Signs

“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as as his partner.’  So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.”

Genesis 2:18-20

About a week and a half ago, I was walking from the parking lot where I park my car and began walking to my office.  The walk measures approximately a block and half and requires utilizing three separate crosswalks, two of which have pedestrian lights.  The office poses a barrier to a main thoroughfare through the town, and the developers diverted the roads around the building in a large square.  As a result, many cars speed around that square to get to the highway which lies just beyond the square. 

I am very conscientious about crossing the street, especially in light of the fact driver’s of vehicle around the square very rarely consider that there may be other cars coming the opposite direction or pedestrians crossing the street.  However, the lights are clear and clearly delineate when pedestrians should cross the street.  Everyone knows that pedestrians have priority over turning vehicles.

Yet, when I attempted to cross the street at the first crosswalk, waiting for the proper signal, the white walking man, a speeding truck nearly ran me over.  This is not unusual, and I merely accepted the idiocy of the driver as one not paying attention to the rules of the road or the signal lights.  What did surprise me was the fact that he actively yelled from his vehicle how I was in the wrong for crossing at that moment. 

Surely, the discourteous driver would have thought twice before chastising me from his truck had he known that I had been given the signal to cross.  However, it was clear that he did not observe the traffic lights and had only one thought that he in fact had the right of way.  He simply ignored the traffic sign. 

My wife had once made the observation, while we were living in Houston, Texas, that the roadways were littered with a multitude of signs.  The typically driver is inundated with traffic signs, a signs advertising products, or announcing events.  “It makes a person go crazy with all the words coming at you.” 

But this is true about anywhere you go.  There are signs that litter any roadway no matter where you go.  Even if you leave your car, there are signs inside businesses, sale signs, or exit signs, or bathroom signs.  Even in the home, there are signs every where.  On the refrigerator, there is grocery list or the note from a family member.  There are signs on the kitchen appliances or other electronics. They are everywhere constantly pounding us with meaning.

I cannot help but think that the proliferation of signs throughout our country has a deleterious effect on us.  I suspect that like with any stimuli, the more exposed we are to it, the more sensitive we are to its effect on us, that the more we are exposed to the stimuli, the more desensitized we become to it.  We take for granted the stimuli is there, our minds filter it out. 

Just think, no one thinks that there home, where they live, has a distinct smell.  But enter into another’s house, and one suddenly senses odors which become prominent and immediate.  Or one gets acquainted with the various noises that your home makes, the turning on of the air conditioning unit, the humming of the refrigerator.  Even the occasional train running through town becomes white noise, present but unperceived.  But enter another’s home, every creak of the board is heard, the brush of the wind or tree limb across the window pane is detected.  Unfamiliarity heightens our senses, and familiarity dulls them.

The inundation of signage has dulled us to their message such that we no longer pay attention to their meaning.  They essentially have become meaningless.  Rather than relying on their meanings, we come to make the rules regarding the situation we find ourselves in.  I imagine that the driver who nearly ran me over had believed that he was in the right, and that his belief was based on his prior experiences, his ability to drive his car and turn without having to worry about a slow pedestrian crossing the street. 

It is also true that when putting together furniture or setting up an electronic device, most people set aside the written instructions and rely instead of their prior experiences.  The signs, the words, no longer matter.

The problem is that often times that such prior experiences may guide us to a erroneous result.  Daniel Kahnman discusses this in his book, Thinking Fast and Slow, wherein he describes our brains being composed of two parts, System 1 and System 2.  He describes our brains as lazy which seek out easy answers to issues which can often lead us to the wrong result, even with the miniscule amount of thought, and a little bit of work, we would arrive at the right answer. 

Working backwards, it is easy to see that perhaps that while we often ignore the signs around us, we often feel compelled to create signs where none are necessary.    Take for example, the sign that shows that there is a stop sign up ahead, particularly when the stop can be visibly seen.

Mankind has spent lifetimes developing a language, a set of symbols and signs, to give meaning to complex ideas.  The word “love” has so many meanings, both positive and negative, pure and salacious, that the word has essentially lost all meaning.  Or the word “Kleenix,” not an actual thing but a brand name of a thing, a facial tissue.  But when is the last time you heard someone ask for a facial tissue?

The point is that symbols and signs are merely a representation of something, not the thing, and that perhaps we place too much reliance on the symbol and the sign, and not that the thing itself.  The point is that people ignore the symbols and signs, but do not revert back to understanding the thing itself.  Rather, people seemingly create all new reality in which they have already determined the meaning.