There's "Perception is Reality" vs "Perception is Not Reality." Much of our culture, social media, AI wants us to believe the former & not the latter, but really, reality trumps perception every time. "Can I believe my lying eyes & ears?" Often not. We now live in a land where everyone lies, and they do it for fun & fortune. Empires of Wealth & Power are built on major edifices of lies. One needs to spend an inordinate amount of time, parsing thru the lies, trying to get to the nub of things. Reality is out there for sure, sometimes you need to cut thru the fog, the glitter, the B.S. the hype, the PR, the smiling, glad-handing experts who excel at casting spells & clouds of unknowing. Worlds of fantasy & whimsy. Some of this is just fucking entertainment, but there is a deadly serious side to it all too. An existential attack & a pernicious undermining of the real.
How to fight it all?
Discipline. Caution. A healthy skepticism. A determination to see clearly, and to know that your own perceptions are suspect, and can sometimes be wildly misleading. Question everything. Especially your self. Not as a contrarian asshole, but as a truth-seeker & truth-teller, knowing there are limits to everything, including your own understanding. Best to start from "Beginner's Mind - Shoshin," "I know nothing, I wonder what the fuck is going on here?" Also, one must be open to changing one's mind in the face of facts & evidence, anything that contradicts one's initial impressions and fundamental biases. I am not saying it's an easy way forward, but, I do believe it's really essential to live up to a code of trying one's best to live in the real.
