On March 9th we had the third meeting of our Hegemony How-To reading group and talked about the third chapter of the book. Here’s a recap of its contents.
+++ Chapter 3 Summary +++
In the third chapter of Hegemony How-To Jonathan Matthew Smucker (JMS) introduces us to his concept of the „Life of the oppositional group“. He carefully introduces his critique with two stories in which he stressed the importance of pursuing and developing a group identity:
Carol Hanisch, author of the essay “The Personal is Political” strongly rejected the dismission of women’s caucuses and discussion circles as “therapeutic”.
„The phrase the personal is political was originally intended to mean that the oppression you experience as an individual is patterned“
It was crucial for many oppressed group to identify their individual struggles as collective struggles and JMS makes clear that he recognizes this as an issue of great importance.
He emphasizes this by also telling the story of Jose Vasquez, an ex-military, who first had to learn that his personal and isolated traumas are indeed a widespread phenomena and political matters. There’s no clear line for Vasquez to separate the therapeutic and the political aspects of his organizing.
The takeway that JMS has is that we should recognize political group as an opportunity to find a “sense of belonging” and a “space for healing”, but we shouldn’t stop there.
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