Language Is Social

"There is no such thing as society"

A language is an accomplishment of, and gift from, others who came before we were able to speak it. It is social by nature, consisting of symbols requiring mutuality, participation in and importation of the other.

A language has a history going back centuries. It develops through the contributions of many people in real-life practical situations that involve cooperation with others. This is as true of its rules as it is of its symbols. It exists before we are born and is given to us by others, by society, for free.

Language is our most valuable tool. Meaning itself is a function of language. Language capability is one good definition of humanity itself and it makes possible higher levels of complexity of organization and accomplishment than any individual could even imagine by himself.

“Republicans/Conservatives/Independent Rugged Individualists/Freedom-Loving Real Americans” like to think that they were never given anything for free by society, that everything they have is from their own individual initiative, that nothing is free, that they owe nothing to others, that they may grab what they can from others, especially the “weak,” for themselves and their own immediate kind - that "There is no such thing as society,” as Margaret Thatcher encapsulated the ethic.

There was a time not long ago when they labelled anyone who was aware of the fact that humans and human group life are social to the core as “a commie” but that symbol lost its communal value and their current substitute is “a socialist.”