Code-X (5)

By: Joshua Glenn
May 9, 2014

Call this market/cultural category code: To the Victor Belong the Spoils. Call the category: Premium-ness.

Definition: To the Victor Belong the Spoils coding is about power. You’ve earned the best, and nobody can take it away from you. Brand a means to radiate authority — render your position at the top of the heap unquestionable.

Notes on this code: Authoritative, Powerful (“100% wool. Because the sheep have always done your bidding.”) Use of powerful figures like Gorbachev. Men half-reclining like Roman emperors; alluring women shown wearing jewels presumably given them by their wealthy lovers.

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SERIES INTRODUCTION | ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES

MORE SEMIOSIS at HILOBROW: Towards a Cultural Codex | CODE-X series | DOUBLE EXPOSURE Series | CECI EST UNE PIPE series | Star Wars Semiotics | Icon Game | Meet the Semionauts | Show Me the Molecule | Science Fantasy | Inscribed Upon the Body | The Abductive Method | Enter the Samurai | Semionauts at Work | Roland Barthes | Gilles Deleuze | Félix Guattari | Jacques Lacan | Mikhail Bakhtin | Umberto Eco

Categories

Codebreaking, Semiotics

Tags

codex, hilobrow-josh, Semionaut, semiosis, semiotics

See All Posts by Joshua Glenn

Josh Glenn, HILOBROW's editor, is a principal of the commercial semiotics agency Semiovox. He is co-author and/or co-editor of several books, including The Idler's Glossary, Significant Objects, and the bestselling family activities guide UNBORED. In the ’00s, Josh was a columnist and blogger for the Boston Globe's IDEAS section; in the ’90s, he published the zine/journal Hermenaut. He lives in Boston.