Serendipity, Althusser

In the reading by Althusser, he explains the differences between ISA’s (Ideological State Apparatuses) and RSA’s (Repressive State Apparatuses). Examples of Ideological State Apparatuses are the religious system, the education system, and the cultural system. They function off of ideology. Repressive State Apparatuses function by violence. Examples of RSA’s are the army and the police. Both of these systems need each other in order to survive. There is not a purely ideological system or a purely violent system. There has to be ideology behind the violence, and there has to be some sort of “fear” in order to repress culture in order for them to follow the ideology that has been chosen. To me, this seems to be connected to the notion of fear in our modern day U.S society. The media completely controls us by fear in order to make us believe and follow their ideologies. For example, the constant “high alert” for terrorists, the repetition of the images of the incidents from 9/11, and the constant words “nuclear weapon and mass destruction”, are part of our everyday culture, especially for those that watch the daily news. The reason for this is not necessarily because there IS an inherent danger, but because the newscasters/the corporations/the government want us to believe that there is danger lurking, so that we will be complacent with their further actions, and have more trust in the state, since we are constantly taught to be in a state of fear. It is very apparent that both Repressive State Apparatuses and the Media function by fear, the media simply exposes the fear over and over to the entire nation in order for there to be order. As a governmental tactic, this may not be such a bad idea, since our culture is mostly observant. However, in the long run, this may have great implications, and make our generation one that is untrusting and paranoid.