Petite Etoile, Marx and Althusser

I think that it is very interesting that at one point ideology did not exist. That the elite were very open and forceful about keeping their command over the rest of society and didn’t care whose feelings they hurt. They did whatever they wanted blatantly without a care as to how it effected others. Today we live in a world where everyone is constantly afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. Everyone wants to be “politically correct”. And I think the change happened because power was given to the people to stand up for themselves. That’s why today people are more careful of disturbing others, because they have the power to retaliate. I think that the reason why the old ways of the elite of not caring what anyone thought and just blatantly doing as they wished went away because the people were given the power and a voice to fight back. Therefore the elite created a new way to suppress them without them even being aware of it. And I think now with critical culture and media studies we are coming full circle again and giving the power to fight back to the people again. The elite are using a different method, ideology, so we are studying it and giving the people new weapons to fight it, knowledge. Just as the elite have evolved so must the way we handle the suppression and manipulation of society. This gives me hope that one day using ideology will be as obvious to the public as a flaming cross in someone’s front lawn.