Thesis 5 of 95: Hear the Human

Part of the blogging project about the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto 

Language is as old as consciousness, language is practical consciousness that exists also for other men, and for that reason alone it really exists for me personally as well; language, like consciousness, only arises from the need, the necessity, of intercourse with other men. The German Ideology - Marx, Karl

To say that we "recognize each other as such this voice" is to say that we recognize each-other from the legitimized and internalized form of value exchange between humans, The Conversation. Those who can enter into this Conversation can be legitimized as humans through it. 

Depending on the form of the Conversation, some people are excluded, and included in this voice. Not everyone can participate, and not everyone can make the Human Voice. For example, in capitalism, those who are physically or socially unable to conform to the value system of socially necessary labor hours get dehumanized and deprived from speaking in public (in the educational, economic, religious, social, political institutions), they are seen as parasites to get rid of or weak people to take care of.

Language, or practical consciousness, can be seen as the Human Voice as such, and the "intercourse with other men" is the Conversation. The particular form of "intercourse with other men" is historically and socially constituted. 

The Human Voice of Capitalism, however is not static and unchangeable, even though its "open, natural, uncontrived" character leads us to perceive it in this way. There is, as, Bourdieu (1977) puts it, a "struggle for the power to impose the legitimate mode of thought and expression", or the legitimate form of the Conversation, and the "sound of the Human Voice". This is due to its characteristic as an antagonistic class society. There are people don't feel like that "language exists" for them and wants to change it. 

The Conversational Market is changing the way people recognize each-other as human beings. "Making the Human Voice" of this market is giving us an opportunity to start recognizing each other more and better. We just have to be aware that we are making it. 

See you soon, Thesis 6. 

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