LightningBolt, 3/19/09

“The author and the reader... both live… ‘Naturally’ in ideology” (46) Althusser

Today in class we discussed why we do not question the everyday acts in our life; we instead regard them as natural. This is not very evident to our culture as a whole because we are so used to them. For example, no one questions the act of waiting in line at a check out counter or shaking someone’s hand when you first meet them. Starting at birth we are exposed to the ideology that these things are “natural.” Traveling different places while I studied abroad and being exposed to other cultures caused me to realize that other cultures have their own “natural” occurrences, which differ dramatically from our own. For example in China their seemed to be no concept of waiting in line, instead their cultures ideology tells them who ever can push to the front the hardest is the next in line. When people from other cultures travel to America they must recognize some of our “natural” ideologies instantly. I bet they even find some of them comical, and if we took the time to examine them, they would be comical to us as well.

Now we are aware that we are mistaking these ideologies for “natural” occurrences, but what should be done about this recognition? We touched briefly on this in class, but never came to a conclusion. For example, I am now aware of the fact that walking into class, sitting down, taking notes, stand up and leave is an ideology, but that is not going to stop me from doing it. I think that mistaking these ideologies as a natural part of life is acceptable, mostly because this new knowledge will not cause us to take action. I will continue to live life the same way whether I realize I am conforming to ideologies or not. This is what I must do in order to survive in our culture. If I chose to never conform to an ideological event, I would never be able to go to class, wait in line, drive without killing people, or cross the street. Following these broad ideologies is part of our culture.