Tag Archives: reality

Taking a “Gander” at Reality Once Again

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I have spent most of my life “gandering” at reality…as if anyone can do so.  With my intuition, and life-long study of psychology and philosophy, I realize that I was skeptical of reality from the earliest days of my life, even before cognition began to “convince” me that things were as they appeared.  I was born into a strange world and am now seeing this “strangeness” made even more manifest as Trumpian madness continues to maraud across the landscape of our soul. But a caveat is warranted.  “Reality” is not to be objectified as I am claiming to have done; daring to “think “ I have done so puts me outside of reality, beyond the pale, an offence to which I confess guilt.  Whew, what a blessing though it took me most of my life to find the existential courage to accept that lot.

Reality is a nuanced phenomenon, so “nuanced” that we are hard-wired to carve this nuanced world into which we are born into definition so that we can function in a very “defined” world.  But this same “wiring” permits us to find the courage at some point to contemplates that the world of “definitions” we have taken for granted needs a second glance.  But this “permission” is not a mandate; it lies in that “foul rag and bone shop of the heart” where, according to the Apostle Paul lie “the thoughts and intents of the heart” which require openness to the “Other.”

A Lamentation of Reality’s Intransigence

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Today I am going to continue my “assault” on reality, the quotes necessary because “reality” is impregnable to the attack of one simple bloke like myself.  What makes it so invincible is its subtlety; it can’t be seen with the naked eye.  Its premises are commonplaces, most of which a society cannot be left without.  But so many can be lived without and a society is better off when they are given the light of day. One simple example from my youth in the American South involves racism—television shows were “white”; NFL quarterbacks were “white”; and miscegenation was verboten.

This “reality” that I am here kicking around ordinarily has the capacity to slowly evolve, to adapt to circumstances even against the down drag of inertia.  But in certain moments of history, there is tremendous “down drag” as the evolution appears too drastic and frightening to much of the population.  This leads to the socio-cultural ferment that we are currently witnessing in the United States, and even in the world.  This has led to civil war in the past.

We can’t escape the unconscious dimension of life which shapes reality.  Oh, well, we can simply assume that it does not exist and passionately insist that we know exactly what are doing.  But we don’t.  There is always more to the picture which is a frightening notion to most people. It is so frightening that people will cling desperately to their certainties and usually will find a leader who will be their champion.

If you are curious about this tenuous nature of reality, you might find the following book of interest, “The Social Construction of Reality” by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman.

Reality Tightens its Noose on Trump.

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I kick the subject of mental illness around a lot in this venue due to my career as a clinician which has given me a perspective to “sniff out” madness pretty readily.  Oh, we are all “mad” to some degree but then there are times when one’s madness goes beyond the pale and then the Shakespearean question is relevant, “What’s mad but to be anything else but mad.”  There are times when the ordinary madness of day to day life approaches the pale and threatens to go beyond it and enter the realm of “nothing else but mad.”

Trump is demonstrating this.  Here and in my other blogs I have noted often of his need to isolate himself in a private world, to cut off any criticism from those who see the world differently than he does, best illustrated with his hatred of, “fake news.”  But now as his “fake news,” known by most of us as “reality,” continues to tighten its noose on him, he is taking even more desperate moves.  The news about the non-disclosure agreements with his advisers and now the “cleaning house” with his staff and cabinet reveal a heightened need to cut off feedback from the outside.  Like Hamlet, overwhelmed with the duress of everyday life, expressed a desire to, “flee to a nutshell and there be the king of infinite spaces,” revealing Shakespeare’s knowledge of the human need to occasionally want a complete escape, even that of lunacy.