This piece is inspired from certain materials I happened to read over the last few days and thought was worth sharing. So words are basically codes. They aren't things, but representations of things. This key difference between thing and representation allows for certain malleability. Some words can have completely different meanings depending on the context in which they’re used. (A writer doesn’t use “story” the same way an architect does.) In other cases, the representation they’re attached to can shift. This usually occurs over a period of time. For example, the term “awful” apparently began in the 1300s as meaning something “inspiring wonder,” and now means the complete opposite. But now and then, the shift occurs almost immediately. “CHARLIE HEBDO” If you said this phrase before January 7, the person listening would have thought you were referring to the satirical French periodical, if they knew it at all. Say it today, and the phrase is shorthand f...