I have a pretty watered down knowledge of Althusser’s theory of ideology. Basically from what I know, he has an argument that essentially says we don’t realize we're within ideology. Basically, it lives within plain sight in everyday life yet we're in denial of the fact that we live within it. This to me is the most important effect of ideology; it “never says “I am ideological”” (Althusser, 700). When I first saw Speed Racer, I interpreted it as a caustic treatise on the evils of capitalism. Speed and his family run a small racing company threatened by corrupt corporations, so Speed must win the Grand Prix to foil the plans of the capitalists; seemingly, colorfully anti-capitalist. What I interpreted this time was way different, the opposite in fact. Contrary to the general perception, Speed Racer proposes a value system that, while being anti-corporate, speaks nothing of collectivism or equality.
Rex Racer tells his younger brother, Speed, about this special spiritual relationship between car and driver and says, “The car is a living, breathing thing.” This anthropomorphization of machine could potentially imply an organic existence of industry and thus a rationalization for capitalism which presents a useful ideological foundation for untangling the aesthetics and politics (man as machine) of Speed Racer.
Speed is a powerful individual fighting for his family, his hubris, and his quality of living. He lives on a moral code placing importance on fairness (“cheaters never prosper”). With all this in mind, we see Speed presented as an unabashed competitor. He is the capitalist ideal of spirited competition (“You’ve gotta win if you want to keep driving.”) His pre-race snack is a homemade PB&J which is in contrast to the bourgeois decadence of champagne by the evil corporate antagonists. Speed battles for the rights of the rugged all-American individual, in this candy colored landscape of shiny globalization while carrying a chip on his shoulder for the lost family-oriented, grassroots ideals. More than just a racer, Speed is indeed, a capitalist.
Maybe the film is asking if there’s room for the determined individual in the system of mechanized corporate control. If anything, the film, like Speed, attempts to remind us that people are living, breathing things, even if their surroundings are slick, shiny, plastic. This is where Speed Racer demonstrates Althusser’s view (as far as I know) that even though we think we live outside of ideology, we’re actually just reiterating ideology’s power over us. Whether we rebel or not, the individual still has to struggle against the constricting clockwork of corporatism.
So what are kids supposed to make of this?? The blogpost says that “children use their play to explore the social structures that surround them; sites of play represent places where students are questioning the nature of reality."’ A child is probably learning about social structures (gender, class, race, etc.) different from their own situation (reality) when they’re outside of the home. Elisabeth Young-Bruehl’s work Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children suggests that prejudice against children is based on the idea that they are property, not unlike pets or other animals (who frequently appear as surrogate humans in children’s literature). Hubler argues that “capitalism is inherently hostile to children” and “capital is to labor as adult is to child.”) Perhaps Speed Racer is attempting to encourage viewers to think critically about how an attitude of maintaining or questioning and challenging the status quo is communicated through media for children.
Works Cited
Althusser, Louis (2004) Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses in Literary Theory: an Anthology, eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, Oxford: Blackwell (2nd Edition)
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