No.3100
There is a social use of language. No one still
believes in it. Its exchange value has fallen to zero.
Hence this inflationist bubble of idle talk.
Everything social is mendacious, and everyone
knows that now. It's no longer just the governing
authorities, the publicists and public personalities
who "do communication," it's every self-entrepreneur
that this society wants to turn us into who prac
tices the art of "public relations." Having become
an instrument of communication, language is no
longer its own reality but a tool for operating on
the real, for obtaining effects in accordance with
more or less conscious strategies. Words are no
longer put into circulation except in order to dis
tort things. Everything sails under false flags. This
usurpation has become universal. One doesn't
shrink from any paradox. The state of emergency is
the rule of law. War is made in the name of peace.
The bosses "offer jobs." The surveillance cameras
are "video-protection devices." The executioners
complain that they're being persecuted. The trai
tors profess their sincerity and their allegiance. The
mediocre are everywhere cited as examples. There
is actual practice on the one hand, and on the
other, discourse, which is its relentless counter
point, the perversion of every concept, the universal
deception of oneself and of others. In all quarters
it's only a question of preserving or extending one's
interests. In return, the world is filling up with
silent people. Certain ones of these explode into
crazy acts of a sort that we've seen at briefer and
briefer intervals. What is surprising about this? We
should stop saying, "Young people don't believe in
anything any more." And say instead: "Damn!
They're not swallowing our lies any more." No
longer say, "Young people are nihilistic," but "My
lord, if this continues they're going to survive the
collapse of our world."