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.
A Repressive State Apparatus (RSAs) describes institutions used by the government, often using direct physical force to maintain power. Althusser calls it repressive because of the use of coercion, force, and suppression. An example of this could be a protest and the state’s response. We see how in present day media whenever there is a protest whether it be peaceful or not, the response is usually police there to break it up, use tear gas, and even arrest participants.
Ideological State Apparatus (ISAs) are described as institutions that maintain dominance of the ruling class using ideology rather than force. An example of IISA would be the education system. Schools condition students from young to be punctual, obedient, and disciplined with punishments enforced such as detention, suspension, and expulsion.
The primary difference between the two is the use of force vs desire. Ideological State Apparatuses tend to subtly teach people to think of the dominant system as the ‘natural’ and normal way thus making people accept things the way they’ve been conditioned to do so. Repressive State Apparatuses use direct physical force to maintain control and ensure obedience when the ISA fails to do so.
An example of Ideology I chose was the recent push of ‘trad-wife’ content on social media. A tradwife is typically a woman who prefers the traditional division of labour within the marriage, usually consisting of the wife managing the food and housekeeping while the husband manages the family finances. This type of content operates as an Ideological State Apparatus by pandering to the patriarchy,subtly pushing women to reject feminism and submit to their husbands. https://www.newsweek.com/meet-three-influencers-pushing-trad-wife-trend-1914213
The repressive state apparatus is a part of the capitalist ideological system and plays a key role in keeping society from straying from or revolting against the capitalistic system. It is represented by the police force, the court system, and the prison system. If society were to revolt against the system and not give in to the illusion of choice we are given, the repressive state would put try and put us back in line by enforcing the police to intimidate or arrest the part of society revolting, and the courts could imprison them.
What is the Ideological State Apparatus?
The ideological state apparatus is another part of the capitalist ideological system that does most of the heavy lifting in keeping the wheel turning in a capitalist society. It is the apparatus that structures our thoughts and makes us believe we are choosing how the system is working, while distracting us from wanting to change the system. This is represented by our schools, politics, and the media. Politics is what gives use the illusion of choice and basically force us to choose from two candidates who will, in turn, still support the capitalist structure of society. The media gives us other ideologies to identify with, like favorite sports teams, to keep us occupied while the system runs as its meant to. School is how discipline and respect towards authority is in instilled in our society before we even thought we had a choice in adhering to the general authority of our societal structure.
How are the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses different from each other?
The repressive and ideological state apparatuses are mainly different from each other because of the function they serve. The repressive apparatus is meant to function as a correcting tool, to keep revolutions from forming. The ideological apparatus is meant to function is a guide to keep society turning the wheel that supports a capitalistic societal structure.
Post an example of ideology.
An example of ideology that I find fascinating is this image of a Columbian protester, known online as Captain Columbia, who used a homemade shield to block a stream from a water cannon shooting at him from an armored police truck.
This is a great example of the repressive state apparatus at work. In 2021, Columbians took to the streets to protest a rise in corruption, higher taxes, and changes in health care made by their government. Captain Columbia was a citizen whose thoughts broke from how the Columbian government wanted to structure policies in their society. Instead of going along with it, he took to the streets with the protesters to revolt and is pictured here fighting back against a very violent form of the repressive state apparatus.
What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it “repressive”? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example.
Repressive state apparatus refers to the institutions and structures in society that enforce law and order through force or the threat of force, some example can be military, prison or the police. Althusser calls it “repressive'” because those institutions like prison or the court directly control suppresses people who resist or threaten the state’s power, “repressive” in that they use violence or punishment to maintain status quo, Althusser’s choice of the word “repressive” represents the violence and forceful nature of those institutions to maintain authority, and example can be the police force if people join a protest and join groups that go against the government the police can step in sometimes even using force to stop or suppress those groups to maintain social order, the Repressive State Apparatus primary function is to ensure that the state’s power is upheld.
