Althusser's idea of school being a prime example of an ISA is in my opinion quite accurate, children are forced to go to school everyday because this is our ideology today in modern society. Main reason I do agree with this statement is that on page 93 he says, "Thus schools and churches use suitable methods of punishment, expulsion, selection, etc. to 'discipline' not only their shepherds, but also their flocks." I believe the reason he says this is because though we can claim school is the perfect example of an ISA, that with being an ISA it is not necessarily a bad thing as it shapes society in ways that are needed for a civilization to progress. Education can be the factor that separates an elite nation from a third-world country in terms of technological advancements, and even survival alone. Some of these advancements can be times as large as being the first country into space, first to land on the moon, and first to be able to come back into the atmosphere safely otherwise known as the Space Race.
One thing that interested me a lot while reading, and it touches back on what I said earlier with the schooling is that throughout reading this I couldn't help but think to myself that everything I was reading about the ISA almost came across with a negative attitude towards it. When in reality ISA's can actually have positive benefits on a society.
I completely agree with you that schools are a perfect example of an ISA. I like your example of relating schools to church. Also a very good point that education is major factor in dividing upper class and poverty.
ReplyDeleteI think your insight is actually really important toward a true understanding of the complex role ISAs play in society I wonder to what opinion Althusser or Marx would have on the technological, medical, etc. advances produced by ISAs, as I'm sure they wouldn't consider such things bad. However, I think their standing point would simply be that State Apparatuses work to reproduce the (exploitative) relations of production, and that technological, etc. advances would still be possible (if not even more easily accomplished) by people in a classless, anarchic (communist) society.
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