Summary of text [comment] page 82

[Why do the elites destroy themselves from their own iniquity in the third and fourth generations?

I now add a complementary insight.

Language is a system of differences.

How do these differences form?

Consider the metaphor of a zipper. A symbolic order initially forms on the basis of one opposition. This opposition serves as a focus, so that other oppositions fall into line.

Once the symbolic order zips, people assume that what they are saying is referential (rather than socially constructed). The symbolic order becomes the basis of practical knowledge. People sensibly build society on the basis of the meanings, presences and messages of the symbolic order.]