Le Poseur

Good Value

That crazy Frenchman Jean Baudrillard wrote that there are four ways that an object obtains value:

• The first is the functional value of an object; its instrumental purpose. A pen, for instance, writes; and a refrigerator cools.
• The second is the exchange value of an object; its economic value. One pen may be worth three pencils; and one refrigerator may be worth the salary earned by three months of work.
• The third is the symbolic value of an object; a value that a subject assigns to an object in relation to another subject. A pen might symbolize a student’s school graduation gift or a commencement speaker’s gift; or a diamond may be a symbol of publicly declared marital love.
• The last is the sign value of an object; its value within a system of objects. A particular pen may, whilst having no functional benefit, signify prestige relative to another pen; a diamond ring may have no function at all, but may suggest particular social values, such as taste or class.

I think each of us ascribe value to our own lives in a similar way. We are validated by either what we do; or by how much we get paid for what we do; or by our emotional attachment to what we do; or by our sense of relative significance in relation to what others do.

And me? All of the above.