From: oldernow@dev.null   
      
   It's tough. By definition, individuals are separate from   
   all else - especially with respect to their ongoing field   
   of conceptuality - i.e. mind - which is essentially a   
   dream taken/believed to be real.   
      
   So right off that bat, mutual understanding is crippled   
   by needing to be mediated by something somewhat common to   
   disparate conceptuality contexts. That something is spoken   
   and/or written "words", i.e. re-presentations of thoughts.   
      
   I say "crippled", because those words/thoughts are utterly   
   isolated within the aforementioned individual minds,   
   their meaning being defined in the context of supporting   
   words/thoughts present in said individual minds.   
      
   The mediation problem: spoken or written words do *not*   
   carry with them that context!   
      
   Sure, one can attempt to provide as much of that context   
   as possible, but if you think about it, does that really   
   happening?   
      
   Well, how could it? Each word employed to hopefully   
   deliver the context goods suffers the same inadequacy! Each   
   means something specific only in its complete supporting   
   conceptuality context. Once converted, transmitted, and   
   received, each and every word winds up with the meaning   
   relative to the receiving context; the transmitting   
   context is essentially filtered out, replaced by the   
   receiving context.   
      
   Get it? (haha! (laughing at how I'm asking you to   
   understand the meaning of these words as though in my   
   conceptuality context, when as I just got done saying,   
   you'll never have more than your conceptual context   
   no matter how many agents of mediation - aka words - I   
   transmit. (In fact, the more words I transmit, the greater   
   the chance of transmitting a word whose meaning difference   
   between the transmitter's conceptuality context and the   
   receiver's conceptual context is sufficiently different to   
   completely derail any chance of understanding the little   
   bit of it I wanted you to understand in my conceptuality   
   context, i.e. "from my point of view")))   
      
   But as if that's not challenging enough, there are times   
   when people use a word in a way obviously contrary to   
   consensually agreed to definitions (keeping in mind that   
   nobody understands even those identically, but we do the   
   best we can).   
      
   I came across a good example of that in a gemini post   
   entitled "anarchy - what I mean when I say it" (one point   
   of clarification: that's what the link text said, but   
   the title within the actual post left out the 'anarchy -   
   " part):   
      
   gemini://gemini.thebackupbox.net/~epoch/blog/anarchy   
      
   =================================================   
   | # what I mean when I say it                   |   
   |                                               |   
   | or maybe I should start with what don't mean? |   
   |                                               |   
   | I don't mean chaos.                           |   
   | I don't mean violence.                        |   
   | I don't mean blowing shit up.                 |   
   | I do mean no government though.               |   
   |                                               |   
   | I absolutely mean loving one another.         |   
   |                                               |   
   | I don't know if this is possible.             |   
   |                                               |   
   | I hope it is possible.                        |   
   |                                               |   
   | I'm trying.                                   |   
   =================================================   
      
   I mean, c'mon... it's hard enough (per the above) to   
   understand each other without using a word in what's   
   *obviously* almost utterly contrary to its consensually   
   agreed to definition! Doing such is akin to pouring gas   
   on a fire, and how the house became a smouldering mass   
   of uselessness....   
      
   --   
   oldernow   
   xyz001 at nym.hush.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)