Quotes From Marxist Philosopher: Louis Althusser - who Stangled His Wife - and on Education...

So I am reading Althy - who is a Marixst Philosopher - some would say Structural Marxist. I am reading his most well known work, Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus – which I think is very relevant still – especially for those work in academia or education in general.  He argues that in a developed capitalist system, education is the arm of ideological inoculation of living in society – b.c it teaches students how to be efficient workers and this is according to the ruling class – who of course are also the dominant economic class.

What he wrote has triggered some thoughts I have had for a while about the “claimed” purposes of a univeristy of high school.  I’ve been working in public education for a while, and even now as a TA (teaching assistant to professors)  at a public university – the one line I have heard, regardless of what level of schooling, is that we are supposed to teach students “how to be global citizens.”  I’ve always wondered what exactly that means.  In light of what Althy has written, does that mean producing great worker bees?  Does it mean global citizens who will be active in their community, have compassion for others, and be conscious of world issues OR does it mean global citizens who know how to sell themselves to the most high-paying corporation, selfishly climb up the managerial scale, automatically obey authority and rationalize all decisions?  I wonder if those who say we are making “global citizen” have thought out what exactly this means. 

I know so many educators who complain about their rebellious students – but you know those are the ones I love – (also probably because I was also one of those) – but it’s the rebellious students who understand that they are being inoculated into obedience and autonomization.  They know what the teachers are up to even if they can’t articulate it in this way – they articulate it in their music, their clothing, their fuck you's – they rebel by not showing up to class, and they rebel by refusing to obey.  This notion of rebelllion is particularly important in light of the recent rhetoric of panic in the education world, that American is falling behind in producing educated students and China and India are going to take over.  Of course this is tied into producing good worker bees for the American economy and not into actually producing "truly educated" students.  And there is nothing wrong with being aware that we need to reform the way we educate students in the US and there's nothing wrong with realizing that we need to have a competitive edge in the global economy, but what's not ok is how this rhetoric is carried out in the schools.  Wired magazine this month has a great article connecting Einstein to how we teach youth - and that we need to stop forcing students into obedience and rote memorization - but start nuturing rebelliousness.  I totally agree - that's why I love little rebels.    

Well I’ve always carefully thought about what I mean when I say I want my students to become “global citizens” - part of it is that I want them to discover their passion, their happiness, and discover that they have what it takes – and that you can also make money doing what you love and should think about how you can make a lot of it without exploiting others or the environment- yes money matters :)  The road may not always be the most popular – but I want my students to always keep thinking – and I want them to even challenge what I tell them.   Well – I think Althy would agree..maybe :) according to him we’re all subjected to the ideological state apparatus to begin with – and the one thing we can do is to become conscious of it - and oh yes he's another genius gone bad - he strangled his wife when he was 62 years old as he was giving her a "massage" - then he was left in a psychiatric hospital til he dies of a heart attack 10 years later-
KEELAN says he ran through the streets after he strangled his wife saying "I KILLED MY WIFE" and the punishment was a very "posh" mental hosipital where he could come and go.  psycho academics!

So here are some quotes from Althy that I particularly like:

"the reproduction of labor power requires not only a reproduction of it skills, but also, at the same time, a reproduction of its submission to the rules of the established order, i.e. a reproduction of submission to the ruling ideology for the workers, and a reproduction of the ability to manipulate the ruling ideology correctly for the agents of exploitation and repression, so that they, too, will provide forth domination of the ruling class "in words". pg 132
 
"to my knowledge, no class can hold State power over a long period without at the same time exercising its hegemony over and in the State Ideological Apparatus." pg 146
 
"The Ideological State Apparatuses may be not only the stake, but also the site of class struggle, and often of bitter forms of class struggle." pg 147
 
 
"the ideological state Apparatus which has been installed in the dominant position in mature capitalist social formations is a result of a violent political and ideological class struggle against the old dominant ideological State apparatus, is the educational ideological apparatus." pg 152
 
In fact, the Church has been replaced today in its role as the dominant Ideological State Apparatus by the School." pg 157
 
"the mechanisms which produce this vital result for the capitalist regime are naturally covered up and concealed by a universally reigning ideology of the School, universally reigning because it is one of the essential forms of the ruling bourgeois ideology: an ideology which represents the school as a neutral environment purged of ideology (because it is...lay), where teachers respectful of the "conscience" and 'freedom' of the children who are entrusted to them (in complete confidence) by their 'parents' (who are free, too, i.e. the owners of their children) open up for them the path to the freedom, morality and responsibility of adults by their own example, by knowledge, literature and their 'liberating virtues'." pg 157
 
"Ideas have disappeared as such (insofar as they are endowed with an ideal or spiritual existence), to the precise extent that it has emerged that their existence is inscribed in the actions of practices governed by rituals defined in the last instance by an ideological apparatus. It therefore appears that the subject acts insofar as he is acted by the following system (set out in the order of its real determination): ideology existing in a material ideological apparatus, describing material practices governed by a material ritual, which practices exist in the material actions of a subject acting in all consciousness according to his belief" pg 170

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