Very deep and interesting article on Commerce, Marriage, Government, Religion, Science, and Education. (I do not agree with some of the science section, however):
"How we confuse symbols and things"
http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/symbols.html
This was initially posted and insipred by The Fly's strange thread about how this board is almost "alive"... I thought it deserved it's own thread though. Please read.