Reading Roland Barthes ‘Mythologies’ is fun to do. It brings you to look at the world through the eyes of the ‘mythologist’. Barthes is interested in finding the myths that are hidden in messages. As a structuralist he is looking for the patterns of meaning hidden in stories and in day-to-day pictures. He defines the myth as the meaning that is on a higher level. The original code is replaced by a code of higher order: the code of the story that is told indirectly and therefore so much more powerful than the official stories that scream out loud their meaning.
I found an interesting one in my daily of last Saturday (NRC). It was hidden in a diagram above an article on the economic developments. The scheme depicts the level of the Dow Jones index from the late seventies up to today. I have copied it above. This blog is not at all about the way the Dow Jones developped during the last 30 years. That is the literal meaning of the diagram. With Barthes I am interested in the meaning behind that. We see that the illustrator chose to depict the graph as a crack in the wall. A crack is a strong signal of decline. A sign on the wall so to say, signifiing that the house has not been taken care of well.
Very meaningful is the starting point of this crack in the early 80-ies, at the beginning of the recovery of the economy. As long as the Dow Jones Index is stable (but low), there is no crack. There are no devolopments. Things are therefor safe. Like a blissful poverty. You have got little, but you know what you have.
As soon as the curve starts to bend upward, the crack develops. The unspoken message here seems to be that at the root of economic prosperity there are already the seeds of decline. At the time it may have looked quite well to see the Dow Jones rise. But at hindsight we detect the beginning of the problems. This also signifies the feeling that this crisis is of a different level then the crisis between ‘ 79 and 2002. This is a fundamental one, that started in the early 80-ies, a sort of a ‘system problem’.
This represents quite a powerful theme we often see in stories about economics. I remember very well the early 2000, when the most cited economics stated that now the times had shifted towards a stable growth for ever and ever. Although the more cunning economists of course never believed this story, the feeling was very optimistic overall. Interviewing consumers however showed a strong hidden fear. Consumers were getting a little anxious because they had in mind the very strong the story of decline after prosperity. Since decline had to come, they wondered: when? Also they felt that prosperity brought us too much problems, like an egoïsm and materialistic, individualistic view on the world. Another strong theme: as prosperity growth, so do the vices associated with it (read Simon Schama’s wonderful study about the outrageous increase of wealth in 17th century Amsterdam, ‘The Embarrassment of Riches’)
The crack is growing to gigantic proportions a few years ago (2005), signifying the final fall of the economy started before we were actually aware of it . This is very much in resonance with our idea of a big fall: as in the cartoon when the character is still proceeding as he thinks he is still on the ground. But the spectator knows better. The character is already in the big void. As soon as he looks down and becomes aware of this, he falls down. And hard (being a comic, surviving the fall). The big fall of our economy is therefore placed in a time before the clash in september last year, allowing the theme of idle sense of stability to emerge.
Of course we see the opposite theme as a very strong theme now: after the healthy decline a new era will follow.