What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it “repressive”? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example.repressive meaning enforcing control through a form of fear. fear of violence, revoked freedom, and lack of security. An example of this is the government prior to weed legalization prohibited the use or selling of marijuana or else you would face jail time( revoking freedom & using fear).
and ideological apparatus meaning enforcing a mental condition into people through social institutions. They work through social institutions like family, church, media, and school. These institutions are promoted and accepted as basic fundamentals of generating commendable character, unity, productivity, resources, community, and evolution. However the system many of the operate off of are structured to produce a product of their desired regime, that you must follow or face the set consequences they have in place.
The difference between repressive and ideological apparatuses is one being that the repressive apparatus is singular. It is only produced as enforcement of fear through violence , the barricade of ideology. And ideological apparatuses have multiplicity. They exist in many forms of belief and value. It seeps deeply into the everyday action within social institutions. For example one ideological apparatus of school is discipline. And without verbal communication of that apparatus being absorbed, it is excersised through actions like raising a hand to use the bathroom , or standing in a single file line to leave the classroom. The action itself is the embodiment of the ideological apparatus. And repressive apparatus is the truancy officers taking you to the station if you are underaged and not attending school during school hours. The repressive apparatus enforces and protects the structure of ideology with violence. While ideological apparatus is the mental conditioning of ideology through social institutions itself.
this image to me encapsulates the Marxist awareness that arises through understanding the effects that the implementation of ideological apparatuses created. Fear is the source of control, and so without it you are free of it.
