The Future of Ideology

The articles read this week both focus on a world run by money. And both prove that a world that isn’t run and overpowered by the almighty dollar isn’t a world at all, but a society that wouldn’t last a year. While one focuses on state apparatuses the other focuses purely on capitalism, the latter seeing the new imbalance of life and those who are able to pay for it are the master’s of their own lives and those who can’t are clamoring to get it without knowing the real cost to get a hold of their own economic destiny while brining into question the future of our own society as it is unable to reproduce the prosperity it once had.

In Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses by Lois Althusser, the articles begins by stating that every child knows that a society or “social formation” would not last a year if not able to preserve the reproduction of production from the year before. This first statement speaks volumes of our society as it is now and the way products and fads are changing. It only proves how our society lives off of the mass production it is force fed on a daily basis and defines its identity by the things it can afford to buy. This is where the “state apparatuses” are able to take advantage of the world they rule, they take those who live for materialism and either forces them to be the ones who rule over the mass production or are the ones who make it possible for the production to set out (i.e. sweatshop workers), this is the repressive the state apparatus. While the ideological state apparatus speaks of the brainwashing tactics and less forceful methods of making sure that the strong are able to lure over the weak and the weak are able to do what he is “destined” to do as stated, “children at school also learn the ‘rules’ of good behaviour, i.e. the attitude that should be observed by every agent in the division of labour, according to the job he is ‘destined’ for: rules of morality, civic and professional conscience, which actually means rules of respect for the socio-technical division of labour and ultimately the rules of the order established by class domination.”

The second article, Where Did the Future Go? By Randy Martin, this article speaks of capitalism and of those who master it and those who want to master but never grasp the true price of it. The “it” being the height of capitalism and the height of “society” so to speak, and the imbalance provided by capitalism was to set forth the new age and a new utopia. And the steps taken to make capitalism seem like the best choice for American’s today, like programs to help the future of America not slack off to be undermined in the future markets, which was the purpose of such programs as “No child left behind.” This can also be compared to the ideological apparatus that was mentioned by the first article, as the underlined tactic is to teach the youth their exact destiny, but unfortunately children were still left behind. So to keep momentum going in the capitalist point of view, the war is also used as a way to make spending money seem best and widen the imbalance between the rich and the poor. As stated in the article, “the advice on how Americans can help after 911: “go shopping.”” Even in time of recession when Americans have no money to spend, stores are lowering prices to entice us to come in, and even our own president advises us to spend the money we don’t have. This now brings into question the future that once looked bright for Americans now looking dim as other countries pass us by in the world markets.

In conclusion, in a world where mass production is the dominant and supply and demand is linked to our survival. Both articles question what world would we have? What society would we have if these things didn’t exist? As to say where would we be if we weren’t able to keep up the mass productions of our materials. Both articles seem to suggest that a world without our materials, without money being the driving force behind even our own patriotism, our world would crumble and suffice not going beyond one year it would bring down completely everything and everyone around as there would now be no purpose for education (because there would be nothing to learn for) and our identities would be lost.