Reflection 9

March 29, 2011

           Louis Althusser was a longtime member and often a strong critic of the French Communist Party. Karl Marx conceived “ideology as an instrument of social reproduction;” (Ideology 4) however, Althusser preferred to view it as a materialistic concept using lacunar discourse. “A number of propositions, which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are. In this way, the essence of the lacunar discourse is what is not told (but is suggested)" (Ideology 4). In Marxism, ideological concepts were viewed as secondary; however, Althusser placed them first and central. Using “The German Ideology” as his formative, he believed that ideology was a concept of pure illusion, or a dream, just plain nothingness. It was an imaginary construct with all of reality external to it. In his thesis, “ideology has no history," (Ideology 4) he believed that “while individual ideologies have histories, interleaved with the general class struggle of society, the general form of ideology is external to history" (Ideology 4). He explained how “ideological state apparatuses” (Ideology 4) perpetuated capitalism. Ideologies of capitalism became the indoctrinating philosophy of training or structuring individuals to perform the role of a subject. Social practices are the determinant factor of individual characteristics and the range of property and individual limits. His network of Ideological State Apparatuses includes the family, media, religious organizations, and the most important to the capitalistic societies, the education system. Althusser uses the concept of “hailing” or “interpellation” as the means of being transformed into a subject. He claims that awareness to other people is a form of ideology.
          Along with his conception of “Ideological State Apparatus” was the introduction of “Repressive State Apparatus.” This was the manner of inflicting repression and violence upon the people in the form of increasingly physical and severe methods such as incarceration, police force, and military intervention if necessary.
         Being an atheist, Althusser, invariably felt the need to try and annihilate any belief in God. He tried to say it was an ideology, which according to his interpretation was an illusion. He stated that the word, ideology, began when the the sciences came into existence. If his version of state apparatus was correct with interpellation being processed with the individual suddenly realizing he was a subject, what happened with Darwin’s ideological evolution occurring at the seashore? Did the tadpoles suddenly know that they were subjects?  His entire fixation about God is incomprehensible. God is a Spirit (the Word—what God thought and spoke) and all things came into existence by His Word. Individuals are people and the animal kingdom is animals with nothing evolving or changing in the life cycle. God is in the spiritual realm, not the materialistic as Althusser likes to place Him. God is tangible and manifests Himself in various ways; however, Althusser never received the blessing he could have experienced.
          Althusser introduced an anti-humanistic perspective which stressed Marxism’s scientific facets on societal structures and how they determine true life experience. He refused to be known as a structuralist; however, by using his writing skills to expatiate upon the first ideas of Karl Marx, he influenced structuralism. His life was tumultuous because he suffered being a P.O.W. during the war and was ladened with post traumatic syndrome and depression. He murdered his wife, Helene, by strangulation. After the mania attack, he kept a low profile until his death in 1990.
Word Count: 555

Works Cited

Arze-Bravo, Murray, Robertson, and Tunzelman. “Althusserian Ideology” 

             Introduction & Biography of Althusser.  

               http://froberto.dnsalias.org/shared/Althusserian_Ideology.html

             Web. 8 April 2011.

“Ideology.” En.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, 9 April 2011. Web. 5 April 2011.

Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.

             New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.

“Louis Althusser.” En.wikipedi.org. Wikipedia, 3 April 2011. Web.

             5 April 2011.