My group’s presentation was on Marxism, and for my part I read the assigned writings by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, and Andrew Ross, and tried to bring up a few points by these authors that were not covered in the original class discussion. I found the readings interesting, especially the ones by Althusser and Ross, because they both focused a lot on education, and how a capitalist system uses education both to push the ideology of the power class on to student (Althusser) and through ideology convince teachers and professors that not only should they work for less pay, to try and change the system would be a betrayal to the very knowledge which they are to impart on the unlearned masses (Ross). Granted, their ideas would be all but impossible without Gramsci’s introduction of the concept of cultural hegemony, which he said was “manufactured consent” first attained through ideology, and then followed up with law, with the main ideology being that of the ruling class (1000). It is cultural hegemony which allows the ruling class to keep ruling, and to make sure that they have what Althusser calls the “reproduction of labour-power” (1336). Althusser believed that there were two kinds of State Apparatus: the Ideological State Apparatus or ISA, and the Repressive State Apparatus. While the latter is easy to identify, being policemen, judges, soldiers, etc, it is the former that is the most dangerous, because it is through ISA’s that all members of a society are taught the values of the ruling class. Not only that, the members are taught the value of submission and obeying the rules, hopefully instilling in them the belief that challenging the established code – whether it be moral, political, or social – is wrong. If this ideology doesn’t quite sink in completely, the repressive State Apparatus is there to make sure that the laws and rules are enforced – and to serve as a warning to those who might be thinking about challenging the status quo.
There are several types of ISAs, according to Althusser, but the main one in a capitalist society is the school. While other ISAs have power, and a lot of it, he believed that school holds the most sway, because “…no other ideological State apparatus has the obligatory (and not least, free) audience of the totality of the children in the capitalist social formation, eight hours a day for five or six days out of seven”(1347). School is also where one learns the remedial skills necessary to get one through even a base level job, so when that first set of students either leaves the classroom of their own free will or is ejected into society, they are ready to take their place in the work force and do their part for the economy. The ones who make it to the top wind up becoming agents of one of the State Apparatuses, and they are taught how to manage their underlings (or, in the case of the police force and law, the citizens over which they govern) accordingly.
If this is the case, then what of those who are teaching the ideology? Althusser believed that there are those who understand the awful system of exploitation that they were ensnared in, and try to do their best to change things; to create in their student’s minds new ideas and awareness to the unfairness of the system. These he likens to heroes (1347-1348). For the most part, however, he believed that most are not aware of what they are doing; what they are tacitly allowing to happen through their teaching of the main ideology. That they are too caught up in the idea of liberating their minds and imparting their knowledge to realize that all they are doing is setting the children that they are teaching up to be productive members of a capitalist society that cares little about their minds and much more about what profit it can make from their labor.
Althusser was quite an interesting read, and even if what I took from the reading didn’t exactly leave me with happy feelings, it definitely made me think.
Works Cited
Althusser, Louis. "From Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. By Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. 1334-361. Print.
Leitch, Vincent B. "Antonio Gramsci (short Bio)." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. 998-1008. Print.
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