"Hegemony is like an internalised form of social control which makes certain views seem 'natural' or invisible so that they hardly seem like views at all, just 'the way things are.' The 'trick' whereby we are made to feel that we are choosing when really we have no choice is called by Althusser interpellation" (158).
When I read this, I actually started paying attention to the text. I think Althusser has a good point. How do we view society, or all the political madness, or every aspect of life? As the norm, "the way things are." And yet, the state has an input on all of it. There is nothing in the constitution about education, yet the federal government finds ways (No Child Left Behind and funding) to make sure they have a say in what goes on in classrooms.
So I'm thinking, in a country where we pride ourselves most on our freedom to do whatever we want, is it really all a charade? Are we programmed by school, media, church, etc. to think that we have the option to choose whatever we want, but in actuality we are following some subtle rules we call custom? Interesting stuff.
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I do agree to an extent. I like the "trick" comment by Barry, but Williams hits on this subject a bit more in describing the "base and the superstructure."
ReplyDeleteThe superstructure, according to Williams, is "Political forms of the class struggle and its results...constitutions...juridicial forms...theories...religious views etc"(1275). Whereas he describes the base as "...the real social existence of man...the real relations of production corresponding to a stage of the development of material productive forces...a mode of production at a particular stage of its development" (1275).
I believe we are victims of the trick, but through base as funding and NCLB as always forces in development. These forces are going to rule us based on where they are in their development.
I believe we are content with this trick because we are made to feel that our country is superior to others in almost every way. If we endure hardships, the masses are redirected to what it is like in “other countries” and that we should be grateful for what we do have. Although some of this may be true, the haze that the media has casted over citizens, compounded with standardized curriculum and work force, we really have no idea that we are living in such a fog. It’s just another Plato’s cave. I guess ignorance is bliss in a lot of cases. My questions is, if we had a choice to see things how “they really are” and not as “the way it is”, would we choose to see clearly?
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