written by Karl Wagner, Club of Rome
It seems that we have lost a cultural battle, without noticing that there was a battle: The language of ‘economy’ has crept into our daily lives and with it an understanding that life is primarily about money and about having more and more of it. Objects and activities that constitute human life have become commodities and language reflects this change in meaning. Human life with all its wonders, intricacies and complexity has been reduced to its lowest level: Matter, expressed in money, price, ownership, profit and, latterly, debt.
A house is not a home anymore; it is an asset and because it has the value of an asset, foreclosures and evictions are tolerable, hardly questioned. If a house or an apartment was primarily a home, then people would not get thrown out of their homes that easily. It would be visibly immoral and unwise from a politician’s point of view to kick thousands of families out of their homes and dreams.
We watch the news on TV and with it, on a live-ticker, the changes in share values of large corporations and the value of this moment’s Dow Jones or FTSE. Who cares? How many people are really interested if Google shares go down or up a percentage point? But still, we are subjected to watch it if we want to see the news, and somehow the impression is created that the value of the Dow Jones is of significance for our lives.
If you are a broker, then this might be true, but how many of us are brokers? And why should this tiny minority be able to indirectly force us to watch these numbers flow by? One could say that opera fans have the same right to be informed of the daily programme of the 30 most important operas of the world as part of the evening news.
Many discussions immediately turn into a debate about economic aspects. One often seems to need a degree in economy (or at least be eloquent in using a handful of economic terms) to be able to participate in discussions about issues as mundane as an election, an earthquake, a good or bad harvest, rainfall or any kind of political development in the world; or a change in the leadership in a country of little to no importance.
Language is also about power. Specialised languages build barriers and elites; they can be exclusive on purpose, and in principle there is no harm when economists use their language to communicate with each other on aspects relevant to their discipline. But it is an entirely different issue, when a specialised language becomes invasive and oppressive and defines how we understand and interpret the world we live in, taking over the way we perceive and verbalise reality.
It is about power and it is about regaining power by regaining our language to start with.
Decide how you want to use language. Be a human being and not a resource. Live in a home and not in a property. Don’t be a hamster, abandon the running wheel. Don’t always look for money; be able and capable of making a contribution without asking for financial remuneration. Stand up for and use a language, which is broadly understandable. Embrace curiosity and romance. Become a barefoot scientist. Never forget: “Money can’t buy you (real) love” – nor real satisfaction.
