Language’s inherent universality contradicts its use in serving the status quo

Evidence

Language intends, quite independently of the psychological intentions of the speaker, the universality that has been ascribed to reason alone. Interpreting this universality necessarily leads to the idea of a correct society. When it serves the status quo, language must therefore find that it consistently contradicts itself, and this is evident from individual linguistic structures themselves. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 532

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Adorno’s move from linguistic universality to the idea of a correct society is a dense philosophical hinge that resists one-sentence summary.
• BMF: The self-contradiction of a language that must intend universality while serving domination is a device George Orwell built an entire political system around in 1984, though that novel is not on the reader’s list.