
Arguably the Empire is a ‘cultural hegemony’ that presents those possessed of certain values, preferences and ideas as inevitable, benign, and normal, and our own politicians merely functionaries within the Imperial order. They are no longer the sole 'ruling class'.
The Establishment (in the UK) is part of the 'ruling class', and part of the wider Global Liberalism. No wonder the UK Establishment fiercely resisted the Referendum and Brexit. No wonder the ‘cultural hegemony’ of the legal class seems hell bent on subverting the politicians who were previously Proconsuls - and now almost Subalterns themselves.
However ‘cultural hegemony’ does not continue unchanged. Empires fall either quickly or in a long drawn out decline.
Gosh. As a Sassenach I had no idea just how much history infuses life in Glasgow. It seems to be a concentrated distillation of wider fractures across the UK. Fascinating.
When the SNP announced that anyone in Scotland on the day of independence, were that to come about, would automatically become Scottish (and so qualify for a Scottish passport) I resolved to travel up to Scotland for that day (even though I am a unionist.) Yet, this ultra civic nationlism removing all history from citizenship, concomitant with if not also driven by, rapid mass immigration. seems not to be working. Interesting.
what is meant by 'woke foreign ideologies'? in the context of a Scottish team playing a Turkish one, what does it allude to? none of the three terms (i.e. woke, foreign, ideologies) are very clearly defined, so what does the slogan refer to?
This is a good question. The consensus in the Celtic fan forums is that it was a protest because Rangers had an official Ramadan-related event at some point in early March. I'm not sure how they got from there to 'keep woke foreign ideologies out', but Celtic fans have a kneejerk 'It must be racism' response to everything Rangers fans do.
I think what is actually more likely is that the fans in question were just being mischievous and trying to come up with a message that would trigger the media luvvies, Celtic supporters, etc.
it's still a riddle. mischievous? o dear: in Canada Lich and Barber have been found guilty of mischief for their roles in the 2022 mass protest in Ottawa. I don't think all of this bodes well.
I assumed it implies that woke (various critical theory based worldviews) are ideologies alien to the Unionist Scottish/British character. Which, given they originated in France and the US isn't wrong.
This might have nothing to do with football, but for the fact that the FA is very pro 'current thing' to the displeasure of most football fans.
We could take our pick from Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility', Michel Foucault's 'History of Sexuality', Frantz Fanon's 'Wretched of the Earth' or Paulo Freire's 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed', all of which are available from Glasgow bookshops.
Fanon's work describes the crushing influence of European colonialism and (as far as I can remember) doesn't have much to do with any of the terms used in the slogan.
Fandoms work described the effect of colonisation on certain privileged groups in society who police the cultural norms that buttress oppression. So the management of Rangers are a text book case of this, this isn’t a new dynamic… the Pharisees in the Bible did exactly the same for the Roman Empire. The thought police have been around a long time!
at some point during the Cold War many of the newly independent nations, all former European colonies, came together at the Bandung Conference (1955), where they formulated their position of not wanting to become part of either the American/capitalist or the Russian/communist bloc. less than a decade later each of the attending leaders were either dead or deposed of in a bloody coup. that's the kind of colonialism desecribed in Franz Fanon's work, not current schoolbooks.
"In this respect what is happening there can be thought of as something of a harbinger for what is likely to come throughout the rest of the country as we shift from an open, pluralistic, mature democracy into something much cruder, more violent, more divided and more politically debased. That shift will be accompanied by a different emphasis in government - not so much acting in the national interest as managing conflict and minimising unrest, in a pseudo-colonial mould. Realistically it is not a question of whether that happens, but when and in what form"
Intersting that you should couch this in the future tense, when what you've described, and what we see daily in the legacy media, makes it plain that the shift has already occurred. The "when" is at least 5 or 6 years ago. The "how" is sitting right now in No. 10.
"Challenging the values of the hegemon does not entitle one to reasoned analysis and debate." Well said - there we have the whole problem in a pithy sentence.
The problem is the 'consensus' of the credentialed classes. We have allowed our culture to become burdened with too many chiefs and not enough injuns. The chiefs are those who are good at carving out careers for themselves within the establishment (and we all instinctively know how they do it). This leads to a societal monoculture which is especially prone to fashionable ideology. It was ever thus.
