Language can organize itself socially without a subject

 

1. Language can organize itself socially without a subject

Real-world example: Financial markets

No trader “decides” that a stock means strength, fear, or optimism.

Yet:

• phrases like “the market is nervous”

• “investors believe”

• “the market punished the stock”

circulate coherently.

The market speaks through prices, headlines, and charts.

There is no subject called “the market.”
Only rule-governed symbolic interaction.

Still, the language organizes behavior socially:

• people buy

• people sell

• people panic or wait

Meaning emerges without a mind that means it.

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2. Reinforce narratives

Real-world example: Online rumors and conspiracy forums

In large forums, no single person sustains a conspiracy narrative.

Instead:

• one post introduces a vague claim

• others repeat, rephrase, or “connect dots”

• contradictions are filtered out

• reinforcing posts gain visibility

Eventually, “this is what we all know” stabilizes.

The narrative persists even as participants come and go.

The story reinforces itself structurally, not intentionally.

No master believer is required.

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3. Stabilize symbols

Real-world example: Traffic signs and emojis

🚫 does not “mean” stop because someone thinks it every time.

It means stop because:

• it appears consistently

• it is reinforced by context

• violations are corrected by the system

Similarly, 😂 stabilized into “this is funny”
not by decree, but by repetition across contexts.

Symbols harden through use.

They acquire force without anyone re-deciding their meaning.

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4. Imitate norms

Real-world example: Office email culture

New employees quickly learn:

• how long emails should be

• when emojis are acceptable

• how formally to sign off

No one teaches this explicitly.

They imitate:

• what circulates

• what gets responses

• what gets ignored

The norm is not authored.
It is absorbed from circulation.

The system trains behavior without instruction or intention.

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5. Loop identity markers

Real-world example: Academic subcultures

Phrases like:

• “as a critical theorist”

• “in the literature”

• “methodologically speaking”

signal belonging.

People repeat these markers.
Others respond to them as identity cues.
The loop tightens.

Soon, the identity speaks itself:

• even when individuals change

• even when beliefs drift

The role persists because the markers persist.

Identity becomes a circulating label, not a lived interiority.