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Reflection on Sign Value



Picture's Courtesy: American Tourister

There are many ways to meditate but an "analytical meditation" I like the most. This form of meditation doesn't ask me to remain seated in silence, but to observe what's happening around me. A few minutes ago, I have found a picture, consisting of "intellectual property". I imagine if anything is outside from the domain of what I know as property. Starting with my body, feeling, emotion, ego, ambition, home, means of conveyance, food, water, land, plant, domesticated animals, etc. The domain of property is oceanic, never ending journey. This picture signifies the horizon of property, which is significantly related to monetary value. One value or set of values I know is a moral question about good or bad, beautiful or ugly. The monetary value is nothing but a belief in abstract number or for a promissory note, which is used as a negotiable instrument. Being a student of law, I have some idea about what is negotiability and what is instrument. Negotiation is the archetype of modernity. There is no ethics of equal value than negotiability in a democracy. Monetary value symbolizes a modern myth, defines our life value in certain quantitative parameter. I wonder what is American Tourister? I often take these questions for granted and answer this question in conventional term. Fine! American Tourister is just a brand name. What is brand, then? And what is the relationship of brand with name? Another trivial question! But triviality lies in my laziness to accept the conventionality. Truly a reflected answer is my answer. Even if, it doesn't symbolize any profound meaning. Brand, for me, is nothing but a property having "sign value". And name is a symbol, which restricts the experience into a circumscribed domain of memory. 


I remember Marx's distinction of use value and exchange value. Everything exchangeable product has all these property values. Barter system, a mode of production, was dominant in pre-modern society, whereas need based economy was prevalent. I have seen in my village, when neighbor used to exchange groceries, fruits, sweets, etc. Money was simply out of the transaction. In tribal societies, the functional aspect of economy was based on reciprocity and re-distribution (Karl Polanayi, The Great Transformation). The old testament also prescribed about an economy based on need whereas each one works according to his capacity and gets the reward as per need. Marx visualized his economic philosophy from Judeo-Christian religious traditions, as suggested by Erich Fromm in his Magnum opus, "To have or to be?".


The concept of money allowed a system of market for exchange in monetary language. As per Georg Simmel, people created value by manufacturing objects and they separated themselves from those objects. Our whole psyche of money is to reduce that gap between subject and value (Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money). He believes, like any other economist does, that value is created through scarcity. The whole foundation of exchange is scarcity and its fulfillment. The chain of demand and supply is market. It is not a place but a function, a process, or an ideology which is central to our life and the associated negotiation. 


Another addition to the jurisprudence of value is "sign value", conceptualized by Jean Baudrillard. Sign value is all about value as per "prestige". Every human being in modern society has a sign value. People love to preserve their reputation, honour, or prestige because it has value. Brand value like American Tourister is just an example of "sign value", which is associated to the consumerist ecology of our age.



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