I suspect that the chiefs on the Board of Rangers feel they're on the naughty step after their financial woes of a decade and a half ago and are especially sensitive to activity that might anger their political masters - hence the overly harsh reaction.
Partly the financial issues but also partly cultural cringe. The Board probably want to shed the image of Rangers as a club with low status, 'bigoted' support.
Writing from a part of England colonised by Romans, Jutes, Normans, Dutch Protestants and ultimately a German royal family, I'd say that Europeans practiced colonisation on their neighbours before they exported it to other continents. Refusing to acknowledge the genius (spirit of inspiration) of the Emperor was punished by death in Roman times.
It's the 'defend Europe' bit I don't understand. Defend Britain is consistent, but why would a bunch of ultras want to defend Europe? You would maybe that at Celtic Park surely? When I lived in Glasgow admittedly several decades ago the woke foreigners to be defended against would almost inevitably be the English whichever club you supported, unionist or not.
If the hegemony has overcome this divide in Glasgow to impose its UK wide 'them and us' then there truely is a big problem.
I was applying the use of the words in the banner. 'woke foreign ideology' seems to me to apply more to the US than anywhere else , pre Trump2 of course. But also could to the EU itself which is inconsistent with 'defend European.
This is such a valuable piece. You are absolutely correct Ireland was for so long a subaltern identity, even within the island itself there were sub -subaltern identities (I wrote about this in my piece The Wests Awake). This is what Empire does, Fanon identified the same pattern in Algeria.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the processes of colonisation are being applied to native populations- the old fiction that to be born English was to have won the lottery of life is looking more and more thread bare.
The Rangers fans are the canaries in the coal mine…
Another brilliantly insightful piece! I learned so much about Glasgow from this, so much more than films set in the city have taught me. This also explains the support for Celtic in certain US regions with historic Catholic leanings, which had never clicked before.
Your analysis dovetails with mine but with different references (as is so often the case with the two of us!), and also perfectly captures the situation in Germany with the 'firewall' preventing the subaltern AfD from political participation.
You see the same dynamic with Rangers/Celtic in much weaker form in Liverpool. Historically Liverpool FC have had close ties to Celtic and you often see Irish tricolours at Anfield. There are lots of Irish Liverpool fans.
If you've ever been to the down-at-heel areas of Dublin you'll also see a lot of Celtic shirts.
Very well written and absolutely on the money. Coincidentally I spent much of yesterday thinking that a very similar process to that which you describe is what is driving the ludicrous establishment mania surrounding the TV fiction Adolescence.
In Australia, the Melbourne Victory soccer club was in the news recently because a few supporters boycotted the 'Pride Cup', an LGBTQIA+ promo event. Instead, they went to one of the club's lower league games and displayed banners that said outrageous things such as "No politics." The response by the club and the media was very predictable. It's a little bizarre that wanting to keep politics out of sport might lead to you being excluded. It's not just that they bat for the wrong side but failing to exhibit support for the woke leads to condemnation.
“an open, pluralistic, mature democracy” - did we ever have such a thing? for most of my life I believed we did. Over the last 10 years I have become increasingly convinced that such a thing never existed. Would that it did.
“an open, pluralistic, mature democracy” - did we ever have such a thing? for most of my life I believe we did for the last 10 years I have become increasingly convinced that’s such a thing never existed. Would that it did.
Superb! A clearly explained and interesting analysis. I have several acquaintances who are well educated AND culturally hegemonic and I gave up trying to have any meaningful discussions with them a long time ago.
"I gave up trying to have any meaningful discussions...". This is my experience also. There are many topics that are simply off-limits, with the hegemonic positions taken as a given. On these issues only little details can 'safely' be discussed, arguing about the core is taboo. Makes for a dull social life (essentially sticking to discussing trivia), so I make up for it by reading David McGrogan's excellent substack and others.
Subaltern - the word used in Gramsci-inflected theory to refer to a member of the ‘native’ population under colonial administration who is excluded from politics. A useful perspective.
But to press the Imperial analogy further still you could argues that UK Parliament now functions as in the role of Proconsul - one meaning of which is "An official in a modern colony who has considerable administrative power". But this power depends upon the authority of the Empire.
Arguably the Empire is a ‘cultural hegemony’ that presents those possessed of certain values, preferences and ideas as inevitable, benign, and normal, and our own politicians merely functionaries within the Imperial order. They are no longer the sole 'ruling class'.
