labyrinth

Sometimes people in a discussion will use a phrase like "we need to get back to the worship and admonition of the lord" and it stops any kind of thought - because for all its surface meaning, it's a meaningless phrase - an empty signifier. It's an empty signifier because a person can put whatever she wants to in it: Worship=high/low/primal/natural/16th century calvinism/19th century revivalism/old time religion; mostly the word lord means not Jesus (god forbid we should do some of the social gospel things he advocated; he just gets us saved) but the good old OT God who wants everyone to shut up and follow orders (just like when Job says, "Thank you sir, may I have another"). What the use of the empty signifier (words like God, Patriotism, The People have spoken, History, etc) does is serve as a rhetorical obstacle: a way of saying, "I'm anxious about becoming unraveled; our conversation threatens my control." And so it serves as a ledge above a chasm.
I want to say, "I understand your anxiety. This is not a chasm though. It is like the deep end of the pool, and with practice you can swim in it. But you must recognize the empty signifier as a flotation device - as long as you hold onto it, you're not really swimming."
Perhaps my tone seems like I'm talking to a child. And certainly the anxiety issuing from people who cling to the empty signifier relates to that. Their tone is one of "because I said so." They are afraid of being treated like children, talked down to by people who know better.