Come i pesci nell’acqua: gli esseri umani e il linguaggio

Abstract

This essay explores the fundamental and often invisible relationship between human beings and language, comparing it to water for fish: an element so ubiquitous that it becomes imperceptible. Beginning with a reflection on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the author analyzes language not as a mere tool available to humans, but as a power that establishes reality and constitutes the subject itself. Drawing on philosophers such as Foucault, Heidegger, and Lacan, the text argues that language “kills the thing” in order to name it, introducing an unbridgeable distance between us and the world. The analysis continues by examining the performative nature of words (Austin, Wittgenstein) and the problem of truth, demonstrating how truth is produced by the act of enunciation rather than by an external reference. To overcome the intrinsic “weakness” of language, human communities have historically resorted to external “anchoring points,” such as oaths or authority figures. Finally, the essay addresses the metaphor of language as a “virus” and a “poison,” analyzing how toxic languages – from the language of the Third Reich studied by Klemperer to that of modern online communities like “Incels”—can shape perception, generate exclusion, and legitimize violence, trapping subjects in a thoughtless “duckspeak.”