Post Blog

After this week of class, I noticed I was interested in the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA) and the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). In explanation, Repressive State Apparatus are systems in which are opressive. Such as the government, administration, army, police, court systems and prisons. Through all these, these are all highly ideological systems in that these systems form in a way to keep us all in line, within thesem also are elements of violence to the individual.  On the other hand, ideological state apparatus are systems in which are not considered oppressive. This includes Religion, education, family, legal, political, union, and media. RSA are known for being singular, violent and public. ISA are known for being private, plural and an ideology. I thought this was very interesting because I would argue that although the ISA's are all ideological, I think a large amount of them would be considered violent. For example, the concept of a meritocratic society in which everyone has a chance to be successful based on their individual merit and connecting that to the ISA of the education system, it would be clear that there is a lack of funding between poorer communities which creates violence because it is oppressing the poor community. This ISA I would consider to be an oppressive RSA, yet is not considered so. Overall, I thought this topic was interesting, expecially when discussing it in class.