Is \u2018superficial symbolism\u2019 possible?<\/strong><\/p>\n Not literally since symbolism itself is about depth. [see: \u201cSymbolism: How-To<\/a>\u201d] But one can feign depth, or one can think to reach it by just putting stuff together that looks like the real thing. This pseudo-symbolism doesn’t deeply nourish the soul. It rather acts as a placebo. Something happens by expectation, not by symbolism.<\/p>\n Many people are easily fooled, and others are ready to bamboozle them. Paradoxically, the difficulty of the domain makes it harder to get, therefore harder to discern real from false, therefore easier to mingle it with foolishness.<\/p>\n To make it even more challenging, the same person can be attracted by deep and superficial symbolism without feeling the difference.<\/p>\n What makes \u2018depth of symbolism\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n [see: \u201cWhat is \u2018Depth\u2019?<\/a>]<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same question as: \u201cWhat is good (versus bad) art? Is it not utterly relative and subjective?\u201d Yet for very long, and despite sycophants, epigones, and superficial followers, people have felt in-depth what is good art without being able to straightforwardly tell why.<\/p>\n Any producer of \u2018something deep\u2019 may feel what it\u2019s about and what it takes \u2015 sometimes very much. People may feel the depth of true symbolism as more important than anything else. It shouldn\u2019t be carelessly thrown in or out of the window.<\/p>\n Then why do people want to be fooled?<\/strong><\/p>\n People may like superficial symbolism because it combines:<\/p>\n This wanting to be fooled is like wanting to be a magician but being afraid\/anxious of real magic. Such anxiety may have the depth of Eigenangst<\/a>, or it may be more mundane, just being afraid of being caught as an imposter.<\/p>\n The easiness is a crucial attractor in this.<\/strong><\/p>\n One can see this in communications such as \u2018this ancient wisdom, now made available to you.\u2019 Rest assured, depth may be simple, but it\u2019s never \u2018easy.\u2019<\/p>\n Yet without depth, superficiality doesn\u2019t satisfy. It doesn\u2019t quench the thirst of the soul. It\u2019s not durable and leads to dependency. One then desperately needs the superficial look-alike to at least have something. Will much of that superficial something be enough to quench the thirst? Herein lies a mistake about the real nature of the thirst. Plain water will never do.<\/p>\n Moreover, it\u2019s dangerous in many ways.<\/p>\n Superficial symbolism is part of a swamp<\/strong><\/p>\n In this swamp, many currents come and go like fads with promises unkept, sys, unkeepable.<\/p>\n Next to this, an ivory tower of conceptual rationality looks at the swamp with disdain. [see: \u201cThe Tower and the Swamp<\/a>\u201d] Meanwhile, it\u2019s difficult for the tower to appreciate true symbolism, which lies at the other side of the tower, in a nice piece of nature.<\/p>\n In the future, part of the tower will vanish into the swamp. Hopefully, the swamp will then disappear. The remaining landscape can be one of unity of tower and beautiful nature in all its symbolic splendor.<\/p>\n Symbolism and rationality belong together.<\/strong><\/p>\n When this gets realized, the future is promising.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n