The distinction between subjectivity and objectivity is not arbitrary. If you can solve a cipher, you know what it is like to be subjective. If you can solve a cipher, you also will know what it is like to be objective. You cannot know one without knowing the other. Subjective / objective is a pair of antonyms easily explained by using cipher as example.
Before you have solved the cipher, whatever you say about the cipher is subjective. After you have solved the cipher, the knowledge you have of the cipher is objective. Since you are the same person before and after, you have experienced both subjectivity and objectivity and you know the difference.
You can pretend you don’t know the difference. But if you do, you are cutting yourself off from reality at that very point; you are telling everyone, including yourself, that words do not have meanings any more.
Trump lies whenever he opens his mouth. So do other MAGA politicians. They think they are being clever when doing this. The more glib they are, the cleverer they think they are. By now most people have seen through their act. These politicians—including Trump—are unhinged!
‘Unhinged’ is the right word: These abusers of language are unhinged from reality.
There is a certain amount of flexibility in the use of words. Some words have a large number of synonyms. These synonyms do not all mean the same. But depending on circumstances one word sometimes can substitute for another. After that, context will help in making clearer what the word means on that particular occasion.
We can choose what words we use. We can even bend their meanings a little bit occasionally. But we do not assign meanings to words at the very moment we want to use them. We do not talk to each other holding a dictionary in our hands, consulting it before we utter every single word. Language make contact with reality starting when we were babies. This contact is continuous. It will last until the day we die.
The distinction between the subjective and the objective is an important distinction, Solving a cipher provides us with an easy way to understand this distinction. But this is not all. It is not just easy; it is also an interesting way in that in solving a cipher we can actually see ourselves moving from the subjective to the objective. We see ourselves making this move. We also see that this move is unavoidable. As it were, whether we like it or not, we have to make it. Literally we can’t help ourselves. And then what happens afterwards? The surprising thing is, after we have made the move, we like it. Most people do.
Consider this: A cryptogram is a series of nonsensical symbols. When you come across it for the first time, you may not know that it is a cryptogram. For all you know, it could really be a series—nay, a jumble—of nonsensical markings. What should you do at that point?
But why should you do anything?! We encounter all sorts of oddities as we go through the day; why should we pay attention to some and not to others? Why should we even pay any attention to this jumble of nonsensical markings?
When you encounter a suspicious entity like a cryptogram, you could have all kinds of thoughts going through your head …
Or no thoughts at all!
But if you do have any, you know they are subjective.
Suppose you do decide that what you have found is a cryptogram and you proceed to try to solve it. What happens then? What happens if you meet with success after success? What happens if words and phrases begin to appear?
You know at that point that the subjective is moving towards the objective.
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Cryptanalytic Method Omnibus Edition: Follow clues and develop new clues from old.
What are clues? Clues are the characteristics of structures, sometimes disguised.
To crack a cipher, you first have to create it. Through trial and error. Guided by clues
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