In the Embrace of Cardboard Gods: About the Magic of Names, the Power of Words and the Fetishism of Symbols in Social Life (Part 2)

Abstract

In the article, the subject of consideration is the phenomenon of symbolic fetishism as one of the natural manifestations and consequences of the process of the social construction of reality. The author explores the logic and mechanisms of the autonomization of symbolic systems in society, which turns, among other things, into their “hypostatization” (and reification) in the individual and collective consciousness as specific entities. At the same time, the focus is on three interpretations of the symbolic and its existence in social life, presented in the works of P. A. Sorokin, P. Bourdieu and J. Baudrillard. In the first part of the article, the main provisions of Sorokin’s concept of “interaction conductors” are analyzed (in particular, the idea of fetishization of different types of conductors and their rebound effect on individuals using them). In the second part of the essay, Bourdian’s interpretation of the “power of nomination” and Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality (or sign universe) of the consumer society are analytically reconstructed. In each of the above concepts, the coercive nature of the symbolic structures of society, its iconic images and materialized artifacts, which have a powerful influence on human thinking and behavior, is fixed and illustrated.

The article is published in two parts. The first part is in No. 4 for 2022.