New Europeans

A Test Site For Everyday Life

Deeply Emotional Value for Money May18 2016, Amsterdam

A Flag Dialogue, part 2: Debt in Everyday Speech

In a previous article I discussed how the recently-raised flags at the New Europeans site aim to start a discussion about the nature of debt, much-needed in the context of the gravely misunderstood Greek Debt Crisis. The aim of that article was to highlight the constantly changing relationship between debtors and creditors throughout history and to expose the deception implicit in many contemporary, debtor/creditor scenarios.

The flags also aim to bring to light another aspect of debt which is not fully understood, which is that it pervades our entire society. Debt is not simply a basic exchange of money but something which enters into every exchange we make. Think of the terms “Please”, “Thank you”, and “You’re welcome”, all phrases which are contained within the flag conversation and all essentially stages in a debt exchange.

Seemingly innocuous terms such as these are the subject of a particularly interesting aside in David Graeber’s book “Debt: THe First Five Thousand Years”. As he relates, ‘The English “please” is short for “if you please,” “if it pleases you to do this” — it is the same in most European languages (French si il vous plait, Spanish por favor). Its literal meaning is “you are under no obligation to do this.” (“Hand me the salt. Not that I am saying that you have to!”).

There is similarly interesting history behind the term “thank you”: ‘In English “thank you” derives from “think,” it originally meant, “I will remember what you did for me”… in other languages (the Portuguese obrigado is a good example) the standard term follows the form of the English “much obliged” — it actually does mean “I am in your debt.” The French merci is even more graphic: it derives from “mercy,” as in begging for mercy; by saying it you are symbolically placing yourself in your benefactor”s power — since a debtor is, after all, a criminal.’

And the final word in the exchange of pleasantries completes the transaction: ‘Saying “you’re welcome,” or “it’s nothing” (French de rien, Spanish de nada) is a way of reassuring the one to whom one has passed the salt that you are not actually inscribing a debit in your imaginary moral account book. So is saying “my pleasure” — you are saying, “No, actually, it’s a credit, not a debit — you did me a favor because in asking me to pass the salt, you gave me the opportunity to do something I found rewarding in itself!” …’

While interesting as a standalone anecdote, these details are important because they remind us of the universality of an issue that is so often related in the very specific terms of a person or, in this case, a country’s obligation to repay a debt, when instead it is a relationship which is very complex, completely pervasive and contains terms that are often completely contingent upon the relative power and assertiveness of each side of the exchange.

With that in mind, we hope the flag conversation will stimulate a little bit more thought about the nature of debt.