"In general, every country has the language it deserves"
About this Quote
Borges’s line lands like a polite insult: nations don’t merely speak a language, they earn it. The sting is in that verb “deserves,” a word that smuggles in moral judgment while pretending to be neutral sociology. It turns grammar into fate, as if vocabulary were the report card of a collective conscience. Coming from Borges, that’s not nationalist chest-thumping; it’s a labyrinthine provocation. He loved the way languages create worlds, and he distrusted the idea that any world is innocent.
The intent is double-edged. On one side, it rebukes cultural complacency: if your public life is coarse, bureaucratic, euphemistic, or violent, your language will carry those scars. On the other, it punctures romantic myths of “pure” national tongues. Spanish in Argentina, for Borges, was already a contested artifact: imported, remixed, sharpened by immigration, class conflict, and political volatility. “In general” is doing quiet work here, too - a hedge that mimics the voice of common sense while giving him room to evade literal proof. He’s offering a maxim, not a statistic.
The subtext takes aim at power. Regimes don’t just censor; they deform speech until citizens can’t name what’s happening. Likewise, democracies can drown meaning in slogans. A country “deserves” that linguistic ecosystem because it tolerates it, rewards it, repeats it. Borges, the poet-librarian of infinite texts, is warning that language isn’t a decorative national costume. It’s the operating system of politics and memory - and the bill always comes due.
The intent is double-edged. On one side, it rebukes cultural complacency: if your public life is coarse, bureaucratic, euphemistic, or violent, your language will carry those scars. On the other, it punctures romantic myths of “pure” national tongues. Spanish in Argentina, for Borges, was already a contested artifact: imported, remixed, sharpened by immigration, class conflict, and political volatility. “In general” is doing quiet work here, too - a hedge that mimics the voice of common sense while giving him room to evade literal proof. He’s offering a maxim, not a statistic.
The subtext takes aim at power. Regimes don’t just censor; they deform speech until citizens can’t name what’s happening. Likewise, democracies can drown meaning in slogans. A country “deserves” that linguistic ecosystem because it tolerates it, rewards it, repeats it. Borges, the poet-librarian of infinite texts, is warning that language isn’t a decorative national costume. It’s the operating system of politics and memory - and the bill always comes due.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|
More Quotes by Jorge
Add to List
