What Is "Sophisticated"? What is “sophisticated,” or what is “sophistication”? If you say this word, there are a lot of meanings. It will become either a compliment or derogation even about the same subject. Though, this might be caused by the word’s Greek etymology itself. I rather see the meaning of this word is always unstably swaying itself back and forth, or oscillating between good and bad meaning—or sometimes it may even suggest both meanings at the same time. When I searched the word on Internet, I came across some of the latest newspaper articles:
"..Yemen arrested a woman suspected of sending two packages with sophisticated bombs, further evidence that Al Qaeda is improving its ability to strike on U.S. soil.."(*Mazzetti & Worth) The “sophisticated bombs” sent by the terrorist elements linked to the rogue Yemeni Imam Anwar Al Awlaki last Halloween weekend appeared to have targeted the Jewish synagogues in Chicago. I found one of the destined synagogues was merely 2 blocks away from my apartment in Edgewater, but the plot was foiled by the “sophisticated intelligence operation” before the bombs reached here, and the bombs were caught in the airports in Dubai and Britain. In this case, “sophisticated” must mean the bomb’s technology or mechanism was complex and unduly refined, or maybe it was also very cunning and crafty. Therefore, “The US sees complexity of bombs as link to Al Qaeda.” However, everyone knows there is another meaning in the word “sophisticated.” If you say “sophisticated humor”, “sophisticated satin lingerie”, “sophisticated stuff” or “sophisticated overseas market,” the phrase may have various other, sensitive and delicate meanings. Some people may recall a classic jazz tune “Sophisticated Lady” created by Duke Ellington and others in 1932. The lyrics sing about a decadent woman living in the urban night, surrounded by jewelries and men, but without love. She keeps smoking, drinking, and never thinking of tomorrow. There is even a music album titled “Sophisticated Begger” created by a folk rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper in the UK in 60’s. This title looks complex and witty—maybe because it concocted two opposite images paradoxically? The dictionary defines “sophisticated” as “unduly cultured” “pretentiously or superficially wise.” Now if you describe someone as the most “sophisticated” among today’s people, who would pop up in your mind? Maybe the wise and smart people, such as Barak Obama or Rahm Emanuel among Chicago politicians? Actually Barak Obama was praised as “our sophisticated new leadership” when he made the first foreign visit after his inauguration, by a media person. (*Dickens) Though, facing the recent “bruising outcome of midterm election”, some short-tempered Americans have begun asking a rather hasty question: is he a man of substance, or a man of extremely superficial sophistication, or a vacuous guy? Was his excellent skills of speech in the campaign representing his sophisticated smartness or representing pretentious rhetoric? However, we now see the conservative anti-Obama people, such as Tea Partiers who criticize Obama, are also targeted and called as “not sophisticated” by Karl Rove. As Frank Rich’s column in New York Times reported:
"…Karl Rove outed the Republican elites’ contempt for Tea Partiers in the campaign’s final stretch. Much as Barack Obama thought he was safe soliloquizing about angry white Middle Americans clinging to ‘guns or religion’ at a San Francisco fund-raiser in 2008, so Rove now parades his disdain for the same constituency when speaking to the European press. This month he told Der Spiegel that Tea Partiers are ‘not sophisticated,’ and then scoffed, ‘It’s not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek...’" (*Rich) The conservatives cannot catch up Obama’s innovation, because they are not “sophisticated” enough, but are somewhat tracing the tradition of “anti-intelligence” in American history? Actually everyone might say, I wish to be a sophisticated person. What do they mean? People may visit foreign countries to see other cultures which are sophisticated. For example, since Chicago was one of the historical centers which created jazz music, it must have been a sophisticated metropolis. Because jazz was something which represents one of the most sophisticated, innovative, stylish urban music, then what is sophisticated, or what is pretentiously wise now in Chicago? Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and beautiful architecture is sophisticated. Its art museums or the old campus of U of Chicago looks sophisticated. For me, the casual, light-hearted conversations often generated between strangers everywhere in America, even with someone sitting next to you at the bus stop is sophisticated. The public transportation in America appears sometimes centuries old and somewhat technologically outdated, but usually abundant with a human touch. CTA’s manual-operated “kneeling bus”, or the “Jackson Park Express” is always filled with humanistic mutual assistance spirits toward the disabled people and out-patients visiting the university hospital..and this looks sophisticated.
