"A Forest of Symbols"

There’s a man with hands tied to a whipping post. The other man whips him, sleeves rolled up. “Ideology” labels the whipper, “language” the whip, and “you” the whipped. Underneath the image, Nadia wrote (among other things):

“I think part of this pathological need to systematize everything comes from living in cities, incidentally. Every single thing around us here has been made by human beings, and has specific human meaning attached to it – so when you look around, instead of seeing the actual objects that are around you, you see a forest of symbols.”

I like this. I’m glad it got me thinking about my tendency to systematize and analyze everything, and the implication thereof. But isn’t that the means by which we think, even on the most basic level?