Weezy27/3-22

During class this passed week we talked a lot about different ideologies in today’s society. One quote really stood out to me by Louis Althusser: “Those who are in ideology believe themselves by definition outside ideology.” I thought this quote was interesting because it is so true. For example, we see people everyday that dye their hair a crazy color and wear outrageous clothing because they want to “step out of the norm.” Those people may be stepping outside of what they think is considered normal, yet they are walking right into another ideology consumed with people attempting to stray away from the normal. This concept brought me back to Benjamin’s idea of authenticity. If everyone is consumed in these different ideologies, is anything considered original or individual?

Along with Althusser we also talked a lot about Karl Marx. Marx spoke about the power of the ruling class. While discussing Marx’s ideas we talked about division within society. We said that societies can be divided under different labels; however, in times of destruction or even competition those divisions can come together as one. The example given in class was that in the United States there are Democrats and Republicans; however during 9/11 we all came together as Americans.

In today’s society we are controlled by different ideologies as well as the power of the ruling class. We make the majority of our decisions based on these ideologies and in the same token these ideologies control our decisions.