THE word this week is “esoteric”, levelled at my column by an occasional reader.
Let me respond by providing synonyms (words that mean more or less the same as) for esoteric: abstruse, arcane, cryptic, mystical, cabalistic, deep, heavy, hermetic, hidden, unfathomable, incomprehensible, recondite, enigmatic and ending with the worst one for me personally: vague.
May I also point out that esotericism is accepted as a notion in a western context that cannot be proven to exist using exoteric or scientific methodology. It can only be identified and defined as acts of obfuscation for elitist or exclusivist purposes.
For example, a medical doctor might say to a colleague: The patient evinces a pathology of discomfort in the northern hemisphere of his epigastrium. What the patient had, in fact, said was: I…