“I reject your reality and substitute my own!”.* We have all heard this phrase and yet I don’t think the majority of us realize it is actually used as a mantra for life to a great number of people. Some of us live in a reality of absolutes, others in a reality of indecision, yet others a reality of fear and compromise filled with unrealized dreams shattered the moment perception clashes with the real reality of day to day life. Realities of black and white, realities of fair and unfair, realities of misogyny, realities of hate and fear, realities of grand ideals, realities of spiders from outer space that spin webs into the brains of their hosts… these realities are all valid and genuine to the people who experience them and yet the reality for every single person is singular to the point of being unique. What I call reality is vastly different from what you call reality and yet these altered worlds co-exist.
What defines reality, really? Is it what is real as in hard facts real or is it simply what is perceived to be real? Is something real if you fail to perceive it as such? Is gravity real with it touching our lives daily or it is unreal due to the ideal of it being something intangible? Is your comprehension (or lack thereof) the final word? If you believe in god and I do not (which I do not) does my disbelief make your reality any less valid or does my opposing reality validate yours further? The aforementioned spiders from space, if you truly believe in that, then who is to say that your reality is any less real than that which I define as such.
An example of the disposition between realities (perceived or real) is the current schism between the Republicans and the Democrats, the Conservatives and the Liberals. These parties and the followers of them live in completely different worlds, yet at the same time, in actuality, live in the same world from different vantage points. One side sees America as something that has lost it’s way from it’s racist roots with puritanical underpinnings and views this as a golden time which they strive to return to, a time when blacks knew their place, gays were underground, women were subservient to their male masters and there was no such thing as a non-christian religion. The other side sees America as something that started out with the high ideals of patriots who valued freedom and choice above all else to the point of erasing the misdeeds of the past to create a bland world of boring peace where everything is equal and all of the problems in the world were solved by discussion and diplomacy. Both realities are equally valid and yet both are colored completely by the perception of those who validated them. Is one of these more real than the other? Does it even matter when taken as the whole of reality which is less about what is real and far more about realization?
We live in a synthetic world (most of us anyway). Does this synthetic world make for a false reality? If you experience something does that make it real? What about second hand experiences? Are they as real as those fist hand ones? Is a synthetic world less real due it being synthetic?
This world is plastic.
Can see through to the other side.
Your cities are made of plastic and metal,
Antiques are what you’ve got inside.
Houses are paper but folks don’t hear a word you say.
Friendship’s like acid it burns as it slides away.
So you see, my patience is growin’ thin.
With this synthetic world we’re livin’ in.
The word imitation is goin cross the nation
What’s real has become a freak
Someone’s tryin’ to make me weak.
Strange initials to keep me blind.
Psychedelic music to blow my mind.
So you see, my patience is growin’ thin
With this synthetic world we’re livin’ in.
Spray to clear the air and its filled with spray.
Makin people die every day
Now I find I’m out of place
If I only have one face
All my friends have more than two
No longer must you be you
They found out how to transplant
Maybe has replaced can
So you see, my patience is growin’ thin
With this synthetic world we’re livin’ in.**
The confi
nes of reality are as constrictive or expansive as the perception one applies to them, no more and no less. Many people believe in an internet reality where everything in life is online. “Pics or it didn’t happen” is that dismissive phrase used by those who have become locked into this particular reality of cyberspace and file sizes. If it does not make it to the net, then it is not real or the opposite happens where if it makes the net then it becomes MORE real. Both are sad states and both are real states of reality. That is one way that people attempt escape from the planet of the shaved apes. Another way to dodge the reality of day to day life (if I may use “reality” in a disparate sense here) is that of ignoring that which you disagree with. You hate gays? Well, then as far you are concerned there is no such thing as homosexuals. You can hide your head in the sand and feign ignorance to the things you do not like and they then are not real (to you) or you can fabricate an elaborate reality where the only things in it are those which you like. One is no more sound than the other, at least to you, the rest of us may believe this reality you have chosen is false and not ours because, frankly, it is not ours. You live in a different reality than I do, simple as that, and mine is just as valid and true and worthwhile as yours. I live in a reality where corruption is rampant, justice is non-existent and the guilty prey on the innocent with no ill effects, but if you refuse to see that, then the two of us simply fail to connect realities.
You oft here the term “skewed reality” and that says more about the person using the term than about the person/group having the term used on them. Reality is what you think it is, there is no solid and true reality, even when it comes to science there are things that make no sense in reality yet are still true therefore allowing for a liquid reality that is fungible.
*Most of us know this from Mythbusters, but how many of you know this line originates from a 1984 film called Dungeonmaster Aka Ragewar?
**Synthetic World by Swamp Dogg
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