The Establishment (in the UK) is part of the 'ruling class', and part of the wider Global Liberalism. No wonder the UK Establishment fiercely resisted the Referendum and Brexit. No wonder the ‘cultural hegemony’ of the legal class seems hell bent on subverting the politicians who were previously Proconsuls - and now almost Subalterns themselves.
However ‘cultural hegemony’ does not continue unchanged. Empires fall either quickly or in a long drawn out decline.
Gosh. As a Sassenach I had no idea just how much history infuses life in Glasgow. It seems to be a concentrated distillation of wider fractures across the UK. Fascinating.
When the SNP announced that anyone in Scotland on the day of independence, were that to come about, would automatically become Scottish (and so qualify for a Scottish passport) I resolved to travel up to Scotland for that day (even though I am a unionist.) Yet, this ultra civic nationlism removing all history from citizenship, concomitant with if not also driven by, rapid mass immigration. seems not to be working. Interesting.
I served for a total of 4 1/2 years in Northern Ireland. Glasgow is the most sectarian place I have ever been; by some margin.
The adjacent post in my substack inbox today is this one - https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/this-british-woman-should-not-be
It seems to me that Lucy Connolly has been ‘subaltern’ed
what is meant by 'woke foreign ideologies'? in the context of a Scottish team playing a Turkish one, what does it allude to? none of the three terms (i.e. woke, foreign, ideologies) are very clearly defined, so what does the slogan refer to?
This is a good question. The consensus in the Celtic fan forums is that it was a protest because Rangers had an official Ramadan-related event at some point in early March. I'm not sure how they got from there to 'keep woke foreign ideologies out', but Celtic fans have a kneejerk 'It must be racism' response to everything Rangers fans do.
I think what is actually more likely is that the fans in question were just being mischievous and trying to come up with a message that would trigger the media luvvies, Celtic supporters, etc.
it's still a riddle. mischievous? o dear: in Canada Lich and Barber have been found guilty of mischief for their roles in the 2022 mass protest in Ottawa. I don't think all of this bodes well.
The Ramadan celebration was after the banner. The likelihood of the fans knowing about it pre-match is tiny.
Yeah, like I said, that was the prevailing theory among Celtic fans - so probably not true.
Great article btw.
I assumed it implies that woke (various critical theory based worldviews) are ideologies alien to the Unionist Scottish/British character. Which, given they originated in France and the US isn't wrong.
This might have nothing to do with football, but for the fact that the FA is very pro 'current thing' to the displeasure of most football fans.
We could take our pick from Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility', Michel Foucault's 'History of Sexuality', Frantz Fanon's 'Wretched of the Earth' or Paulo Freire's 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed', all of which are available from Glasgow bookshops.
Fanon's work describes the crushing influence of European colonialism and (as far as I can remember) doesn't have much to do with any of the terms used in the slogan.
Fandoms work described the effect of colonisation on certain privileged groups in society who police the cultural norms that buttress oppression. So the management of Rangers are a text book case of this, this isn’t a new dynamic… the Pharisees in the Bible did exactly the same for the Roman Empire. The thought police have been around a long time!
Decolonisation is now all the rage in the West. We are required to decolonise the school curriculum, for example.
at some point during the Cold War many of the newly independent nations, all former European colonies, came together at the Bandung Conference (1955), where they formulated their position of not wanting to become part of either the American/capitalist or the Russian/communist bloc. less than a decade later each of the attending leaders were either dead or deposed of in a bloody coup. that's the kind of colonialism desecribed in Franz Fanon's work, not current schoolbooks.
"In this respect what is happening there can be thought of as something of a harbinger for what is likely to come throughout the rest of the country as we shift from an open, pluralistic, mature democracy into something much cruder, more violent, more divided and more politically debased. That shift will be accompanied by a different emphasis in government - not so much acting in the national interest as managing conflict and minimising unrest, in a pseudo-colonial mould. Realistically it is not a question of whether that happens, but when and in what form"
Intersting that you should couch this in the future tense, when what you've described, and what we see daily in the legacy media, makes it plain that the shift has already occurred. The "when" is at least 5 or 6 years ago. The "how" is sitting right now in No. 10.
"Challenging the values of the hegemon does not entitle one to reasoned analysis and debate." Well said - there we have the whole problem in a pithy sentence.
