- My understanding of ideology is that its the idea and belief that a person believes we should be governed by. Ideology mainly deals with a persons political view of government however, there believe it can also be used to describe a certain mindset when it comes to other topics. An example of a political ideology is conservatives whos have the belief that government should be as hands off as possible in order to reduce the taxes that they would pay. This idea directly conflicts with the alternative ideology held by liberals, who believe the government should aid the people. This increase in social care services results in increased taxes, however they feel it is justified, as it greatly benefits lower income families and people who would be abandoned under a unregulated free market. From my understanding of the crash course video, ideology is heavily shaped by social groups like a persons income, race, religion, and gender. This means that people who are born in high income families tend to be more conservative because they benefit greatly from the lower taxes and don’t see many of the benefits of social care. A interesting point of understanding from this is while people can create their own stance and choose their own view, most of the times, a person’s views are created as a result of the views already had by their parents.
- The difference in conservatives and liberals as I mentioned earlier are the role of the government in society. Conservatives believe the the government should insert itself very little in the market and “conserve” their powers to when need be. Conservatives are similar to the ideas a laissez faire in which they believe the market can be self regulating and will allow the economy to flourish. Liberals alternatively, believe that the government should take heavy responsibility in overseeing the people and provide services to those in need. In the crash course video, they state a main reason for this is because liberals believe that a free market will not spread wealth around equally, leading to massive disparity in income among social classes. Because of this, the government is needed to regulate the people and provide support to those struggling through breaks in taxes and services provided for cheaper or no price such as Medicaid. These services come at a cost however, leading to high taxes for higher income earners however, it is believed to be justifiable, as these extra tax dollars goes towards helping even out the field.
- From my understanding, Althusser’s definition of ideology is that there are sub ideology that exist in different facets of life that allow you to connect and relate to a different group of people. The example from the video that made me believe this was the entertainment apparatus. The entertainment apparatus was described as a example of ideology where instead of believing you are apart of the class that you are normally apart of, you see yourself mainly a apart of a group based on the entertainment. In the case of the video, a fan of a team rather then someone of a working class.
- The Repressive state Apparatus are institutions put in place that acts in disciplinary ways to get people to act and believe in ways that they believe are in line where these actions are performed through forces or the threat of a force. Althusser calls it repressive because it forces upon someone and doesn’t give them the choice to go against the ideas being put against them. An example of this is the police and the law, where not following the status quo results in repression of freedom through jail time.
- Ideological State Apparatus is similar to Repressive however it goes through maintain discipline in non forceful ways . An example of this is teachers in school that discipline students. Schools are one of the institutions responsible for controlling the behaviors and beliefs of a person at a young age when their most impressionable. Schools allow students to learn the status quo from their teachers and as a result, understand the world much easier under the supervision of a trusted official than if they were to just be let into the world unsupervised, with the chance of forming dangerous values.
- The difference between Repressive and Ideological state apparatus is that that they are demonstrated. For instance, Repressive takes on a head on approach where people can visibly see the forces that regulate ideas. As mentioned earlier, policing and laws use their powers to force people into their values and punish them for deterring from them. Alternatively, Ideological isn’t as visible seen as is done in a sort of subconscious way. The example of teachers mentioned earlier helps prove this point. Teachers demonstrate to their students ways to act and to think. Although they don’t directly force them to, they influence their students to pick up on these values. The values are subconsciously put into the students brain and they become more in line with the status quo. This also happens in other institutions such as churches which speak on beliefs and pass them on to their followers without the our of force or conversive means.
- https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY?si=jBgjiQ6BbS6JjDU- – This is America by Childish Gambino is a good example of ideology because of the idea that it presents through both its lyrics and music video. It demonstrates the division in America that causes turmoil within America where sides are fighting each other. It displays repressive apparatuses where people of different values use violence to get their way and demonstrates the errors of systems that use this violent forces. A heavy topic in the music is about the systematic racism that exist in America that is carried out by these repressive states of power. Although it is several years old, many of the issues in the music video still hold true and are deeply debated and challenged.
