The process by【66】of which human beings arbitrarily make certain things stand for other th

ings may be called the symbolic process.

Everywhere we turn, we see the symbolic process【67】work. There are few things men do or want to do, possess or want to possess, that have not a symbolic value.

Almost all fashionable clothes are【68】(high) symbolic, so【69】food. We s【70】our furniture to serve as visible symbols of our taste, wealth, and social p【71】We often choose our houses on the【72】of a feeling that it "looks well" to have a "good address. " We trade perfectly good cars in for l【73】models not always to get better transportation, but to give evi【74】to the community that we can【75】it.

Such complicated and apparently【76】(use) behavior. leads philosophers to ask over and over again, "why can't human beings live simply and naturally. " Often the complexity of human life makes us look enviously at the relative【77】of such live as dogs and cats. Simply, the fact that symbolic process makes complexity possible is no reason for wanting to【78】to a cat-and-dog existence. A better solution is to understand the symbolic process so【79】instead of being its slaves we become, to some degree at least, its【80】.

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