What is ideology?  What is its purpose?  And how is it used?  Louis Althusser, in his article “On Ideology,” confronts the mercurial idea of ideology, and provides an explanation that is as vexing as it is provocative.  As an adherent to the Marxist ideas of materialism, Althusser sees the conditions of life as the factor responsible for shaping individuals’ consciousness.  For Althusser, ideology is “a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence;” meaning that one’s “ideology” represents the conditions of the environment in which they live-a standard Marxist interpretation of the play between life and human consciousness.  However, Althusser mixes in a bit of Freudian/Lacanian psychoanalysis to explain further the concept of ideology, stating that the imaginary is the realm in which human beings function and operate.  Althusser’s ideology supplants this imaginary realm, which one is born into, and which deeply influences the one’s consciousness, whether one is aware or not.  In the realm of ideology, individuals become “subjects” of the dominant social order. Thus, Ideology is not voluntary, but the result of structural forces in society.

According to Althusser, the societal mechanisms that are responsible for maintaining structure in society are called “ideological state apparatuses” (ISAs); these mechanisms are responsible for “creating pliant, obedient citizens who practice dominant values.” ISAs are numerous and differ from society to society, but include such civil institutions such as churches, schools, courts, unions, political parties, government agencies, the media, and sports.  The ISAs roles in society are to inculcate its subjects with the dominant societal ideology; a society’s system of social beliefs are maintained and disseminated by the ISAs.  Or as Althusser puts it, “ideology interpellates individuals as subjects.”  The subject-the citizen/slave-of society is the destination of ideology, as administered by the ISAs.  Althusser used his interpretation of ideology and its function as an instrument of the ISAs to explain how a society reproduces its basic social relations and maintains a stable, functioning state-society.

Althusser’s materialist interpretation of ideology and society plays nicely into a theory I have come to accept.  During a discussion of Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History,” a professor mine made the claim that institutions structure our reality and thus our behavior.  Taken in an Althusserian-Marxist context, this would mean that institutions shape the human consciousness.  This theory was called by my professor as an “institutional constructivism” approach to the understanding of human behavior.  The theory runs contrary to the “behaviorists” approach, which attempts to apply the methods of natural sciences to human behavior.  It is both questionable to call anything “natural” and nearly impossible to quantify.

However, one can easily observe that way in which an institution (or an ISA) affects the way in which one thinks, acts, and lives.  Societies with good institutions typically foster stable and prosperous societies.  Institutions of these societies usually disseminate ideas of tolerance, liberty, and equality.  This has an inevitable, nay, “natural,” effect on individuals’ consciousness.  People will come to think of these societal pillars as the ruling, dominating ideas.  The collective adaptation of these pillars results in a well functioning society.  On the contrary, societies that foster ill behavior, uproar, and revolution are those typically with poorly functioning institutions with bad ideas.  For Plato and Althusser, the most influential and important institution is education–the school, college, or university.

Here is where it gets interesting.  The Althusserian notion that our personal ideology (our consciousness) is directed by state apparatuses makes for a rather frightening implication:  free will is a dead idea. Actually, it never lived.  Essentially what Althusser says is that because we are born into a well structured system, it is impossible to escape it.  It recognizes us, and we recognize it, the moment we are born.  Thus, the notion of subjectivity is bunk, because all of our thinking is shaped, filtered, and directed by the institutions that define our ideology and our system of beliefs.  What we believe and why we believe it is unavoidably controlled by society.  The conscious and subconscious is shaped and molded by the structure of reality we call society. Neither you nor I can escape the system; we are all subjects.

I know this is getting long, and probably rather convoluted, but before I sign off I want to list my top three ISAs with a brief explanation of how they affect our consciousness.

  1. The Church: Instills the ideas or altruism, love, and transcendentalism, thus resulting, in its purest form, in individuals that look beyond themselves to something higher.  They deny themselves.  However, the church (and religion for that matter) can also foster stark exclusivism and intolerance.
  2. The School: The quintessential example of social engineering.  The school shapes the way we view the world by teaching us how to connect concepts to words via linguistics.  School teaches you the virtues of good work ethics and the value of socializing.  It also teaches you ways to manipulate, lie, cheat, and steal through the social interaction process.
  3. The Government: Provokes a sense of duty, pride, and sometimes fear in its subjects (the citizens).  Although this may be the most powerful ISA, I think it falls behind the Church and School in terms of influence.  It has the advantage of hard power but has a lack of soft power capital. The Government can also use its power in perverse ways, such as war and oppression.