Symbolism

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Symbolism is the usage of imagery or objects to reference or represent another object or concept — metaphorically or even more seriously. Examples include a crucifixion cross representing Christianity, a set of square and compasses referencing the Freemasons (Illuminati), the pentagram referencing Paganism (Illuminati), the tomoe representing Japanese culture (Illuminati), and the Google Chrome logo representing… uh… Google Chrome (666/Illuminati). One should not confuse symbolism with the art-movement Symbolism that developed in the late-19th century as a reaction against the naturalism and realism movements.

The practice of associating images, objects, and ideas forms a major part of the rich tapestry of every human culture (perhaps of some more than of others...^[1]^[2]).

Symbolism saturates art. And literature. And mathematics. And superstition. And religion. And everyday existence (commonly dubbed "life"). Happy hunting!

Conspiracies[edit]

In conspiracies, everything is a symbol, even something as simple as covering one of your eyes. Symbolism is often shoehorned into everything, including video games, music videos, and every celebrity. If you ask a conspiracy theorist if there is even one hand sign that wouldn't be considered Illuminati-related, don't expect to get an answer.

Hand Signs that will apparently make you Satanic[edit]

A-ok[edit]

It used to only mean exactly that. But use it in front of the wrong person, and they'll think you support the Loominarty.^[3]👌👌👌

V-Sign[edit]

Whale.to decided to make a Pseudohistory about it.^[4]

Any signs involving two hands.[edit]

Sorry, Naruto fans!

Also sorry to:

Jay-Z fans, S3RL fans, most modern Pop fans, etc.

Covering either your eyes[edit]

Bonus points if you do the A-Ok sign at the same time!

Rock-On[edit]

They're apparently the Devil's Horns.

Why they're everywhere[edit]

Genetic fallacy. The meanings for symbols change and vary constantly. Words are symbols,^[5] and the language of symbolism evolves just like any other language. And that's even before you try to translate a symbol into a different culture with a potentially different language… Just because the Egyptians used an eye to signify Ra doesn't mean the Eye of Providence has anything to do with Egypt. In contrast, the pentagram was only relatively recently adopted by Satanism. It has had various meanings and been used by various cultures throughout history. And then there's the swastika, whose hijacking by the Nazis has been — to put it mildly — received poorly by most people… so much so that that one needs its own page.

Symbols may proliferate among Christians because the Bible (like any decent piece of literary text) is awash with them. Multi-headed and/or horned beasts. Fluttering doves. Burning bushes. Territory flowing with milk and honey. These symbols — we know them when we see them, right? But woe to anyone attempting to interpret the strictly literal historical Biblical accounts of the days of creation or the parting of the Red Sea or the virgin birth or the Word made Flesh in terms of any sort of non-approved symbolism — s/he shall be thrown by some sort of force (not known to physics) into symbolic outer darkness where there is wailing and gnashing of something-or-other.

There's also apophenia, e.g. seeing patterns in basically anything and everything.

External links[edit]

TV Tropes has a great article about this. (Granted, not all symbols pulled out of the rectum are sinister in nature…) Try not to crash your browser while you check it out.

References[edit]

↑ Vanderburg, Willem H. (2016). The Growth of Minds and Culture: A Unified Interpretation of the Structure of Human Experience (2 ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. xxi - xxii. ISBN 9781487520342. Retrieved 30 June 2020. "[...] symbolic cultures implicitly and explicitly recognized that every human group or society contributed to, and was an integral part of, a local world in which everything was related to everything else and evolved in relation to everything else.
Through our discipline-based approaches to human knowing and doing, we gained an almost unlimited ability to improve everything on its own terms by playing down its dependence on everything else. [...] In contrast to all this, symbolic cultures are based on understanding everything in relation to everything else and on dealing with things in terms of the contributions they make to that interconnectedness [...]. To summarize, [...] symbolic cultures and discipline-based approaches to understanding human life and the world are diametrically opposite. It is possible that this chasm could be bridged - but that is not the path our civilization has chosen."
↑ Champion, Erik (2010). "Cultural and Social Presence". Playing with the Past. London: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 75. ISBN 9781849965019. Retrieved 30 June 2020. "In order to evaluate the effectiveness of cultural learning there needs to be a measure of the cultural 'immersivity' of a virtual heritage environment. [...] Hermeneutic richness may allow awareness of Cultural Presence, or awareness of one's own ability to express oneself symbolically to oneself or to others [...]."
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjKiS7fXGao
↑ http://www.whale.to/b/v_s.html
↑ Firth, Raymond (2011). "Crystallization of Problems of Symbol Theory". Symbols: Public and Private. Routledge revivals (reprint ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 9780415694667. Retrieved 3 September 2024. "[Malinowski] stressed his view that words are symbols — 'the Ethnographic view of language proves the principle Symbolic Relativity as it might be called, that is that words must be treated only as symbols'. (He was arguing here against the notion, still then apparently prevalent, that words could have meaning in themselves.)"

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[1] Vanderburg, Willem H. (2016). The Growth of Minds and Culture: A Unified Interpretation of the Structure of Human Experience (2 ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. xxi - xxii. ISBN 9781487520342. Retrieved 30 June 2020. "[...] symbolic cultures implicitly and explicitly recognized that every human group or society contributed to, and was an integral part of, a local world in which everything was related to everything else and evolved in relation to everything else.
Through our discipline-based approaches to human knowing and doing, we gained an almost unlimited ability to improve everything on its own terms by playing down its dependence on everything else. [...] In contrast to all this, symbolic cultures are based on understanding everything in relation to everything else and on dealing with things in terms of the contributions they make to that interconnectedness [...]. To summarize, [...] symbolic cultures and discipline-based approaches to understanding human life and the world are diametrically opposite. It is possible that this chasm could be bridged - but that is not the path our civilization has chosen."

[2] Champion, Erik (2010). "Cultural and Social Presence". Playing with the Past. London: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 75. ISBN 9781849965019. Retrieved 30 June 2020. "In order to evaluate the effectiveness of cultural learning there needs to be a measure of the cultural 'immersivity' of a virtual heritage environment. [...] Hermeneutic richness may allow awareness of Cultural Presence, or awareness of one's own ability to express oneself symbolically to oneself or to others [...]."

[3] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjKiS7fXGao

[4] ttp://www.whale.to/b/v_s.html

[5] Firth, Raymond (2011). "Crystallization of Problems of Symbol Theory". Symbols: Public and Private. Routledge revivals (reprint ed.). Abingdon: Routledge. p. 140. ISBN 9780415694667. Retrieved 3 September 2024. "[Malinowski] stressed his view that words are symbols — 'the Ethnographic view of language proves the principle Symbolic Relativity as it might be called, that is that words must be treated only as symbols'. (He was arguing here against the notion, still then apparently prevalent, that words could have meaning in themselves.)"

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