MC Guffee, Dick Hebdige

"Thus, when we come to look beneath the level of 'ideology-in-general' at the way in which specific ideologies work, how some gain dominance and others remain marginal, we can see that in advanced Western democracies the ideological field is by no means neutral" (Hebdige 2012, 128.)

Thinking about Western democracies, but more specifically the United States democracy, I began to think of how my experience with public education was more highly ideological than I had previously realized. Although our country boasts the powerful separation of church and state in its very foundations, its not hard to see how Christianity is still very much an underlying ideology in our country's consciousness. For instance, in elementary school my classmates and I all made ornaments. The ornaments were little pictures of us that we decorated to give to our parents. Presumingly for Christmas, we gave our parents these ornaments and we lived happily ever after. However, revisiting this practice shows exactly how the ruling class governs the body's of the state. Since ornaments are made for Christmas trees and virtually no other religious holiday featured an object to hang ornaments from, it is exclusively a Christian practice. Thus, even the kids who aren't Christians and don't celebrate Christmas, are forced to acknowledge the existence and dominance of both.

On the other hand, at my elementary school we also received many days off in respect to Jewish holidays. So there! My education wasn't all bad. Our democracy isn't still dominated by Christianity because we do get days off for Jewish Holidays too! And just when I return to thinking everything is at equilibrium in the world...
"First, the Other can be trivialized, naturalized, domesticated. Here, the difference is simply denied ('Otherness is reduced to sameness')" (Hebdige 2012, 133.) While I assumed giving kids the day off of school in respect to the Jewish religion defied the hegemonic nature of our society, it actually worked in opposition. Not only did we receive the day off, but we also had no idea why and never cared to know why. Therefore, by giving students the day off without explanation, we equate those days off to the same as a Christmas break without adding any nuanced information to educate what the Jewish holidays even mean. Instead, we reduce the otherness of the Jewish religion to sameness of Christianity which causes Jewishness to lose it's "noise" as Hebdige would say.

Investigating my public school education for only a few minutes revealed the immense power of ideology and how it works to condemn otherness. Although I distinctly remember learning about the separation of church and state, now I wonder if it ever happened? Or if it even can happen at this point.