Marx and Althusser

I found the readings to be very interesting about Ideologies and Ideological State Apparatuses'. In the first reading on ideology, I liked that there was an explanation on deciding a line between "ideas originating with the individual and ideology constituted socially." The example given about the husband and wife fighting over the burnt toast was a good example to show when a particular persons idea or position becomes ideological. On pg 39 we are given given a clear layout of the fact that "The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, consequently also controls the means of mental production, so that the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are on the whole subject to it." Though this is true we go on to read about the history of the ruling class and the pattern that it forms. There is a want for dominance in the competition for the ideas of the ruling class. Each different ruling class that comes in strives to be better than the one before. It goes along with the theory of us never being satisfied with what we have. It sort of reminded me of the concept we learned in CMC 100 of the positional treadmill but applied to a larger group of people. The positional treadmill suggests that a person strives to be better than those around them, never being satisfied with what they have but because everything in our society continues to develop, there really isn't anything that can be considered "top of the line" because its only a matter of time till the next best thing comes out. "Every new class, therefore, achieves domination only on a broader basis that that of the class ruling previously; on the other hand the opposition of the non-ruling class to the new ruling class then develops all the more sharply and profoundly (40)." My point for comparing this to the positional treadmill is because of the strive to be the best thing or possess the best thing which is a cycle that will continue going back and forth between each ruling class fighting for domination.