2. Let’s do the same for the Ideological State Apparatuses. What are they, how do they seem to work?
The Ideological State Apparatuses is the institutions and systems in society that shape and control our(people’s) ideas, beliefs. values and consciousness, so they work through ideology by influencing how individuals think, feel and view the world, some examples are schools they teach us certain values and beliefs like respecting authority, discipline and work ethic, churches which promote moral codes and belief systems, Family’s teaching us the norms and the values like gender roles or the idea of being individual responsibility to name a few how the Ideological State Apparatuses works is by shaping people’s beliefs and ideas they don’t force us to act a certain way like the Repressive State Apparatuses with violence or punishment but they create a system where people(us) can accept certain beliefs or worldviews without realizing they’re being controlled by getting people to accept their roles within, like schools students learn about capitalisms economic systems or another thing like nationalism and make it seem like it’s the best choice over time reinforcing that idea and encouraging to conform to the most dominant ideology.
3) How are the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses different from each other? What is the difference between the two?
The main differences of Repressive State Apparatuses and the Ideological State Apparatuses is the way they maintain social control and power, one uses force(RSA) and the other one works primarily with Ideology(ISA). other differences would be how they control a situation one Repressive State Apparatuses using violence and the Ideological State Apparatuses works through beliefs, ideas and ideologies, how they function is also a difference Repressive State Apparatuses enforcing the law and making sure everything is stable, and then we have the Ideological State Apparatuses using ideology to make people accept existing power structures both of them work in different ways one through repression of psychical resistance and the other by shaping peoples minds and beliefs.
4. Post an example of ideology. This could be a piece of writing, an image, video, pdf document, visual art, or music, clip from a movie. Next to your example, specify if this is an example of repressive or ideological apparatuses at work.
In this Movie Akira(1988) Repressive and Ideological Apparatuses are at work I’ll give an explanation to both examples in the movie, Repressive State Apparatuses in Akira the government controls the population using it’s military force and police repression, the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo where the government uses It’s armed forces to suppress resistance and manage the city. Also Ideological Apparatuses the government and the media are shown in the movie manipulating the population and also creating “experiments” which shows how the use of advanced technology for social control and the media making the government seem like the protectors of society by maintain the status quo by suppressing any rebellion, so It’ll be both Repressive State Apparatuses and Ideological Apparatuses shown in this piece of media.
What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it “repressive”? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example.
=Repressive state apparatus i when an individual is being indoctrinated with fear by the system to act and think is a specific way, Althusser calls it because in this way the person faces a ‘punishment’ for not following what they are told, the most important thing here is to make the person not to reveal for example at schools they teach critical thinking but critical thinking nevers extends to the apparatus itself
2. Let’s do the same for the Ideological State Apparatuses. What are they, how do they seem to work?
=This one uses other methods to achieve the same objective but by ideological strategies where they are exposed to the same ideas constantly and making them think that is the idea the must follow too, we can see it in churches, schools, restaurants… they seem to work as ‘socially accepted’ so everybody is force to act the same way or else there will be any kind of consequence, also social pressure is there to ensure that kind of behave.
3. Important: this question will appear on our exam: How are the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses different from each other? What is the difference between the two?
=The repressive state is based on fear and the ideological one based on social ideas, the repressive one has to do more with physical restriction of freedom and the ideological one is more a restriction of free thinking
This image is an example of ideological state, news are a good example of how we are constantly exposed to them, many times not knowing if they are true or not, the way they are easily manipulable makes it a source of misinformation which can lead to indoctrination if they wanted.
Okay, let ‘s go to the questions, consider the following:
What is a Repressive State Apparatus? Why does Althusser call it “repressive”? Can we explain his choice of words here. Give an example.
2. Let’s do the same for the Ideological State Apparatuses. What are they, how do they seem to work?
3. Important: this question will appear on our exam: How are the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses different from each other? What is the difference between the two?
4. Post an example of ideology. This could be a piece of writing, an image, video, pdf document, visual art, or music, clip from a movie. Next to your example, specify if this is an example of repressive or ideological apparatuses at work. I’ll start us of off by giving an example.
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