It's important to pursue understanding of the fundamental truths of the world rather than being hung up on words. As words are a creation of men, they can be (and have been) altered to distort people's awareness of the ideas which are being communicated.
>Their need for symbolism will be their downfall
Ask yourselves how much you lean on symbolism such as names to understand what you see, and how much you consider how those symbols are being used.
One of the most interesting endeavours I've engaged in was an idea which came to me in grade 7 language arts class. As I was thinking about words, it occurred to me that two people asked to draw a fish would almost certainly create a different picture. This caused me to recognize that there is a great deal more information involved in communication beyond simply the words which are used. From this, I started to consider that thought must necessarily predate language, and therefore humans must obviously be capable of forming coherent thought patterns without any words at all. Pursuing this "mode of thinking" revealed to me a vast internal realm to my mind, which was always there yet I wasn't quite conscious of it previously. I discovered that thoughts formed in this mode flowed so "quickly" it was as thought time didn't really exist at all, very much like how dreams have little relation to the actual time spent dreaming. That said, it was also significantly more difficult to remember anything considered through this sort of thinking, unless I translated it to words in my mind, which brought me back to the familiar speed of thought.
What I am attempting to impress upon you, is that the world is vastly larger and deeper than is generally recognized, when one remains within the framework of the modern world.