WouldntULike2Know--4/15

Today in class we discussed Foucoults notion that "inspection functions ceaselessly." I found it so ironic that when discussing how this is applicable to airport security, we could not decipher if this experience is a function of a Repressive or Ideological State Apparatus. We willingly are herded like cattle through long lines and dont think twice about every crevace of our body being violated by a beeping wand. We don't question it. We come prepared with our liquids in ziplock baggies (no more than four ounces of course), we wait patiently as they unzip and dig through our personal belongings. We say "thats just the way it is" when the "suspicious" looking persons are quarentined in the glass cubical for the more thorough searches. We willingly abide by these regulations because these steps are put into place to ensure our safety, or so we think.

This mirrors on Althusser's notion that Ideology is profoundly unconscious. We patiently participate in this greuling process out of the fear that has been created since 9/11. This is just another phase of the "spectacular effect" that Zizek was talking about. And because of this, because of the ever present fear, the aesthetic du jour, I question if this process will ever be challenged. For some reason, and perhaps I am not quite a full-blooded postmodernist yet, but I doubt that it will. I don't forsee any time soon when inspection is not a fundamental structure of our functioning society. Despite all its hassles and violations of privacy, we are more than willing if not relieved to know that everyone is going through the same process, thereby giving the traveler peace of mind as he departs off to his next destination.