Beyond Perception

We should try to live a life worthy of our vocation. Each trade or profession has one or a few associations and institutions giving unity and solidarity to them. They protect their interests and add to their knowledge. They are a forum for reconciliation and settling differences. Putting ourselves in order is an urgent necessity for the good of all concerned. Arguments, diversity of service and unorthodox teaching can be threats to unity.

People differ in the stimuli they receive and the meanings they assign to them. The differences that people perceive are as a result of the interpretations they put on things. Two people can experience the same event but have totally different interpretations of it. The meaning may be obvious or it may not. We assign meanings to things based on the schemas to which the stimulus is assigned. We have to try to get our interpretation right. We might even somtimes get it completely wrong.

Meanings are always conveyed through signs. We use our interpretation of signs and symbols to make sense of the world. The degree to which the symbolism is consistent with our previous experience affects the meanings we assign to objects. Marketers use signs to transfer cultural meanings into products. During priming certain properties are more likely to evoke a schema than others. The posters, adverts and commercials of some marketers create a world that can be very superficial, materialistic and secular. It creates so many false ideas and impressions. The semiotic world is often a world of hyperreality. We all get criticised for it.