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Consensual Reality, the idea that reality is somehow the aggregate of individual opinions, where we agree we define reality. If an individual goes against the collective agreement they are generally presumed to be either enlightened, or insane/mad. Psychology and Psychiatry implicitly depend upon this model. Where cultures and nations differ in Consensual Reality we often reach "agreement" through such means as war, or cultural imperialism, having triumphed and persuaded our new subjects we've expanded our "Consensual Reality" and use our victory as proof of the validity of our system...
An interesting idea, in that it implies that there is no one objective reality, rather reality is fluid and changing with the agreed perceptions of the viewers.
And, like any conclusion arrived at through mass experience or opinion or perception, it's entirely likely / probably / Certainly even wrong. Consider all the beliefs humanity has had in the past, and consider how few hold up today, we feel free to mock them, deride them, yet in our shared belief system or agreement as to what constitutes reality we are making the exact same errors...
Curious, too, how fluidly we bring others on board our reality - whether it be liquor or drugs, those who don't partake are never part of the shared experience of those who do ... for this they are labelled as "Sticks in the mud" or "Party Poopers", because they are not sharing in the same state of mind. Even when, for example the midst of a coke/ether/LSD binge the shared reality is entirely questionable if not obviously wrong. For those groups not imbibing there exists a very discernible line between the shared reality of one group and the shared reality of another.
And note how well media, news, advertising and corporations shape and define our reality, their perpetually broadcast messages creating hidden agreements and alternate realities that go unquestioned...
A gold mine of thought there. A link to a better explanation of the notion of Consensual Reality below.
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...Still, always something new to look forward to. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World might just be the redemption, Werner Herzog's investigation of technology and the connected world.
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"Beautiful. Do you love it?"...
I share his optimism...
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A short list:
- Paleontology - the most primitive, limbic region of our brain, revealed through giant lizards and fish that we imaging to be the gluttons of all basic desires (reproduction, feeding, etc.). Paleontologists excavate our primitive roots and ancestry, explain them away, much as psychology helps us to discern our most primal motivations.
- Spelunking: The exploration of hidden regions beneath the earth (conscious.). Self-explanatory, psychology.
- Archaeology: The evolution of mind, explored through the evolution of societies, cultures, countries world-wide.
All of these, to one degree or another, are excavating and mining as much within the unconscious - exploring desire, fear, the primal emotions as well as the beginnings of the more refined emotions - as they are generally increasing the weal of human consciousness.
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In an article about apes and language (Koko) I come across an interesting statement - that apes (or Koko, and other apes that have been taught to sign) - do not use their language skills to ask questions.
At first this seems curious, especially since they have of late seem given to lecturing us about climate change, but then I reflect upon it further...
Consider the circumstances of the Ape. Raised largely or entirely in captivity, in an environment that it knows instinctively is "wrong", would it even have the awareness to ask questions? Do hostages, prisoners ask questions? From the moment their imprisoned all conditioning is geared towards "learned helplessness", unlikely (despite the hero's of Hollywood that query their captors from the chair where they're tied and being tortured, this is fiction) that an Ape or Chimpanzee would think to question it's captors...
Animals - all animals, are naturally inquisitive, every animal will explore it's surroundings, recognize change, why then do they not voice their questions?
But take if further. How many people ask questions? Real questions, not "how much did that car cost...?", a polite convention, or "What would Jesus Do?", a philosophical idiocy, or "What are you doing tonight?", "How was your week?", polite commonplace rhetoric phrased as questions, but with no real hope of insight or revelation...no self-respecting ape would stoop so low, these are merely unconscious routines of language and manners, ...
---Perhaps the real surprise is not that apes don't ask questions, it's that so few people do...
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Agnotology (formerly agnatology) is the study of culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data.
Read More Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology
&& the classic: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160105-the-man-who-studies-the-spread-of-ignorance
Curious, we consider that knowledge spreads, but ignorance is forever opposed ... Consider Donald Trump ...