Hello Blog!
Today I wanted to discuss some of the connections made with other theorists while in class. I’m going to try to do this more often from now on because I feel that it would be beneficial towards exams. I found the beginning of our discussion of Althusser’s piece to be fascinating, and I felt like everything started to click.
When we were on the topic of ideological State apparatuses, Dr. Cummings brought up the idea of metanarratives, and how that relates to certain ISAs. An example of both an ISA and a metanarrative would be organized religion. It all clicked when we started talking about the idea of “many” versus “few.” The way Lyotard and Habermas could relate back to these ideas was suddenly so clear. Lyotard believes that we need to take a look at many different ideologies and world views because the metanarrative is no longer adequate to support our ever-changing society. We “wage a war on totality” by keeping an open mind. This directly opposed Habermas’s neoconservative views. I missed this idea on the exam, and I needed to type it out on here to make sure I understood.
Also, while I was reading, I came across this quote, “For example, the Army and the Police also function by ideology both to ensure their own cohesion and reproduction, and in the ‘values’ they propound externally” (Althusser 43). The context of this quote was that ISAs and Repressive State Apparatuses function together; you cannot have only an ideology or only a Repressive State Apparatus. It made me think about how law enforcement is heavily influenced by religion. For example, some positions require people to take an oath that uses the word “God.” Morals taught by religion also affect the way that people govern, enforce, or interpret the law. Althusser believes that these elements of ideology “balance” out the Repressive State Apparatus and allow it to function. I just found this to be an interesting topic to ponder, and maybe we can discuss in class tomorrow.
Signing off for now,
Avesyourfaveblogger
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