E.M. Pre-Class Post 10-31

Reading Louis Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses--- I thought to myself where have I seen the word state apparatuses before. Then it came to me I read about it in Zizek. When he wrote about the Pentagon and the White House seeking out top level Hollywood Brass to work togeather., "...aim of co-ordinationg the war effort and establishing how Hollywood could help in the 'war aginast terrorism by getting the right ideological message across not only to Americans but also to the Hollywood public across the globe-- the ultimate empirical proof that Hollywood does in fact function as an 'ideological state apparatus." (Zizek 234) Althusser quotes, " I shall say rather that every state apparatus whether Repressive or Ideological, 'functions' both by violence not bto confuse the Ideological State apparatus to the (Repressive)State Apparatus." (Althusser 43) The United States is using Ideological State Apparatus on the American Public to get us to buy in to our 'war on Terror' --- otherwise we would scream and stomp our feet loosing our basic rights --- The final stages of the patriot Act to go into permanent use is in Congress now. No longer just a war time situation - We will be wire tapped and spied on at Random for how ever long our goverment wishes. It might seem benign now --- Then again most of us don't remember the McCarthy Hearings on Un-American Activities -- Many regular Americans lost everything because of it. In my experience Ideology and individuality do not often mesh well. To criticize the war in Iraq -- is considered un-American ---i.e. not in keeping with the current ideology of the U.S.