re: #59 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Somebody posted here about those people who fail to understand what a concept is about, be it patriotism, religion, masculinity, etc. They are the ones who cling the most to the arbitrary and subjective symbols and ritual displays we have come to associate to these concepts: flags, crucifixes, guns, etc., without considering where those associations arose and why.

And the debate over Sweden about the pronoun and/or the symbol we use to refer to an abstract concept like God really highlights that.

It’s the dichotomy between abstract thinkers and concrete thinkers. A fair number of adults never made the transition from concrete to abstract when they were teenagers. So, honoring an object takes precedence over honoring what the object represents. See also, reification.