There can be no genuine hope of throwing off the yoke of oppression and attaining true liberation in the absence of recognizing the significant role played by ideology. More particularly, the degree to which virtually every aspect of human life has been shaped and distorted by hegemony or the dominant ideology. At present this is neoliberalism. It’s very pervasiveness and the fact that it has been so deeply rooted in our psyche from the moment of our birth contribute to its invisibility. Often, it’s presence and the manifold ways in which it exerts an impact on our behavior, thoughts and values cannot be discerned directly. Rather frequently we either catch a sidelong glimpse of it in the act of acting in accordance with its dictates or painfully discover the influence it exercises on us and others after the fact. The multiple means by which it colors our perceptions, defines our experience and narrows our awareness are all achieved by means of various forms of mystification. This mystification permeates our language, circumscribes the categories by which we classify our experience, expresses itself in dominant narratives, and manifests itself in core metaphors.

We often experience mystification as if it operated as internal psychological processes or defenses that unconsciously impose hegemonic meanings on our everyday experiences and provide “common sense” solutions to problems we deal with. However, this would be a mistake. It is just another manifestation of the exaggerated individualistic view asserted by neoliberal ideology — a viewpoint that falsely holds individuals responsible for such distortions and deceptions. The truth is that mystification is craftily interwoven into all aspects of the world around us. It is embedded in the deceptive appearances and false narratives perpetrated by a society devoted to the assumptions of neoliberalism. Because of this, so often even those we would like to accuse of lying to us and polluting our minds with propaganda of intentionally doing so. But even they have been seduced by the lies and propaganda they so freely disseminate. One of the first challenges that must be courageously confronted in our fight for liberation is to recognize just how deeply asleep we are. Our entire set of notions about who we are and the world around us are hallucinations and delusions fashioned by means of social conditioning. The result is that we have been placed in a cultural induced state of hypnosis, operating based on inductions, attributions and suggestions implanted in us by powerful institutions charged with our enculturation.

This core realization is essential to avoid misconceptions regarding what is required to wake people up. What are the costs and the rewards that accompany this important step toward liberation? The term “revolution” is tossed about quite freely by individuals who seek to challenge hegemony. Regrettably all too often their understanding of what the revolution would actually require is mistaken and too narrow. I believe a large reason for this is because once individuals have an actual appreciation of the degree of effort, endurance, commitment and sacrifice involved in liberation for themselves and others, they are intimidated and scared off. In light of this they tend to subscribe to and advance a more modest (and unfortunately ultimately useless) vision of what true revolution constitutes, accompanied by either a complete absence of concrete methods for achieving it or half-hearted measures that will not attain the goal they aspire to achieve.

For example, they believe only the cause they are committed to is the one that matters. Their passion for justice regarding that particular issue is matched by their antipathy toward individuals who advocate for any issue other than theirs. True change and the attainment of liberation cannot be limited to a particular area of human life. While it is undoubtedly true that some areas of concern are weightier and more influential than others, it is important not to let their salience to human well-being mislead or sidetrack us into narrow preoccupations. For example, in an age plagued by the moral abomination of extreme inequality, the need to challenge the fundamental assumptions that guide economic policy cannot be denied. However, as the research on the multiple adverse consequences of inequality illustrate, economic policy is also educational policy, health care policy and criminal justice policy. These issues are inextricably interwoven. While effecting change in one of them will have a corresponding impact on the other, dealing with neoliberal ideology in a piecemeal fashion will eventually not work.

Similarly, it is clear that liberation cannot be attained if people remain as uninvolved in political arena as they currently are. Being politically engaged at all levels from local to national is an essential element of bringing about the change needed. However, that does not mean that we can “vote in” a revolution by helping candidates from parties or positions that we favor get into office. The area of politics is among the most divisive in our country at this time and much of this divisiveness is employed by the powerful and privileged to defeat change. It is striking how a number of surveys show considerable agreement across individuals claiming different party affiliations regarding areas of discontent with neoliberal ideology and with regard to policies to address this discontent. Moreover, expecting elected individuals to be in the vanguard of change of the status quo is a pipe dream. They are firmly ensconced in the hegemonic view of the world and see its dissolution as posing an unacceptable threat to their privilege and power. Turning over power to those who assiduously seek to deprive it of us makes their work much easier. But it must also be admitted that claiming that power for ourselves, and the responsibility and accountability that comes with it, evokes fear and anxiety. This ambivalence toward freedom and the power it possesses is an inescapable aspect of the human condition — and still another reason why waking up is hard to do.

Exclusivity, tribalism, exceptionalism — in other words any attitude or sentiment that detracts from building bridges with others and recognizing the shared issues encountered by individuals across many different groups harmed by neoliberalism — will prove lethal to any work on behalf of liberation. This extends even to restricting liberation to human beings. In a time of environmental devastation and with the future of the planet in peril, feeling communion with all living beings and with the earth itself is essential. The persistence of divisions along lines of human difference — another disturbing pattern frequently encountered in circles espousing a commitment to social justice — is as problematic as single-issue efforts. No one has a monopoly on oppression and exploitation. How does one even begin to “quantify” suffering without in some way ultimately trivializing it? Suffering is a universal, an inevitable aspect of being human. As such, it has the potential of fostering communion and collaboration with others. But when some suffering is privileged above other, only the powerful who inflict that suffering are the winners.

And in that very same experience of suffering we find perhaps the most important reason for why waking up is hard to do. No matter how unhealthy and harmful the neoliberal world-view is, it has served to be the foundation and framework for how we have seen ourselves and the world for as long as we can remember. It provides a rationale for who we are, why we are here and what the purpose of life is. It is the repository of convenient, “tried and true” solutions to minor to major problems. It goes to the very core of who we are. So imagine what it would be like to suddenly find yourself without it. Consider what happens when your world is turned upside down. You are suddenly thrusted into a strange and uncharted place and feel a host of painful, disorienting and at times terrifying feelings. Revolution is a kind of evolution — but a more rapid, abrupt and disturbing one. You have wakened up and perhaps up believe that is the hardest part of the process. But it is just a part of the process. Waking up is something that unfolds over time and the more we can chart the course of what that process is, to identify the hazards and pitfalls that accompany it, to describe and provide the means of surmounting those hazards, and to create bonds of compassion and comradery so that we do not make the journey alone, the more we can truly realize the liberation that sets everyone free.