I have reading about the hobby lobby case before the U.S supreme court and going on
to my usual websites (liberal websites) and a common phrase I have notice in regards to this
case and the court is “the corporate overlords of the SCOTUS”. Millions of people have the
perception that our supreme court is in the pockets of the KOCK brothers and other such
money types. This perception is that big business has bought the supreme court and given that
the court over the last ten years has voted for big business over 90% of the time, it is easy to
understand this perception. Now one may say that it isn’t true and here is the evidence, but the point
is, it is the perception that is driving this belief.
Now this is followed by how it is clear and evident that the congress has been bought by the NRA,
Kock brothers and other like them. The perception is the reality regardless of the facts. Obama has
been attacked in so many ways, I can’t even list them, but the institution of the white house has
damaged. So we have all three major institutions having the perception of being under minded
by forces beyond the touch of the common person. This perception has made the average person to doubt
the integrity of the institutions that is suppose to work for us. The NSA listening to us in all forms of
communication has also reduced the trust we have in our institutions to protect us. We have security measures
in place everywhere we go to “PROTECT” us and yet who really feels safer? I don’t. We have no say in these matters
of actions done in our name, for our protection, so we have guantomo bay in cuba, a concentration camp, to
house so called “terrorist”. these actions done in our name without our consent and without any say from us, done
in our name, has reduced the trust we have in these institutions.
This has lead to several consequences in society. First we see the rise of superheroes. this need for superheroes
last occurred during the great depression. This need for superheroes is a reaction for our need for justice and
and the need for someone to look out for the average person. our institutions have so failed us, we have resorted
to hoping for superheroes to protect us. Along with the failure of our institutions, we have a failure of
our ideologies. We have the failure of religion and those institutions, the catholic church for example.
the idea that “God is dead” has forced to depend on institutions that have now failed us leaving us nowhere.
The question is “now what” More on that next time.
Your perception that the Government is controlled by conservative interest groups comes from your admitted refusal to interact with any material that might give a different point of view. How do you think the millions of people who think the Government is in the control of conservative interest groups compare statistically to the millions who think it’s precisely the other way around?
Your thread title is apt. Millions of people on both sides of the political spectrum are like you, and only expose themselves to political thought they are predisposed to agree with. This creates a distorted perception of what's really going on, and then these distorted people vote, which puts their confusion into reality. Thanks to the internet, millions of people have political ideas that are so far estranged from the facts that they are essentially operating from a fantasy-world framework.
I fucking hate work. OK, with that out of the way, perception is the reality.
the perception being reality we have as Uccisore correctly pointed out both left
and right having their perception being reality. On the right, it has lead to the tea party
and a dramatic swing right. Being ideology pure is one response to the lack of trust in
institutions. Which is the end result of the perception being reality, both left and right
no longer trust the basic institutions we have. The government institutions such as the legal system,
the bureaucratic ones such as the IRS and the congress as already mentioned. The business institutions
such as companies have proven themselves to be a failure as have the religious institutions. The last
perception is the failure of ideology, capitalism, communism, in fact any ism. This along with
the perception that science has moved man from the center of the universe to a small and insignificant
place in the universe. The total effect has been, humans are left without recourse to any stable
belief system. If god is dead, the government a tool, the ideologies failed, than what is left to believe in,
what is left to give one hope? What course of action is possible when every course of action has failed?
Being an back seat historian, I can relate our time period to the Roman Empire after say 180 or 200 A.D.
The loss of trust in institutions, the lack of having any say in the events of the day. The common person
just simply duck and went about their day to day with a decrease notice and participation of the world around
them. if you have no say or effect in the world around you, why bother paying attention to the world. Just ignore it.
This is the same thing happening today. We have the exact same thing happening today. People are simply
not participating in the world today. Tending their own garden without notice of the world around them.
You can see this in the young today. I work with a lot of kids 18 to 22 and they have little notice or care
about what happens in the world around them.
Now one may say this is all your perception of the world and that is true. This perception creates my reality
as your perception creates your reality. How does your perception create your reality and what you do?
The statement that perception IS reality, is blatantly false. The statement that perception LEADS reality is blatantly true. The only point in having perception is to guide the actions that determine the future.
By what means does one know that a light is white?
Most people have sense enough that if they find themselves in the darkness, they light a candle. But when the whiteness of the candle is questioned, they begin to question the colors they perceive. Upon making crude guesses, they may attempt to adjust the color of their candle. But until they realize the means to know the color white unquestionably, they will remain partly in the dark.
There is only one way to know the color white unquestionably. When people begin to use that one means, the “darkness flees the light”. Perception will still lead reality, but at least it will be the same reality foreseen. Those who fear it, flee with the darkness.
I think ‘perception is reality’ is a fiction convenient for keeping people from bickering over shit that doesn’t matter, or shit they can’t change. So like, when we all talk about politics, we can use ‘perception is reality’ to ameliorate our disagreement, and we get away with it on the grounds that, ultimately, nothing comes of our views anyway. Peter is right to connect it to people dropping out of participation in this way- it’s not so much that perception is reality. It’s that if you aren’t participating in the political process (or can’t, or whatever), then your perception might as well be reality for all the difference it makes.
I do not think that people who’s political beliefs actually decide the course of nations have this luxury. I think they know that their perception of politics is not necessarily the reality. Or at least I hope to God they do. Nor do I think we have this luxury when it comes to beliefs that actually have consequences- like whether or not there is food in the fridge.