Symbolic thought bears a high risk of resulting in mind traps. The reason for this is the following: As an interpreter of symbolic thought, you will enjoy engaging in symbolic thought. This sounds stupid, because it is. Symbolic thought is dangerous, because it is difficult to bring it to an end. I will prove that to you.

I will name one example of symbolic thought. By analyzing this example to death, I will showcase the risk of entrapment. Note that I am not engaging in symbolic thought myself, I am bringing it to an end through use of analysis. Note that symbolic thought is commonly used in poetry. Therefore, non-poetic thought is the best way to get rid of mind traps on an emotional level. But I can’t spare you the analysis, otherwise we are still intellectually stuck in this trap.

There will be a moment when you notice you have been freed from the trap, and at that moment I encourage you to shout out, or at least think of, a highly non-poetic word: „Bingo!"

The example of symbolic thought I am using is a seemingly simple one. It’s four words – the album title of Blonde Redhead’s 2004 release: Misery Is a Butterfly. But that phrase is not simple, is it?

When hearing or reading the title, you become an interpreter of symbolic thought. Many people will perhaps initially say „Oh, that’s pretty!" when hearing the album title. Why? Because butterflies are pretty. But that is too stupid for you and me. You reading this right now, you think deeper than that, don’t you? You want to, and that is the problem. That is the trap. You will most likely think: Misery is a butterfly because misery is pretty.

Mysery may seem like a butterfly because you want to look at it some more - although you could chase it away with one arm. You may find more similarities between butterflies and misery, but let us move on.

You end up capturing the butterfly because it is pretty and you want to keep it in some way. If I tell you that you can capture a butterfly through the use of a net, or through the use of a camera, that is not poetry. Those are just two options. If I remind you that the butterfly is misery, you are insulted. I have insulted your intelligence. But wasting your intelligence on symbolic thought is a problem.

If you already said Bingo now, you are trapped. You are still trapped in the following thought: Misery is worth capturing, and keeping. This trap is brutal, because it goes much deeper than that. Trust me.

If you are an artist, you probably continue thinking about capturing misery: You may think it’s worth showing the pretty butterfly to other people, too. But naturally, the butterfly is not your misery itself, it is a symbolic representation of your misery. Therefore, you will not get rid of it by showing it to an audience.

This way, symbolic art becomes problematic. You want other people to understand you, but instead you inspire them to engage in more and more symbolic thought. That is dangerous. If people engage in symbolic thought through your art, do you want them to say „that’s pretty", or do you want them to feel your misery?

If you want people to feel misery through art, that is problematic.

But we haven’t brought the phrase „Misery is a butterfly" to its end yet. What were Blonde Redhead thinking when they were coining this phrase? Were they thinking that far? Did they want to trap us with the thought of capturing a butterfly? Did they want to show us that they are trapping us in misery through their art?

I doubt that. The band probably coined the album title as a poetic phrase, and only then started interpreting it themselves. They likely did not intend to trap you, or free you, and that is simply another reason why symbolic thought is dangerous.

Feel free to roll your eyes at Blonde Redhead. If you notice you have been engaging in symbolic thought in the future, roll your eyes and say it to yourself: „That’s just poetry."

But don’t say Bingo yet. You are not freed from the trap yet.

Because misery is the last thing you could compare to a butterfly. Did that not occur to you? You know that. You did know that already. Butterflies are pretty, but misery is the opposite of pretty. You want to reject misery. You do want to chase it away. And you wish it would be easy to chase misery away with one arm.

You want the opposite of capturing misery: You want to get rid of misery. Because you know: The phrase „Misery is a butterfly" is bullshit.

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