I Hide the Truth From You so That I Can Hide it From Myself

Hegel provides a theoretical frame that enables us to understand why State apparatus can continue to operate effectively even when few, if any, of the people participating in it actually believe in it. In other words, going through the rituals (marches, services etc.) without subjective connection with the ideology. As Zizek would say, the State is treated here as a subject supposed-not-to-know, a subject who has to be shielded from the truth of our disbelief. This then helps those who participate to avoid directly confronting their disbelief and undergoing the difficult work that would need to be done in the aftermath (revolutionary reconfiguration). It thus enables us to maintain the status quo.

A good way of understanding this structure is to go to a nightclub at the weekend and watch how the club becomes a subject supposed-not-to-know (about our loneliness, broken hearts or lack of fulfillment etc.). How many of those in the room enact the rituals expected enthusiastically without actually subjectively embodying them in order to avoid the difficult work that would need to be done if enacting the disbelief. Or to take a different example, we can see this in the way that God functions for many within the world of contemporary worship music. Here God is treated as a subject supposed-not-to-know about our doubt, brokenness etc. By singing songs that claim we are happy, fulfilled and utterly devoted we protect the Big Other from seeing the truth of our inner antagonisms  The more frenetically we sing the more we attempt to conceal the truth from this Big Other. In this way we are able to avoid the difficult work that would be involved in directly confronting the tensions in our subjective world. As such, churches and nightclubs can offer the same psychological support for us and thus can both be considered as a form of religious activity: an activity designed to sustain a subject over and above us who protects us from our own conflicts.