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In some aspects, this is comparable to what faith means. Faith means going
beyond what may seem the objective reality; it exists in imagining possibi-
lities, and in being resolved to take e
ective action in concrete situations to
create envisioned results. Faith here means to imagine and to create a much
more signi
cant role for the individual in society. Faith here is not perceived
as something mysterious, that somehow things will work out; rather it is a
process of self-empowerment that though challenging dominant discourses,
opens up a new vision. Reconceptualising one
is life circumstances is central to
this reimaging of possibilities. Gramsci argued that to have e
'
ective political
action, particularly important on the part of the subaltern, those outside the
ruling elite, it is necessary to create a political will that believes in the possi-
bilities of success. A better way to understand Soka Gakkai is to see it as a
successful social force because it is able to counter the strong tendency to
objectify human beings and relationships in late capitalist societies, and create
new imaginings about human connections. Interestingly, overcoming this
process of objecti
cation might have been the central concern of Marx, the
starting point of his theory of the political economy, although for him, of
course, religion was part of this objecti
cation, as it is for many who have
previously interpreted the Soka movement more in line with inculcating in its
adherents a state of
'
false consciousness
'
.
fluid process and continuously con-
structed in the process of social activity. Social activities continuously gen-
erate new understandings of what Nichiren Buddhism is, which may change
with the passing of Ikeda. Now young people come to see themselves as the
makers of themselves, as argued by Martinez (2004) in a di
As indicated above, meaning is a
erent context and
partly through their political activism as makers of society. Young people
reinvent themselves within a narrative provided by Ikeda that espouses
objectives of looking after people who are su
ering, working for manifesting
human dignity, for human rights, for equality, for other people
s happiness
and so on, which is the starting point of humanism in Soka Gakkai. Chant-
ing to the gohonzon has to be understood within this framework, as does the
way certain politicians declared themselves to be disciples of Ikeda in see-
mingly overly emotional ways. The philosophy and the process of trying to
live it, however imperfect, represents and solidi
'
es what these young people
come to experience as faith, a strengthening of belief in themselves and
others. Does this constitute religion or more broadly a di
erent way of being
in the world that could be compared with other ways of being in the world
not necessarily classi
ed as religious?
In earlier decades, this di
erent culture was the voice of the subaltern as
people struggled in poverty and stigmatisation; now it is a successful voice,
co-opted in various ways, but nevertheless successful in constructing a counter-
hegemony. This involves, as any cultural phenomenon, both ideology and
hegemony, structure and organisation, but one that is attractive enough for
people to perceive the possibility of it succeeding. Arguably, this was the
recipe for success all along, but it has created groups of con
dent history-
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