The problem is the 'consensus' of the credentialed classes. We have allowed our culture to become burdened with too many chiefs and not enough injuns. The chiefs are those who are good at carving out careers for themselves within the establishment (and we all instinctively know how they do it). This leads to a societal monoculture which is especially prone to fashionable ideology. It was ever thus.
I suspect that the chiefs on the Board of Rangers feel they're on the naughty step after their financial woes of a decade and a half ago and are especially sensitive to activity that might anger their political masters - hence the overly harsh reaction.
Partly the financial issues but also partly cultural cringe. The Board probably want to shed the image of Rangers as a club with low status, 'bigoted' support.
Writing from a part of England colonised by Romans, Jutes, Normans, Dutch Protestants and ultimately a German royal family, I'd say that Europeans practiced colonisation on their neighbours before they exported it to other continents. Refusing to acknowledge the genius (spirit of inspiration) of the Emperor was punished by death in Roman times.
It's the 'defend Europe' bit I don't understand. Defend Britain is consistent, but why would a bunch of ultras want to defend Europe? You would maybe that at Celtic Park surely? When I lived in Glasgow admittedly several decades ago the woke foreigners to be defended against would almost inevitably be the English whichever club you supported, unionist or not.
If the hegemony has overcome this divide in Glasgow to impose its UK wide 'them and us' then there truely is a big problem.
utterly confused: what is meant by 'woke foreigners'?
I was applying the use of the words in the banner. 'woke foreign ideology' seems to me to apply more to the US than anywhere else , pre Trump2 of course. But also could to the EU itself which is inconsistent with 'defend European.
Certainly not Turkey!
for some reason my mind made a leap to Turkey/Islam. dunno though...
By defend Europe I assume they mean white.
Perhaps they deserve to be banned by being unintelligible.
This is such a valuable piece. You are absolutely correct Ireland was for so long a subaltern identity, even within the island itself there were sub -subaltern identities (I wrote about this in my piece The Wests Awake). This is what Empire does, Fanon identified the same pattern in Algeria.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the processes of colonisation are being applied to native populations- the old fiction that to be born English was to have won the lottery of life is looking more and more thread bare.
The Rangers fans are the canaries in the coal mine…
Fascism imo is colonialism at home…
Dear David
Another brilliantly insightful piece! I learned so much about Glasgow from this, so much more than films set in the city have taught me. This also explains the support for Celtic in certain US regions with historic Catholic leanings, which had never clicked before.
Your analysis dovetails with mine but with different references (as is so often the case with the two of us!), and also perfectly captures the situation in Germany with the 'firewall' preventing the subaltern AfD from political participation.
Stay wonderful!
Chris.
Yes, the firewall is another good example.
You see the same dynamic with Rangers/Celtic in much weaker form in Liverpool. Historically Liverpool FC have had close ties to Celtic and you often see Irish tricolours at Anfield. There are lots of Irish Liverpool fans.
If you've ever been to the down-at-heel areas of Dublin you'll also see a lot of Celtic shirts.
Another term that comes to mind is Shiboleth. That which may not be uttered...
Very well written and absolutely on the money. Coincidentally I spent much of yesterday thinking that a very similar process to that which you describe is what is driving the ludicrous establishment mania surrounding the TV fiction Adolescence.
Thanks JoeSeff.
In Australia, the Melbourne Victory soccer club was in the news recently because a few supporters boycotted the 'Pride Cup', an LGBTQIA+ promo event. Instead, they went to one of the club's lower league games and displayed banners that said outrageous things such as "No politics." The response by the club and the media was very predictable. It's a little bizarre that wanting to keep politics out of sport might lead to you being excluded. It's not just that they bat for the wrong side but failing to exhibit support for the woke leads to condemnation.
https://qnews.com.au/melbourne-victory-supporter-group-boycott-pride-cup/https://qnews.com.au/melbourne-victory-supporter-group-boycott-pride-cup/
“an open, pluralistic, mature democracy” - did we ever have such a thing? for most of my life I believed we did. Over the last 10 years I have become increasingly convinced that such a thing never existed. Would that it did.
“an open, pluralistic, mature democracy” - did we ever have such a thing? for most of my life I believe we did for the last 10 years I have become increasingly convinced that’s such a thing never existed. Would that it did.