This may be the problem: In wealthy neighborhoods, the
buildings are clean, the flowerbeds are blooming, the sidewalks wide and well
maintained. In poor neighborhoods there are none of these simple signs. But
signs of what? If they effect of flowers is to make us happier, we must also
note that that effect has been commandeered by wealth via its mere sign value,
not its animal value. So there are two things going on. We have what is good.
We have what you don’t. We’re doing what’s good for us as animals. We’re
pounding our chests and thumbing our noses at you.
Foucault likes to turn our attention to the latter. For the
school of thought he represents, the other is nonexistent or not important
enough to notice. And indeed for the person walking down the street in the wealthy
neighborhood, feeling good, there’s no way to separate the “this is beautiful”
from the “these people are rich” response to the environment.
But both still must exist. Not every sign is “arbitrary.”
Not every sign can be swapped for every meaning.
