Imagine I were to take a piece of cloth, put some colored pigments on it, and display it to your visual system. Is that likely to trigger memories and fire up your imagination? Well, probably not, because it’s just a piece of cloth, right? But now imagine that those pigments on a cloth are arranged into a pattern of a national flag. Almost certainly that sight will trigger something for you – but the specific meaning is unique to your history of experiences. You don’t perceive objects as they are. You perceive them as you are.
