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Apart from the letters of the Alphabet, Religious Images, National flags and those images that resonate to each of us personally? No effect at all.

A piece of cloth with coloured designs printed on it, depending upon the nature of those designs, can have a profound effect upon each of us. A National flag can affect citizens of that country strongly in a positive manner, yet the flag of another nation can cause a strongly negative reaction.

Politicians are said to "wrap themselves in the flag": we know instinctively that the national flag is implied. The symbology is both implicit and explicit, identifying the politician with the best that the country has to offer, with an implication of patriotism.

The correct symbols must be used in the correct place at the correct time: failure to do this can have disastrous consequences. It must never be forgotten that symbols are rarely responded to rationally; the responses evoked tend to be instinctive, unthinking and often irrational. It would thus be political (and perhaps actual) suicide for an Israeli politician to fly the Blutfahne, as it would for an Iranian to fly the Israeli flag.

Symbols such as the Swastika or the Calvary cross carry an enormous power to sway individuals emotionally, often beyond their control. This response may have significant regional variations depending upon the local culture and mores; knowing which symbol is potent and the local reaction to that symbol are essential skills in international marketing as well as in politics.

For example a certain coffee producing nation used a peasant with a donkey to promote their coffee exports. This spoke to western consumers of individual peasant farmers with pride in their crop, hand selecting only the ripest beans. The fact that this was not an accurate depiction is an irrelevancy: in symbology, perception is reality.

The most common form of symbol, and one of the most malleable, is the alphabet: each letter signifies a sound, and specific groupings symbolize more concrete phenomena. For example, C-A-T, provides a description of a member of the genus felis catus. Consider that it does not look in the slightest like the animal it represents, yet the identification is instantaneous, and evokes any feeling that we may have for cats in general.

The use of symbols has shaped the world, influencing elections, fomenting revolution and swaying opinion in every facet of daily life the world over. This is as true today as it was centuries ago or even more so. It is part of our heritage that we impart importance and power to symbols as we mature, and those symbols then have power to sway us, despite our best attempts to be impartial.

Learn more about this author, Richard Sprigg.
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