Communicative complexity and its solutions
I feel isolated by the circumstances of exposure.
How is that possible?
Because in a condition of exposure to several others, their individual interpretations of anything said and cross-relationships to each other produce a system of overwhelming recursive depth. In that situation, the part of me capable of honest expression becomes paralyzed. Hence, isolation.
Solution #1: Social ritual. By restricting encounters to a formulaic subset of the possible ones, and restricting semantics to a fixed vocabulary of functional units, this simplifies. (This is the Confucian solution)
Solution #2: Drunkenness. This cuts down on social processing; general does so for everyone else involved. This also simplifies. (This is the...ha...Dionysian solution.)
When put in this light, it occurs to me: there must be people ought there who spend the vast majority of their lives alternating between these two states.
The alternative modes of communication are:
Alternative #1: The one-on-one conversation. In this situation, the recursive interpretive process can be articulated as it occurs.
Alternative #2: Solipsistic broadcast. (E.g., this post)