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directly linked to the practice of self-creation, ideas arguably very similar to
Gramsci. Refusing how they are constituted as general subjects is an impor-
tant element for Soka Gakkai members
ability to take collective action. This
notion of self-realisation is the process of Buddhist practice; self-transforma-
tion means freedom and creativity. Self-realisation also means manifesting the
universal equality expounded in the Lotus Sutra.
To understand further the kind of resistance and the kind of self-realisation
that takes place within what may seem a contradictory process, i.e. within
creating the unity of collective action, Gramsci remains enlightening. Gramsci
emphasised the internalisation and embodiment of dominant values and
meanings, challenging the dichotomy and distinctiveness of state and civil society,
saying that the creation of consent lies in civil society. For Gramsci, civil
society is the media, the schools, the parent-teacher associations, the football
clubs and so on (not comparable to today
'
'
s ideas about NGOs). Foucault
develops Gramsci
s notion that power relations go beyond the linear relations
of the state ruling over citizens, but instead circulates around all facets of
society, well beyond the realm of the state (Foucault 1984: 64). Even though
civil society is categorised as a distinct level from the state, it is the kind of
relations of power that are created within the many aspects of civil society
that underlie state power. It may be that authoritative social codes depend on
coercive methods of implementation, but such methods are clearly seldom
necessary in the lives of most social actors as relatively few members of
society transgress social protocol on a consistent basis. Gramsci argues
against the idea that the fear of sanctions is the singular deterring factor for
the actor when complying with a given social rule or conception (Mou
'
e
1979: 351). According to Williams (1977: 108), hegemony for Gramsci was a
system of complex, interlocking conceptions of political, social and cultural
forces that comprise consciousness. These forces tend to succeed in convincing
the subordinate of the legitimacy and importance of the dominant group and
of its policies. For Marx and Engels, indeed all other Marxists before Gramsci,
class con
ict not consensus was seen to permeate the system. Without dis-
regarding the inherent con
figures in the relationship between domi-
nant and subordinate, Gramsci seized the idea, marginal in earlier Marxist
thought, about the manufacturing of consent. Solely the political elite or
establishment with its apparatuses of coercive power at its disposal does not
generate hegemony (Crehan 2002: 167). Rather, it is generated at all the levels
of civil society. Gramsci insisted that true revolution must go beyond pro-
scribed tactics in a diversi
ict that
ed and creative manner, and not turn culture into
yet another ideology that represents particular class interests. This is possible
for Gramsci because human beings
'
are not
“
givens
”
whose nature is immu-
table and
whose existence is already deter-
mined. It is not simply a process of lifting the veil of a false consciousness as
with Marx. Rather individuals are
xed: they are not
“
essences
”
“
becoming
”
, ineradicably rooted in the
historical process
'
(Fontana 1993: 1). Neither power nor the individual are
fixed static phenomena, in this sense, as with Foucault, there is no subject of
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