(1970) - Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses - Louis Althusser

French philosopher Louis Althusser argues that a ruling order isn't maintained by force alone, but by a second, quieter system working alongside it: institutions like schools, churches, and the family that shape what people come to accept as simply normal. Splitting these from the police, courts, and military — which he calls Repressive State Apparatuses — Althusser shows how Ideological State Apparatuses secure the same domination without needing to coerce anyone, since people are formed by these institutions before they're in any position to question them. If a system can reproduce itself through consent rather than force, what does it mean that most of us mistake that consent for simply thinking for ourselves?