Facebook Marginalia Teach-In; Or, The Revolution Will Be Advertised

Marxist critic Louis Althusser is probably most famous for his theory of the “Ideological State Apparatus.” This was his name for those things within a capitalist nation that keep its population docile and willing to be subjected to the state’s will over their own best interests; unlike the courts, prisons, and Departments of Motor Vehicles that make up its counterpart, the Repressive State Apparatus, these “ISA”s habituate their subjects to subjection (and subjugation) by “hailing” them, affording a type of pleasure through mutual recognition. “Hey you!” says the Pepsi can, “Don’t you find me fizzy, refreshing, and affordable?” And sometimes we say, “Sure do! I can afford you and I love the way you taste and how you fit in my hand! What a wonderful world I live in!” Or, if we’re feeling a mite iconoclastic, we say, “Pepsi, you can shove right off! I am a free wo/man! What a wonderful world I live in! Now where’s my Coke?”

I was reminded forcibly of this dynamic a couple days ago while fiddling along through the RSA-that-walks-like-an-ISA “social networking” techno-monstrosity called “Facebook” at a computer whose browser, unlike my personal one, is not set to block ads (“I’m a free wo/man! What a wonderful world I live in! Ooh, what a clever product-placed joke about product placement Tina Fey just told!”). Jittering down the margin like a pixel-powered centipede, row upon row of dancing pandas shucked and jived for my attention. Was I hallucinating? What were they offering? And what did they want?