Is this real life? (day 56)

Reality.  That word gets more fuzzy every day.  It's one of those words where you think you know what it is but as soon as you start explaining it you end up neck deep in caveats.  It's a fuzzy concept precisely because it's defined as 'you know it when you're in it'.   The first crack is the realization that you're never out of it.   Maybe we should specify 'shared reality'.  That's a little closer to something precise and takes care of dream and drug spaces.  The real problem is that beyond straight up stimulus to our sense organs, there is a layered conceptual reality which is emergent and involved in a feedback loop on itself.  The term shared reality is a little better because it recognizes that the forces on the conceptual layers are largely shared by immediate neighbours (in a physical and/or cultural sense).   I recently saw a documentary on Jonestown where they explained that loudspeakers were constantly broadcasting Jones' voice.  At no time or place could the residents be free of his voice and his opinions.  He offered a view of the outside world that was both paranoid and delusional and they had no way of verifying what he was saying.  They were still in the same sensual reality that all people inhabit but their shared conceptual reality was both disconnected and discontinuous from the other shared realities.  What is astonishing is that at the moment between life and death only a few people trusted their basic sensual reality and decided to run.  Some after seeing their children die.  And these were not weak or deficient people.  They worked hard and had ideals that are hard to argue with.  The situation again brings up my paranoia about not knowing what I don't know.   It's important to diversify media sources.  And even then, you still have to suss out the most likely facts.  When the Yes Men pulled their last prank about the US Chamber of Commerce reversing its stance on climate change, it reminded me again how arbitrary the truth is.

A song for this post.