The Secrets of Cultural Hegemony!

“The most dangerous ideas are not those that challenge the status quo. The most dangerous ideas are those so embedded in the status quo, so wrapped in a cloud of inevitability, that we forget they are ideas at all” -Jacob M. Appel. I don't know who this guy is, but after this quote I'd love to talk to him. I mean he has totally confused the hell out of me. Let me tell you why. My understanding of cultural hegemony, which is what the quote is about, is a dominance of a ruling class or group that manipulates the culture of that society towards the liking they see fit. Now tell me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't generating ideas made solely to challenge and go against the status quo be dangerous? Let me give you an example that will contradict what this Jacob M. Appel claims. SLAVERY. Slavery was the status quo back in the 17-1800's. Society made it the norm to own a human, and work them like they were animals. As soon as we had leaders such as Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., Black Panthers and similar figures uprise and plant propaganda of independence and equality into the black people. You began to see the many problems that occurred, all the havoc and violence that happened as a result of going against society. 

Now, for the second part of this quote that confuses me, "The most dangerous ideas are those so embedded in the status quo..." So, you mean to tell me an idea within the status quo is a danger? A danger to who?? It's like going to a farmer and asking him if he wants more land, for FREE, and he's like nah bruh that extra land might damage my crops. If anything, he's expanding his economy and increasing his revenue. Wouldn't an idea within the status quo expand society and further strengthen the dominance of that ruling class or group? Therefore, there should be no danger in that idea because it is benefiting society, and society is allowing it to happen. An example I have for this, is the company Apple. Computers started to become a thing in the late 1940's. Apple created their computer in 1976, but they didn't stop there. They continued to invent and expand their market with more products. Since Apple's products such as the iPod and iPhone were still within the parameters of the status quo of technology, Apple thrived and came on top because it benefited society (how you may ask, the very apple device you are using right now or one like it) and opened the pathway for other companies to become more innovative. In result of that, the economy increased greatly. Yes, I know that was a stretch, but it proves my point.  

With all this being said, I have to play devil's advocate. There must be a reason and a logic established in what Jacob M Appel said. It would be evil to not at least try to decipher the meaning of his quote. Alright, the first part of the quote says, "The most dangerous ideas are not those that challenge the status quo." The million-dollar question is WHY? Maybe it's because going against status quo IS status quo??  What I mean by that is, there is always going to be differences and society knows that. Ideas that are upfront, obvious, and opposing are easy to control and shut down. An example of that would be Slavery, yea I'm contradicting myself, but it's all coming together for me. So, although slavery got abolished, racism is still an issue and part of the status quo. Racism is pretty much a form of slavery. Black people are still slaves, and the slave master is society. Just last week I was learning about a system called "Redlining." Which is, where banks would purposely not guarantee loans to African Americans to mortgage a home in specific areas, because they were black.  So African Americans would obviously go to where they were accepted and that is how these "black communities" were formed. Basically, being forced to be in one place. There were also these maps that were color coded to show the division in neighborhoods by categories including occupation, income and ethnicity. And this is where the term redlining comes from, because the black people were located in the red zones.

This ties in to the second part of the quote, "The most dangerous ideas are those so embedded in the status quo..." The official name for redlining was the National Housing Act of 1934. This was an act implemented to make homes and mortgages more affordable for Americans. After the Great Depression (stock market crashed) few people were able to purchase homes and many people who had homes lost them due to foreclosure or forced sale. The government stepped in and created the National Housing Act. What people do not tend to know is that this act greatly discriminated against and segregated black people and other races. This is how they played this act out, "In order to obtain a mortgage, the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) required that the mortgage, property, and borrower meet certain requirements, some of which led to the perpetuation of racial discrimination and urban disinvestment" (Bostonfairhousing.org). Housing was definitely fair in Boston lol. As you can see, it was a very easy system created to control non-white races. You simply met the requirements or not. This idea was so embedded within the status quo, so wrapped in a cloud of inevitability, that we forgot it was an idea at all. See what I did there. The National Housing Act was not formed to be against black people, in fact everyone thought this was going to better the country, which it did, for white people. But, eventually this act came out to be what it was really created for. Redlining, and it took America 34 years (Act ended in 1968) to finally figure out what was actually going on. I now agree with Jacob M Appel after doing this blog because ideas embedded within status quo are dangerous. You don't know it is an idea till after it is too late.

-Riley S.E.