Symbols are value patterns we’ve connected across our perceptions. They don’t exist in reality, but feel more real than what the symbol references.
When we process facts, we use symbols to track patterns that create the stories we eventually encode into our memories.
Symbols are inherently emotional, and they resonate much more loudly in our minds than perceptions or language alone.
We send and store ideas with symbols. The more elaborate and complicated the idea, the more symbols we need.
We don’t have enough words to 100% describe what we wish to convey, so we try our best to grab the best possible arrangement of symbols. We then trust the other person or our future self will understand by filling in the parts we didn’t say. Naturally, with deeply sophisticated things like physics and engines, technical writers don’t trust much to others’ understanding.
Because of its emotional nature, a symbol represents many elements a person will associate with an object. Some of the most commonplace symbols in society include language, logos, and many design concepts.
People frequently associate a symbol with a social group. The symbols themselves reproduce very similar patterns across people, and the social conflict typically comes through the feelings associated toward that group.
Skill in communication allows us to use fewer symbols to say the same things. Expert writers can say more in three sentences than an awful writer can in ten pages.
Power
Symbols are powerful. As an example, here’s a quote from The Matrix movie:
Do you want to know what IT is? The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
The visuals around the quote are merely two moderately attractive guys in lots of leather in a poorly lit room. However, pondering the words or hearing it in the movie creates a profound thoughtful consideration. You visualize your routine and the implications of that statement, using details (work, church, taxes). If we analyze further, the quote draws us into the perpetual uncertainty we live with and a possible answer to that vagueness.
We extrapolate an idea automatically from that quote because our stories (and, thus, our memories) are using constant symbols. Parsing further, certain language elements like sentence pacing and how nouns connect with each other can add even more symbolism.
Types
We generally create symbols all around us, but have a few types that we heavily emphasize.
We associate heavily to human-like characteristics. This includes giving more human-like qualities to animals (especially pets) and inanimate objects (like plants) than reality. To that end, it makes intuitive sense when expert creators set those qualities to animation.
But, even further, we’re attaching human-like qualities that probably shouldn’t happen. We’ll give our deities human-like qualities, even though whatever exists beyond us definitely can’t be precisely human. We’ll also assume the inhumane nature of evil people deserves more grace, merely on the premise of the person having something in them that’s familiar.
Beyond that, we tend to attach value to specific parts of the body, especially the face. Often, a covered face is a “dehumanizing” thing, and groups can inspire organizational evil by having all the members wear a matching and facially obscuring clothing item.
We associate tasks to visual images of human-like depictions. The head associates to authority or control. The hands symbolize action or doing. The waist symbolizes fertility or sex. The feet imply traveling. We can layer on the imagery to adapt to the situation (e.g., a gloved hand represents unfeeling action).
Most language involving gestures are reproducing those associations. In the case of lewd or vulgar gestures, they’re frequently reproducing the action itself.
Reconstruction
Symbols rebuild themselves rapidly in our mind when we recall them. A clear depiction of the instant rebuild comes through a popular story of six words: For sale – baby shoes, never worn. While it generally evokes a feeling of sadness, more events happen when we take it apart:
First, we hear the story to get 3 major data points:
- For sale –
- baby shoes,
- never worn.
Then, we attach all the connections built into our memories from before we heard those ideas:
- “For sale -” is referring to an advertisement, likely a classified or personal ad.
- Baby shoes are used for one purpose: newborn babies.
- Something that was never worn is obviously new, which reflects on the “for sale” part.
We then ask questions about the entire thing, answering some of them along the way:
- Why is it for sale? Well, clearly because someone doesn’t need it.
- Why don’t these shoes have a price? Is it because they’re getting sold for another reason?
- Why would someone take the time to make this ad?
Naturally, we conclude a truth of the story. That truth then alludes to other things:
- A baby must have died. Infant mortality is tragic.
- Why do innocent babies have to die?
- Death is inevitable, but we disregard it. Why is that?
- If someone is selling baby shoes, they’re probably trying to pay for the funeral.
Generally, though, our conscious minds don’t take it that far. Instead, we let the subconscious do the heavy lifting and take our interpretation of others’ media for granted.
The volatility of our symbolic associations shows itself when we rebuild the same story and adapt one word:
- “For sale – baby shoes, well-worn.”
- “For sale – running shoes, never worn.”
Risks
We create symbols from literally everything, so we have no other way to understand the world. It’s usually reliable, but people who desire power will distort how something looks for their purposes.
Beyond religious iconography, everyone creates symbolic associations and patterns somewhere. These represent through emotional associations to unspoken subconscious things, and trigger at weird and unpredictable times.
Most efforts to distort appearances are designed to rebuild the symbols to fit a different story, and it usually comes through a few possible methods:
- Portray untrue ideas as if they were true.
- Portray true ideas as if they were untrue.
- Rearrange the symbols to portray a different feeling behind them.
Either way, a firm understanding of reality will deter most false stories. But, to the people who want to believe those stories, it’ll always seem perfectly reasonable.
Application
Symbols resonate with feelings, and our eyes determine a lot of our perception, which is why a picture says a thousand words.
Using symbols to gain power doesn’t have any moral connection, but it becomes evil when it’s evoking enough feelings to make people change their decision they otherwise would have made.
Watch for patterns you may trigger in a culture that’s not your own. For example, the implication of breaking rules is taboo for lawyers, but honoring rules is taboo for most lower-income urban dwellers.
Don’t fall for symbolic association enough that your ability to perceive the facts of anything becomes clouded.
Don’t waste too much time trying to influence others’ ideas without approaching the symbols. Typically, you’ll need symbols of your own to make a difference.