We are ‘hailed’, endorsed, summoned or “interpellated” into subject positions in society. Thus a policeman who calls to us is interpellating or summoning us into a subject position of subjugation by the state. For this to work, we must recognize and accept this subject position. The process of identification thus creates identity. You identify me and I become that me that you have identified. A strange fact is that we seem to recognize ourselves when we are hailed. I know that it is me who is being called as I unconsciously accept the subject position. It is as if we had always-already been there.
The apparent freedom with which we accept the position only serves to cement us further into it. Interpellation can be considered as ‘recruitment’ as it invites a person into a subject position. When they do so, the consistency principle then leads them into a cycle of investment whereby they bond their sense of identity both to the subject position and also the underlying ideology. This helps explain why some democrats fail to understand their dilemma.
Interpellation was described by Althusser in his reinterpretation of Marxism and the position of the subject. He explained how Ideological State Apparatuses interpellated the subjects into ideological positions (brainwashing). This interpellation is a form of “misrecognition” phase where an externalized image is perceived both as the self and an ‘other’. In the today’s new democratic thinking the self is equal to comrade serf.
The position we take is relative to a more significant, superior and central ‘Other Subject’, whether it is the “Big Government” state or some other ultimate authority. The person-as-subject is thus defined by the other and the person recognizes themselves as an image or reflection of the Other. This allows the person to claim the quality of the Other but also requires subjugation to the Other. To deny the “Other” is to deny one’s own existence. Thus we are trapped within an ideology that creates an “Other” and hence the person. Can you better understand why it is so difficult for a liberal to change their spots, so to speak?
Look closely at the liberal playbook that is currently used by the “New Democratic Party”. It comes right out of Saul Alinsky’s book used by neighborhood organizers.
Unless the Republican leadership reads and understands the Alinsky playbook and develops a spine, then all is lost and America will become a serfdom ruled by the rich elite liberals, you know the ones democrats say that Republicans support!
The current “new democrats” are using this playbook to create “Big Government”. This “Big Government” will determine what citizens may and may not do. Law breakers then will be dealt with harshly and swiftly. What will you do?
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
Ayn Rand
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