A sunflower seed in a science of politics

Take these [sunflower] seeds and put them in your pockets” is a sentence that could mean several different things: offering sustenance to a hiker, preparing a gardener for a day’s work, or asking someone to fill a bird feeder. Yet when spoken by a Ukrainian woman to a Russian soldier during an invasion, they became a kind of curse. “You’re occupants. You’re fascists. What the fuck are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down to die here” (Guardian 2022). A common, shared language between the woman and the soldier is what allows the confrontation to happen. But do they actually understand one another? They are in conflict, not because they cannot understand one another, but because they do. In this conversation there is a conflict in meaning, occurring within these two actors’ shared language rather than a difference in language. But can a science of politics capture that conflict? Can it account  for the meaning of a sunflower seed?