(Chicago Costume) When I see Americans’ way of holding the doors smilingly for others, even if they see the following person is sometimes 7 meters behind themselves, it looks sophisticated. However, if the elevators or escalators are broken in public areas, it is sometimes never repaired for many weeks. It looks unsophisticated, since this never happens in Japan. Compared to how it appears in America, Japanese trains’ precise operation is callously sophisticated. I even read when New York’s ex-mayor Koch’s aide visited Japan with MTA executives some years ago, he described Japanese subway as it looks “too inhuman and sterile.” Maybe because he saw it was clean and mathematically precise, but felt unsatisfied because there was no jovial mariachi musicians or a capella singers on the trains. The other day, I was also impressed by an unapologetic CTA Red Line operator whom I came across, since he was just excessively human touch or badly (un)sophisticated. He didn’t tell passengers when the local train suddenly changed into express when it left Addison station late at night. When he realized the car was already running to Loyola, bypassing other stations, he only broadcasted a deceitful personal excuse, “Hey..I told you? You must have heard what I said!” How it sounds goofy? People felt appalled and laughed. I murmured “It would never happen in my country” to a white woman, and she said, “Yes!” I don't know whether his excessive human touch operation will be called sophisticated or unsophisticated.. The CTA Blue Line railroad construction every weekend was disturbing and unsophisticated. It cannot reach to the Far South Side yet, and the food desert in African American neighborhood is not solved yet. The US governments’ abandoning policy for homeless people is unsophisticated. When people are refraining from calling them outright as “beggars,” but only calling them as “solicitors,” I don’t know if it is sophisticated or unsophisticated, it looks somewhat hypocritical to me. Maybe Chicago has many faces, both sophisticated and unsophisticated. Before the Halloween day, I saw authentic and picturesque Halloween decorations on Fullerton Avenue, which suggests it is an old inland cultural city. I also saw a swarm of people in the crazy “Chicago Costume.” Maybe the people out here know how to enjoy all the parties, but Chicago’s local tv anchor people’s faces (ofABC7)always look too stiffened or edgy to me, maybe because of harsh weather. The city happened to become evil the “Gotham City” in the new Batman film. The city’s white neighborhoods and African American neighborhoods are too segregated. Chicago has lost the bid for 2016 Olympics, and the South Side has lost their future development plan. Although Obama has been elected and taken on social reform, he may have run on a rock now. My sociology teacher, who did a field research about South Side’s poverty pessimistically said about her view, “Obama is not gonna make it within his term.” Apparently, the term “sophisticated” has come from the Greek word “sophism” of “sophist”, and maybe originally derived from “sophia (knowledge)” ..It clearly suggests why its meaning flip-flops to be both “good and bad” (*Wikipedia “sophist”.) Everybody may become either good person or evil person, and all the knowledge is quite easily rotten. If people would utilize their knowledge wisely for the good causes, they are praised as sophisticated. However, if people would only utilize knowledge negatively, or pretentiously to deceive others, they would be deemed badly sophisticated.
*Wikipedia’s description about “sophist” or “sophism”: Sophism has two different but related meanings: In the modern definition (from Plato), a sophism is a specious argument used for deceiving someone. In Ancient Greece, the sophists were a category of teachers who specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric for the purpose of teaching aretê — excellence, or virtue — predominately to young statesmen and nobility. The practice of charging money for education, and providing wisdom only to those who can pay, led to the condemnations made by Plato in regard to their profession itself being 'specious' or 'deceptive', hence the modern usage of the term... *Mazzetti & Worth: “U.S. Sees Complexity of Bombs as Link to Al Qaeda” by By Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. Worth, Oct. 31, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/world/31terror.html *Dickens: “Matthews 'Immensely Proud' of 'Sophisticated' Obama 'The New Us!” By Geoffrey Dickens http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2009/03/31/immensely-proud-matthews-shrieks-sophisticated-obama-new-us *Rich: “The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party” by Frank Rich, Oct 31, the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31rich.html?scp=12&sq=sophisticated&st=cse *Wikipedia “Sophism”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism (Sorry, these are my English class essays..) 
Halloween's home decoration.. bristles in the neighborhood of Fullerton Ave..
