The market of merchandise, services, slaves, and ideas was
completed by the market of salaried workers, earning money for
their life's salt, as Roman soldiers did. These belong to the
category of human beings constituting themselves in the
pragmatic framework of an activity in which production (work) and
the means of production separated. The language through which
workers constituted themselves underwent a similar
differentiation. As work became more alienated from the product,
a language of the product also came into being.
The language of products
Exchanging goods pertinent to survival corresponds to a scale of
human praxis that guarantees coherence and homogeneity. People
who have excess grain but need eggs, people who offer meat
because they need fruit or tools, do not require instructions
for using what they obtain in exchange for what they offer. Small
worlds, loosely connected, constitute the universe of their
existence. The rather slow rhythm of production cycles equals
that of natural cycles. A relatively uniform lifestyle results
from complementary practical experiences only slightly
differentiated in structure. Together, these characteristics
constitute a framework of direct sharing of experience. This
market, as limited as it is, forms part of the social mechanism
for sharing experience.
Today's markets, defined by a complexity of mediations, are no
longer environments of common or shareable experience.
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