Doesn't your statement amount to, it was put there for one distinct reason by the original author but you can make it mean what you want it to mean????
Of course. The designer incorporated the Great Seal into the $1 bill, with the specific intent to convey a message. Others have come along and applied everything from mild comments to outrageous distortions. Just as "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," purpose and intent is in the mind of the viewer, especially those who have never concerned themselves with what the design conveyed to Congress in 1782.
I have seen more than one interpretation of these symbols, each different than the other. Some horrible, some pleasant. Meaning is in the mind of the interpreter, methinks, not in original intent.
I should have written:
I have seen more than one interpretation of these symbols, each different than the other. Some horrible, some pleasant. Meaning is in the mind of the interpreter, methinks, INSTEAD OF the original intent.
Obviously, the original intent is what we need to understand, not whatever jumbles around in the minds of interpreters, who usually see a bad guy behind everything that happens. Conspiracy theories abound.
