Thank you for expressing this nuanced idea so well. It ties in with deBord's "Society of the Spectacle" [0], a theory that societies evolve from Being, to Havi

Thank you for expressing this nuanced idea so well. It ties in with deBord's "Society of the Spectacle" [0], a theory that societies evolve from Being, to Having, and ultimately devolve into merely the Appearance of Having. Your point about the symbols being tools for communication (as opposed to the ineffable ideas being communicated) is also echoed in Lockhart's Lament [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle [1] https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf https://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/LockhartsLament.... Edited to add that this was extra thought-provoking: > "It may even lie in between us, rather than in us."