Blog #2

Blog #2: What did you learn about hegemonic theory from the film you researched?

My pick for hegemonic theory was the pilot for 2015’s Mr. Robot. The plot of the show follows Elliot, a young programmer who works as a cyber-security specialist by day and as a hacker vigilante by night. Elliot is approached by a hacking group and is recruited to destroy the cyber security firm that he’s paid to protect. The main antagonists of the show consist of shareholders of the show’s fictional E-Corp, a massive conglomerate that secretly pulls the strings of the economy behind the public’s back. The entire plot of the show is very telling of hegemonic theory, showing the minority ruling over the majority whilst also manipulating the majority.

The main thing that Mr. Robot showed me about Hegemonic theory is how a large business can apply to the idea of Hegemony. Large corporations very well can oppress consumers in many ways. For example, Facebook’s analytical scandal showed some users of Facebook that the company didn’t respect customer’s privacy, and some people stopped using Facebook entirely because of it. In the show, E-Corp secretly also listens in on people that use their products. Mr. Robot’s fictitious conglomerate could be seen as a sort of fictional parallel to real life’s Facebook and other companies when it comes to privacy issues.