Althusser and the Problem of the Petty Bourgeoisie (feat. Nicolas Villarreal)

We welcome socialist thinker and writer Nicolas D. Villarreal for a discussion on the thought of Louis Althusser, and how to navigate the political and ideological problems of the petty bourgeoisie. We begin with a discussion into whether professionals qualify as a class and what their precise function is for the perpetuation of the bourgeois state. Villarreal takes the view that professionals do not constitute a class but that they rather play an ideological function. This conversation clarifies many outstanding debates on today's left around how to understand the PMC, the working class, the function of the state, and how the state controls and represses the citizenry.

Nicolas D. Villarreal is the founder of the CASPER Forum, Palladium Magazine contributor, a contributor to Cosmonaut Magazine and he is the author of the novel “Caeruleus”, two time winner of the Howard Scammon Drama Prize. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary specializing in Government and Economics. Subscribe to Nicolas' Substack A Pre-History of an Encounter at (https://nicolasdvillarreal.substack.com).