Perché non possiamo non essere ideologici. Note e appunti per una ricerca semiotica a partire da Umberto Eco, ascoltando due lezioni di Ernesto Laclau e Slavoj Žižek

Se una notte di inverno tre viaggiatori met to discuss ideologies, what would they tell each other? This essay is a long-distance conversation between Umberto Eco, Ernesto Laclau, and Slavoj Žižek. Each from his own time and in his own way approaches the problem of ideology as one of linguistics. To mention some themes: every ideology has its own rhetorical “curve,” consisting of pertinences that imply some inevitable exclusions (Eco). Furthermore, every discourse we make is forced into a chain of equivalences, in which the differential meaning of individual words is necessarily simplified (Laclau). Finally, some of the words that we use are Lacanian capitonnages, magnets that attract all the other words, which, connecting with each other, form an ideological linguistic system that works via metaphorical – and often uncontrolled – leaps (Žižek). No one is exempt from this ideological sliding. Everyone is locked in their own semiosis, having often not chosen the words to bring their thoughts to life.