dmariel, Marx and Althusser

Marx explains that the ruling class is defined by who rules material forces, therefore ruling intellectual forces. Therefore, their ideas are the “ruling ideas of the epoch”. Within the creation of the ruling class, apparatuses are formed. I remember first learning about the repressive and ideological state apparatuses in CMC100. I understood their concepts well enough to answer a multiple choice question. After reading more about ideology and these two apparatuses, I now understand their application in the cultural sense.
Last semester I was taught that the repressive state apparatus functions only by violence, whereas the ideological state apparatus does not use violence at all. I never ventured on beyond what I was taught, but after reading from “Ieology and Ideological State Apparatuses”, it is clear that there is a deeper perspective of these two apparatuses. It does remain true that the repressive state apparatus functions primarily through violence, but functions secondarily by ideology. On the other hand, the Ideological state apparatus functions primarily through ideology and secondarily through violence. When I first read this, I was confused-the example of the church and family made the distinction clear to me. Although a church clearly functions through ideology, there are still measures of punishment, suspension, expulsion, and rules to discipline people. In addition, the concept of the family is based on ideologies, but punishment and boundaries still exist secondarily as repression.
Althusser states “ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence”. As soon as I came across this sentence, I was immediately reminded of Baudrillards concept of simulacra. If ideologies “constitute an illusion” and “make allusion to reality”, then they are a mere representation of the world, rather than a firsthand example. I believe that religious ideologies mask and denature ideology. The meta narratives within religious study are just an imaginary guide used as a relation for peoples actions in our world. Therefore, I would agree with Althusser’s idea that ideologies do not correspond directly to reality.