A: I’m A. Today we are going to discuss complexity.

B: I’m B. Complexity, I wonder if someone has said this before, is too many simple things put together. It’s the “too many” that counts. We human beings have limited capacity to grasp extent or number. That’s why 3 times 4 is simple but 33333 times 44444 is complex.

C: I’m C. And we all have different capacities. What’s complex for you may not be complex for me. Do you agree?

A: In mathematical context that is true, but our context is wider and more generic. We are discussing complexity as a term, as an idea.

B: Yes, but that’s not what I was hinting at. The difference in our capacities comes from our different levels of awareness. It depends on the context. Generally speaking, a complex thing can be broken down into several simple things. But it takes a lot of patience, if we have.

C: Context, of course! It’s context that makes something simple or complex. In one context it’s simple, in another it’s complex. A much-hyped flimsy actress wanting to marry a much-married obese director for a second time seems so simple to everyone that it evokes only a yawn. But when I ask why I can’t have a romantic friendship with my neighbor’s beautiful daughter, my parents say it’s too complex even to discuss.

B: You put it well, “romantic friendship”, speaking purely from a language point of view. I both agree and disagree with what you said. In ANY (emphasizing) particular context, things are only simple. It gets complex when there is an interplay of contexts. The number of contexts matters a lot. And context means not only the place or the time but also the people involved. When you, your parents, your neighbor’s daughter and her parents are involved, there are at least four contexts involved.

A: I really don’t think there can be anything with a single context. Despite the involvement of many contexts, the actress marrying the director appeared simple because of familiarity. The more familiar something is, the simpler it is.

B: We are confusing familiarity with simplicity here. Familiarity can make something more acceptable. You tend to stop trying to decipher things after repeated experience, but they remain as complex as ever. Democracy, which is supposedly the voice of the majority, is churning out increasingly unpopular leaders every year. This is not simple but very common. Commonness breeds familiarity, but simplicity has a different lineage.