"We often dismiss controversies or concerns by waving our hands and saying something like, “Oh, that’s merely symbolic,” as if the meaning we give to symbols is somehow irrelevant compared with more tangible things. But symbolism — the way we reduce broad concerns, agendas, and visions to images or rituals — has played a defining role in human life since there have been humans. Try burning a flag or a cross in front of the wrong audience and then tell me symbolism is nothing."
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Original Language: English
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Jonah Goldberg, "The Border Wall Is a Symbol of Our Symbolic Politics" (28 December 2018), National Review
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Flag
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