Shop clerks in Halloween costume.. at the "Lush" Shop in Macy's..though they don't like to be taken pictures
What Is "Sophisticated"? What is “sophisticated,” or what is “sophistication”? If you say this word, there are a lot of meanings. It will become either a compliment or derogation even about the same subject. Though, this might be caused by the word’s Greek etymology itself. I rather see the meaning of this word is always unstably swaying itself back and forth, or oscillating between good and bad meaning—or sometimes it may even suggest both meanings at the same time. When I searched the word on Internet, I came across some of the latest newspaper articles: "..Yemen arrested a woman suspected of sending two packages with sophisticated bombs, further evidence that Al Qaeda is improving its ability to strike on U.S. soil.."(*Mazzetti & Worth) The “sophisticated bombs” sent by the terrorist elements linked to the rogue Yemeni Imam Anwar Al Awlaki last Halloween weekend appeared to have targeted the Jewish synagogues in Chicago. I found one of the destined synagogues was merely 2 blocks away from my apartment in Edgewater, but the plot was foiled by the “sophisticated intelligence operation” before the bombs reached here, and the bombs were caught in the airports in Dubai and Britain. In this case, “sophisticated” must mean the bomb’s technology or mechanism was complex and unduly refined, or maybe it was also very cunning and crafty. Therefore, “The US sees complexity of bombs as link to Al Qaeda.” However, everyone knows there is another meaning in the word “sophisticated.” If you say “sophisticated humor”, “sophisticated satin lingerie”, “sophisticated stuff” or “sophisticated overseas market,” the phrase may have various other, sensitive and delicate meanings. Some people may recall a classic jazz tune “Sophisticated Lady” created by Duke Ellington and others in 1932. The lyrics sing about a decadent woman living in the urban night, surrounded by jewelries and men, but without love. She keeps smoking, drinking, and never thinking of tomorrow. There is even a music album titled “Sophisticated Begger” created by a folk rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper in the UK in 60’s. This title looks complex and witty—maybe because it concocted two opposite images paradoxically? The dictionary defines “sophisticated” as “unduly cultured” “pretentiously or superficially wise.” Now if you describe someone as the most “sophisticated” among today’s people, who would pop up in your mind? Maybe the wise and smart people, such as Barak Obama or Rahm Emanuel among Chicago politicians? Actually Barak Obama was praised as “our sophisticated new leadership” when he made the first foreign visit after his inauguration, by a media person. (*Dickens) Though, facing the recent “bruising outcome of midterm election”, some short-tempered Americans have begun asking a rather hasty question: is he a man of substance, or a man of extremely superficial sophistication, or a vacuous guy? Was his excellent skills of speech in the campaign representing his sophisticated smartness or representing pretentious rhetoric? However, we now see the conservative anti-Obama people, such as Tea Partiers who criticize Obama, are also targeted and called as “not sophisticated” by Karl Rove. As Frank Rich’s column in New York Times reported: "…Karl Rove outed the Republican elites’ contempt for Tea Partiers in the campaign’s final stretch. Much as Barack Obama thought he was safe soliloquizing about angry white Middle Americans clinging to ‘guns or religion’ at a San Francisco fund-raiser in 2008, so Rove now parades his disdain for the same constituency when speaking to the European press. This month he told Der Spiegel that Tea Partiers are ‘not sophisticated,’ and then scoffed, ‘It’s not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek...’" (*Rich) The conservatives cannot catch up Obama’s innovation, because they are not “sophisticated” enough, but are somewhat tracing the tradition of “anti-intelligence” in American history? Actually everyone might say, I wish to be a sophisticated person. What do they mean? People may visit foreign countries to see other cultures which are sophisticated. For example, since Chicago was one of the historical centers which created jazz music, it must have been a sophisticated metropolis. Because jazz was something which represents one of the most sophisticated, innovative, stylish urban music, then what is sophisticated, or what is pretentiously wise now in Chicago? Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and beautiful architecture is sophisticated. Its art museums or the old campus of U of Chicago looks sophisticated. For me, the casual, light-hearted conversations often generated between strangers everywhere in America, even with someone sitting next to you at the bus stop is sophisticated. The public transportation in America appears sometimes centuries old and somewhat technologically outdated, but usually abundant with a human touch. CTA’s manual-operated “kneeling bus”, or the “Jackson Park Express” is always filled with humanistic mutual assistance spirits toward the disabled people and out-patients visiting the university hospital..and this looks sophisticated. 
