ginny t. 10/31

(ok, this is the last last-ditch blog effort)

Thank God I came to class last week, otherwise I'd still have no idea what Louis Althussur was talking about.

"Ideology represents the imaginary relationships of individuals to their real conditions of existence." (C 44)

Me thinks Althusser must have spent some time exploring either American high schools or the "typical" American office--office life is just like high school, only with smoke breaks--in order to come up with this theory. While that is probably not the case, he sure did he nail the cultures.

Both the high school and office cultures are about organizing individuals into neat, clearly labeled categories that force us to function obediently inside whichever group we are placed. At school, ideologies take the shape of cliques: the jocks, the preps, the drama freaks (that was my particular pigeon hole), etc. In the office people are divided not only into categories by rank--director, manager, the lowly admin assistant (me again)--but we're categorized by department as well.

In high school, ideologies only work if people allow themselves to be dictated to by the ideologies...and, they do. It's good practice for when we're introduced into the working world, when we have less of a choice about subscribing to ideologies. In the office, you either conform to the ideology that governs you, or tragedy ensues.

The hapless middle-manager Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) from The Office is a perfect example of what happens when people step outside the roles set for them by ideologies. He is always getting into cringe-worthy predicaments when he blurs the lines between manager and subordinate; when Michael steps outside his ideology as a manager to cavort with his staff, instead of tragedy, we get hysterical buffoonery.