Discourse Quote by Roland Barthes
““I call the discourse of power any discourse which engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient. Some expect of us as intellectuals that we take action on every occasion against Power, but our true battle is elsewhere, it is against powers in the plural, and this is no easy combat. For if it is plural in social space, power is, symmetrically, perpetual in historical time. Exhausted, defeated here, it reappears there; it never disappears. Make a revolution to destroy it, power will immediately revive and flourish again in the new state of affairs. The reason for this endurance and this ubiquity is that power is the parasite of a trans-social organism, linked to the whole of man's history and not only to his political, historical history. This object in which power is inscribed, for all of human eternity, is language, or to be more precise, its necessary expression: the language we speak and write.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Mythologies, 1957
Power is embedded in language, creating blame and guilt; fighting individual power is insufficient because power persists across societies and history.
In simple terms: Power lives in language and persists.
Key Takeaway
Challenge the structures of language and discourse.
Themes
power
language
society
history
discourse
Mood
critical
analytical
reflective
Type
philosophical
political
theoretical
When to use this quote
- political activism
- media analysis
- education reform
- legal advocacy
- public speaking
Key Concepts
parasite
trans-social organism
perpetual
historical continuity
Questions to Reflect On
- How does language sustain power?
- Can we ever fully escape systemic power?
A Different Perspective
Power can be reproduced even after revolutionary change.
![“That is another theme in the book [Dreams from My Father]. How do we exercise more empathy in our public discourse? How do we get the black to see through the eyes of the white? Or the citizen to see through the eyes of the immigrant? Or the straight to see through the eyes of the gay? That has…” quote by Barack Obama](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/00d/barack-obama-17_black_that-is-another-theme-in-the-book-dreams_10185.jpg)
