The Optics of Symbology

Following up on last week's post about the failings of "simple" solutions, this week's topic is symbology (or "sssym-bol-ism"-- see clip below) and how symbolic actions offer "simple" solutions.

Many of the headlines in the news this week have a personal irritation because they affect some people who are very close to me--in a very human, personal way that could not be more distant from how the debate is being cast in the media.

I am talking, of course, about the government shutdown. More specifically, I am talking about the fact it solves nothing and changes nothing.

For those who think that the shutdown will get rid of a program that they don't like, they are wrong. The shutdown does not directly affect the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has been debated for several years, going through the forms of representative democracy (Congress, Senate and Presidential Signature). Then, when challenged, upheld in the Supreme Court.

Thanks to aatp.org for this image

I am not writing about whether or not the ACA or "Obamacare" is good or bad for the nation.

It is a futile gesture. It only provides a symbol. Sure, throwing the boxes of tea into Boston Harbor was a symbolic gesture, but this shutdown is like holding the priest hostage after the wedding is completed and everyone is at the reception.



The Affordable Care Act has been held up as a symbol of President Obama and his democratic party values. The optics of opposing the ACA are very important to some congresspersons.

It has a semiotic value that has nothing to do with the actual wheels and gears that make it work as the law of the land. It is a symbol of government oppression. A symbol of the resentment of a person who believes that their hard work is supporting the indolent takers, the dregs of our society.

And there is a face given to these takers: the poor, those with limited education opportunities, those who have fallen on hard times. They are now a symbol of the "moocher class."

It doesn't really matter if these things are true or provable (or not intended to be factual statements).

The rhetoric of the message is much stronger than facts. 

Actions have become more important for their symbolic value, the semiotic meaning that has been assigned to them, than the actual pragmatic consequences of said actions. The consequences that permeate from any action fade from the public consciousness, dwarfed and obscured by a monumental mythos that has become material monolith.

In other words, the semiotic nature of these actions--the symbology-- means that my sister and children, my niece and nephew, have very little with which to support themselves in one of the most expensive cities in America. As a contractor to the government, my sister will not even be eligible for back pay if approved by Congress.

That is your symbolism right there. A eight year-old and a six-year old whose mother has to make plans for how to feed them in case this shutdown drags on.

Good luck with the symbolic action, I am sure the optics of the real consequences are great.