(Chicago Costume) When I see Americans’ way of holding the doors smilingly for others, even if they see the following person is sometimes 7 meters behind themselves, it looks sophisticated. However, if the elevators or escalators are broken in public areas, it is sometimes never repaired for many weeks. It looks unsophisticated, since this never happens in Japan. Compared to how it appears in America, Japanese trains’ precise operation is callously sophisticated. I even read when New York’s ex-mayor Koch’s aide visited Japan with MTA executives some years ago, he described Japanese subway as it looks “too inhuman and sterile.” Maybe because he saw it was clean and mathematically precise, but felt unsatisfied because there was no jovial mariachi musicians or a capella singers on the trains. The other day, I was also impressed by an unapologetic CTA Red Line operator whom I came across, since he was just excessively human touch or badly (un)sophisticated. He didn’t tell passengers when the local train suddenly changed into express when it left Addison station late at night. When he realized the car was already running to Loyola, bypassing other stations, he only broadcasted a deceitful personal excuse, “Hey..I told you? You must have heard what I said!” How it sounds goofy? People felt appalled and laughed. I murmured “It would never happen in my country” to a white woman, and she said, “Yes!” I don't know whether his excessive human touch operation will be called sophisticated or unsophisticated.. The CTA Blue Line railroad construction every weekend was disturbing and unsophisticated. It cannot reach to the Far South Side yet, and the food desert in African American neighborhood is not solved yet. The US governments’ abandoning policy for homeless people is unsophisticated. When people are refraining from calling them outright as “beggars,” but only calling them as “solicitors,” I don’t know if it is sophisticated or unsophisticated, it looks somewhat hypocritical to me. Maybe Chicago has many faces, both sophisticated and unsophisticated. Before the Halloween day, I saw authentic and picturesque Halloween decorations on Fullerton Avenue, which suggests it is an old inland cultural city. I also saw a swarm of people in the crazy “Chicago Costume.” Maybe the people out here know how to enjoy all the parties, but Chicago’s local tv anchor people’s faces (ofABC7)always look too stiffened or edgy to me, maybe because of harsh weather. The city happened to become evil the “Gotham City” in the new Batman film. The city’s white neighborhoods and African American neighborhoods are too segregated. Chicago has lost the bid for 2016 Olympics, and the South Side has lost their future development plan. Although Obama has been elected and taken on social reform, he may have run on a rock now. My sociology teacher, who did a field research about South Side’s poverty pessimistically said about her view, “Obama is not gonna make it within his term.” Apparently, the term “sophisticated” has come from the Greek word “sophism” of “sophist”, and maybe originally derived from “sophia (knowledge)” ..It clearly suggests why its meaning flip-flops to be both “good and bad” (*Wikipedia “sophist”.) Everybody may become either good person or evil person, and all the knowledge is quite easily rotten. If people would utilize their knowledge wisely for the good causes, they are praised as sophisticated. However, if people would only utilize knowledge negatively, or pretentiously to deceive others, they would be deemed badly sophisticated. *Wikipedia’s description about “sophist” or “sophism”: Sophism has two different but related meanings: In the modern definition (from Plato), a sophism is a specious argument used for deceiving someone. In Ancient Greece, the sophists were a category of teachers who specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric for the purpose of teaching aretê — excellence, or virtue — predominately to young statesmen and nobility. The practice of charging money for education, and providing wisdom only to those who can pay, led to the condemnations made by Plato in regard to their profession itself being 'specious' or 'deceptive', hence the modern usage of the term... *Mazzetti & Worth: “U.S. Sees Complexity of Bombs as Link to Al Qaeda” by By Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. Worth, Oct. 31, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/world/31terror.html *Dickens: “Matthews 'Immensely Proud' of 'Sophisticated' Obama 'The New Us!” By Geoffrey Dickens http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2009/03/31/immensely-proud-matthews-shrieks-sophisticated-obama-new-us *Rich: “The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party” by Frank Rich, Oct 31, the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31rich.html?scp=12&sq=sophisticated&st=cse *Wikipedia “Sophism”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism (Sorry, these are my English class essays..) 
Halloween's home decoration.. bristles in the neighborhood of Fullerton Ave.. 
Shop clerks in Halloween costume.. at the "Lush" Shop in Macy's..though they don't like to be taken pictures
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