PhilosophersAntonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

Power rests on cultural hegemony, not just force.

Marxism1891 – 1937 ItalyMarxist philosopherPolitical theoristJournalistCo-founder of the Communist Party of Italy
Tutti gli uomini sono intellettuali, si potrebbe dire perciò; ma non tutti gli uomini hanno nella società la funzione di intellettuali
All men are intellectuals, one could say; but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals. (our translation)
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Indifferenza è abulia, è parassitismo, è vigliaccheria, non è vita
Indifference is lethargy; it is parasitism; it is cowardice; it is not life. (1917)
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sono pessimista con l'intelligenza, ma ottimista per la volontà
I am a pessimist with the intelligence, but an optimist through the will. (letter to his brother Carlo, 19 December 1929, our translation)
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Stato = società politica + società civile, cioè egemonia corazzata di coercizione
State = political society + civil society, that is, hegemony armoured with coercion. (our translation)
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Lo Stato era solo una trincea avanzata, dietro cui stava una robusta catena di fortezze e di casematte
The State was only an outer trench, behind which stood a sturdy chain of fortresses and casemates. (our translation)
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Misconceptions

Nuanced
"Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" is a formula of Romain Rolland's, which Gramsci merely borrowed.

In our texts the formula is Gramsci's own. In a letter to his brother Carlo (19 December 1929) he writes "I am a pessimist with the intelligence, but an optimist through the will", and calls pessimism and optimism "vulgar and banal states of mind" that his own state of mind combines and goes beyond. It returns as a motto in the Notebooks (Q 1, §63, then Q 9 and Q 28), where it closes a note on sobriety of mind: forming people who do not despair before the worst horrors and are not carried away by every piece of nonsense. Secondary literature says he quotes it elsewhere as coming from Romain Rolland (L'Ordine Nuovo, 3 April 1920): we could not check this, that passage not being in our corpus.

Nuanced
Gramsci wrote: "The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters."

The sentence circulates in this form, but it is not the Italian text in our Notebooks (Q 3, §34). There Gramsci writes: "The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum the most varied morbid phenomena appear" (our translation). There is no "twilight" and no "monsters" (mostri). And the note has a precise meaning: a "crisis of authority", in which the ruling class has lost consent and is no longer "leading", only "dominant".

False
For Gramsci, winning the cultural battle is enough: the economy comes second.

He writes the opposite: "intellectual and moral reform is always linked to a programme of economic reform; indeed the programme of economic reform is the concrete way in which every intellectual and moral reform presents itself" (Q 8, §21, our translation). For him the word hegemony does not replace the economy: it explains why force and economics are not enough.

False
Gramsci wrote "I hate the indifferent" in prison, against fascism.

The text dates from 11 February 1917, when Gramsci was 25: it appeared in La città futura, a one-issue paper of the Piedmont Socialist Youth Federation. Fascism does not exist yet and Gramsci is free. He quotes the poet Friedrich Hebbel: "life means taking sides". The English version in circulation is often abridged (4 paragraphs out of 6).