1. From the readings, ideology is a system of values and beliefs that shape how people understand their own sociopolitical landscape. This system, for the individual, is foundationally established early in life (but can grow and change throughout their life), and tends to justify and maintain the status quo.
Gender roles is an example we’ve all personally experienced. During childhood, many of us are taught things like, “boys don’t cry”, “girls play with tea sets and dolls, boys play sports and with action figures”, and “women are better with children”. Although there has been a push for change in recent years in many of these respects, for the majority, it is the natural and expected outcome for men to work in specific career fields, while their wives are steered toward more nurturing fields (assuming they work outside the home at all).
Marx used Western feudalism to explain how we internalize the ruling ideology. The King was King because God ordained it; the serfs were serfs because they believed in the same divine order. For generations, a child saw their father go to work, and their mother take care of the house; their mother sit for tea and their father go hunting. For them, this was the natural order, the ideology is ingrained and there was no reason to question or change the status quo.
2. In the initial “Crash Course” video, the difference between conservative and liberal ideology is very binary in small vs big government and liberty vs equality. In the reading, “Democracy for the Few,” we see that in practice, the trend tends to be more profit and moral driven interference vs equality of protection. Liberals want government intervention to address the economic and social imbalances. On the other hand, conservatives want minimal government intervention in successful business ventures and profits, as well as for many social programs, but will support intervention if those social programs go counter to their morals.
You can see this in action in a more liberal state like New York that has the one of the highest statewide minimum wages, Medicaid spending, and funding for abortion providers and reproductive health; while in the more conservative state Texas, the statewide minimum wage is the federal minimum wage, there is no corporate income tax, as well as tax breaks depending on sector, and is one of 13 total-ban (with exceptions) abortion states.
3. Althusser believed Ideology, or more specifically the capitalist ideology, operates through total interpellation before one is conscious or capable of questioning. Between school, media, family and politics individuals are behaviorally reinforced to recognize their specific role and act accordingly. Reinforcing the totality, even so-called rebellion occurs only through the approved channels, helping maintain the status quo.
In school, students are taught to defer to and obey the authority of the teacher. That authority teaches individuals when and how to do assignments, when to arrive and leave, becoming habits of obedience that will be carried into the workforce.
