"Hegemony": A new book by Marco Diramo deconstructs the silent revolution of the wealthy and reveals the mechanisms of taming peoples in the modern era
The bold sociological and political book Dominio: La guerra invisibile dei potenti contro i sudditi (Domination: The invisible war of the powerful against the subjects) sparked widespread intellectual debate in contemporary political and economic circles. The new edition of the work was published in the “International Law Economics Books” series by the prestigious Italian publishing house"Giangiacomo Feltrinelli", in two hundred and fifty-six pages, rereads the radical transformations that the world has witnessed over the past five decades. The author presents a shocking central idea stating that recent decades have not witnessed a natural development of the economy, but rather have witnessed a dangerous and organized “counter-revolution” planned by the rich against the poor, and the rulers against the ruled, with the aim of taming societies and taking away the historical gains of the working classes.This investigative work draws its strength from the unique academic and professional background of its author, Marco Diramo, a prominent Italian sociologist and journalist born in Rome in 1947. Diramo graduated in physics before moving to Paris to study sociology under the famous French thinker Pierre Bourdieu. This combination of the rigor of behavioral scientific thinking and critical sociological depth allowed the author to trace the political and intellectual geography of this hidden war. Diramo leads the reader on a documentary journey that begins with factoriesBeer in Colorado, and through the corridors of Harvard University, all the way to the Nobel Prize committees in Stockholm, revealing the places and institutions that witnessed the engineering and financing of the neoliberal ideology that governs our world today.The author builds his thesis on a disturbing fact, which is that the greatest victory achieved by the dominant classes was not only in material control, but in their success in making peoples unaware of the state of dependence and submission in which they live. This war was fought so intelligently and without anyone realizing it, that traditional critical terms such as “capitalism,” “exploitation,” and “oppression” were deliberately distorted in public discourse to become reprehensible obscenities. As a result of this intense intellectual guidance, Diramo sadly explains how he becameIt is easier for modern man to imagine the end of the world and its complete annihilation, than to imagine the end of the globalized capitalist system or to think of an economic and humanitarian alternative to it.
The book reveals that this silent revolution coming from the top down did not stop at the borders of economics and work, but rather swept the fields of justice, education, and contemporary culture. The forces of hegemony have reshaped and distorted our basic concepts about society, family, and even about ourselves and our human value. The author shows how it was exploitedCapitalist powers brilliantly unethical every crisis humanity has experienced; From natural disasters such as tsunamis and terrorist operations, to economic recessions and global health pandemics such as Corona, to consolidate their gains. To this end, it used a diverse arsenal of cognitive and material weapons, ranging from the digital information revolution to sovereign and private debt technologies and policies, to subjugate individuals and poor countries.Despite the gloom of the scene and the dominance of dominant trends that make any attempt at protest or uprising seem like a kind of miserable humor, Diramo concludes his book with a message of hope urging organization and serious learning. The writer reminds us of an important historical paradox; In 1947, the pioneers of neoliberal thought represented an isolated minority that met in almost complete invisibility and appeared to preach in Malta, just as progressive thinkers and social justice advocates are today. The book received high critical acclaim. As the historian described itMaurizio Fodania describes it as a work rich in information and equipped with a modern, mind-blowing bibliography. While the writer Antonella Cilento, in her review in La Repubblica newspaper, considered that the book represents an indispensable preventive antidote against the struggle of the poor, which is fueled by the system so that the powerful can reap profits. The book also deservedly reached the final list of the prestigious “Napoli Prize” in the Studies and Articles branch.
