We were not going to omment on the obscene hysteria that followed the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. However our correspondents have asked us to and events themselves demand a response. An hour later ITV provided the answer when it screened the England-Moldova football match. It was truly a frightening spectacle. It conveyed in pictures what Marx put in words in 1843 that the dominant ideas are those of the ruling class.
Ideology always reigns supreme when there is no challenge to the existing order.
And ideology is the means by which the dominated class submits to the rule of the dominating class despite the total irrationality of that domination. Only when there is a practical movement of resistance led by those who have already rejected that domination does the rational enter into human affairs. Judging by the evidence of the last few weeks we are a long way from such a state of affairs. This is only underlined by the fact that the Liverpool Dockers have just passed their second anniversary locked out, whilst the sacked Magnet strikers from Darlington have also refused to go away. We salute their courage and their resolution but we also have to recognise their isolation.