In the Embrace of Cardboard Gods: About the Magic of Names, the Power of Words and the Fetishism of Symbols in Social Life (Part 1)

Abstract

In this scientific and publicistic essay, the phenomenon of symbolic fetishism becomes the subject of critical analysis as one of the regular manifestations and consequences of the universal process of the social construction of reality. The collective (re)production and articulation of meanings/values in the forms of joint human activity and social consciousness are accompanied by the (re)production of sign-symbolic systems that constitute an important component of the objectified universe of social life. The symbolic system of society acquires significant autonomy (in relation to particular individuals), forming an objectified and reified environment of spiritual and material culture, on which scale the life and activities of social actors unfold. The interpretation of this topic is built on the basis of the author’s reception of three conceptual sources: 1) the theory of conductors of interaction by Pitirim A. Sorokin, 2) the theory of symbolic capital and symbolic violence by P. Bourdieu (including reflections on the “power of nomination” and its role in the constitution of social relations), as well as 3) J. Baudrillard’s ideas about the symbolic nature of consumption in societies of the last decades of the 20th — the beginning of the 21st century.

The article is published in two parts. The end is in No. 5 for 2022.