lwrighttheelectrolyte

[lwrighttheelectrolyte]

Reading Notes 1: Marx and Engels, Althusser, Benjamin

When we think of division of labor, we are typically thinking of the division of material labor specifically. The notion that there’s a proletariat or working class who work for the bourgeoisie and earn from wages, while the bourgeoisie or ruling class controls, and earns from the control, of the means of production. Marx and Engels argue that this division of material labor also lends itself to the division of mental labor. The ruling class creates the ideologies that govern society as a whole. It’s important to note that these ideologies don’t exist independently and are specifically designed to keep the working class docile and legitimize the current ruling class. This often comes subtly in the form of everyday media. Specifically right now in the United States I think of the general values of self-determination or the “grind”, often suggesting that people who aren’t successful simply aren’t working hard enough. 

Althusser claims that the State Apparatus is more accurately a Repressive State Apparatus that functions by violence and repression. This includes things like the government, army, police, courts, and prisons, all of which are public, and ultimately form a single entity. Alongside the RSA are the Ideological State Apparatuses, including the religious, educational, political, communications, and cultural ISAs. When we say educational ideological state apparatus for example, we refer to both public and private education systems. The cultural ISA would refer to everything literature, art, sports, etc. In contrast with the RSA, ISAs are often private, and most importantly, function by ideology as opposed to violence. Althusser notes that beyond all ruling by ideology, ISA’s are more specifically united in that their ideologies all ultimately fall under the ruling ideology. Thus, despite their differences, both the Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatuses ultimately work together to achieve the same end of maintaining the status quo and reproducing the same class inequalities. 

For most of our history, art has been replicable, but only in the sense that an artist could try their best to imitate an original work, like an apprentice learning from their teacher. There were bound to be differences. Much of what gives a work of art its value is its singularity. Being from one specific artist from one specific time and place, and with only one existing. However, through various technological innovations, we have gotten to the point where we can reproduce nearly any piece of art. Benjamin names things like lithography to printing to photographs, films, and recordings. For lack of a better phrase, this near identical reproduction simply makes many works of art not very valuable anymore. Furthermore, it makes art less traditionally or culturally significant - when, where, and how a piece of art was used or perceived is no longer an important part of its history, as now there are tons of identical pieces in an exponentially different amount contexts. This “[denies] any social function of art” leaving it to be used instead for politics.