Palestine, Hegemony, and the War for Common Sense
Abstract
This article examines the struggle over political consciousness through the framework of hegemony, arguing that the contemporary battle for “common sense” increasingly unfolds across digital media, artificial intelligence, education, surveillance systems, and mass culture. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and Christensen’s experience in the pro-Palestinian movement, the article contends that ruling-class power depends not only on coercive institutions but also on the ability to shape the narratives, assumptions, and cultural frameworks through which people interpret the world. Palestine is presented as a decisive case study in this ideological struggle: despite extensive institutional, media, and technological efforts to manufacture consent, public opinion shifted substantially toward sympathy with Palestinians, demonstrating that hegemonic narratives can be challenged when contradictions are exposed and alternative interpretations gain mass traction. The article extends this analysis to artificial intelligence, algorithmic manipulation, media ownership, and surveillance capitalism, arguing that these infrastructures represent new terrains in the struggle over what appears natural, reasonable, and politically possible. Christensen further argues that effective socialist politics must work within the contradictory structure of existing common sense rather than attempt simply to replace it with abstract doctrine, drawing out latent solidarities, moral intuitions, and lived experiences already present among working people. The article concludes that the struggle for liberation requires a sustained war of position across both digital and everyday social life, capable of contesting ruling-class definitions of patriotism, morality, democracy, and political possibility while building a popular counter-hegemony rooted in workers, liberation, and mass participation.
Keywords
Artificial Intelligence, Common Sense, Gramsci, Hegemony, Palestine
