No matter where you look or what you see or hear, some people are trying to make things seem better or different than what they really are. That is the tactic of putting “symbolism” over “substance”.
We see it used everyday, especially in the area of politics. A good example is the announcement that President Obama is going to cut $18 billion from the budget. On the surface, that seems like a very substantial amount of savings (I’m not against cutting waste, in fact, I favor it), but this amount is but ½ of 1% of the total budget he has proposed, which numbers over a trillion dollars of spending. He has hailed it as a major happening, implying that he is on top of extravagant, wasteful government spending. If you believe that, than I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you! That’s symbolism over substance, pure and simple.
