elizabeth byrne -althusser

          Reading Althusser's article brought me back to what I learned last year in CMC 100. I thought about the same questions this reading as I did when previously reading about ideologies. The fact that Althusser argues that ideology is compelled upon by two means: repressive state apparatuses and ideological state apparatuses. Then is brings me to the next question-- what does "state" mean in this context? For the repressive state apparatus I put it in the context as if the Police or an authoritative figure makes you do something or someone who is compelled to do something. Where as ideological state apparatus would be optional such as church. However, i think that there is not one function that works with out the other.  In CMC 100 we talked about how the repressive state was considered the iron fist (primarily uses force) and the ideology state is considered the velvet glove where and how people chose make sense of things. A question that i continue to ask my self is- what does Althusser mean when he argues that an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices. Then this existence is materialistic? 

With  ideology and hegemony- the question that comes to mind is who benefits? Through media we constantly see images who seem to benefit or represent the higher group in society. I think that in media ideology is "invisibly" shown through media because those who are shown in magazines and billboards  are often celebrities, attractive, and/ or wealthy. Therefor only certain social class benefit from the desires created by the images. The images create guilt/ desire, they show ideals of life and luxury, along with materialism.