1.) Throughout "The Empire Strikes Back," Hall repeatedly writes, "The 'people' must be mobilised if they are to join the party in the crusade…the arousal of the populist sentiment must be cut off at just the correct moment, and subsumed or transformed into the identification with authority, the values of tradtionalism and the smack of firm leadership" (Hall 204). He goes on to write that "We have been invited to relive our last great moments of national greatness through Falklands war…Tomorrow, once the junta has been taught a lesson, and the national spirit revived by a little blood-letting, things will no doubt slowly return to 'business as usual'" (Hall 205). Given theses two sentiments, how do you think contemporary politics in the US fit in with Hall's thoughts? Additionally, how do our past conquests (the US only) fit in this narrative?
2.) When talking about the general election in 1955, Hall writes, "the result would depend on how many working-class men, looking into their mirrors, saw middle-class faces" (Hall 20). In what ways does this idea apply to last week's discussions regarding Marx's idea that ideology transforms into a naturalized and ultimately inevitable transferal between dominant classes and a subordinate?
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