Reality is the condition of things as they exist in real life situations rather than as people may imagine them to be or as they may appear. Lily Tomlin responds to the question “What is reality?” by stating that it is, “nothing but a collective hunch.” Therefore, not all things are in reality what they appear to be. To obtain the reality or the truth people have dug into conventional theories and propagations and disapproved them in an effort to obtain the absolute truth on issues they find hard to believe. People feel, that they do not have to believe everything handed down from generation to generation and therefore they delve into searching for the reality through education and research (Honner, 23). Discovering the reality puts to rest distortions and myths fed to the populace by the government, corporations, the media, organized religions, historical literature, science and medicine and the general society.
What we can call reality can be only be found in our memories. Kicks (15), terms memory as “the core of what we call reality,” (14). Bloom, states that, “Almost every reality you “know” at any given second is a mere ghost held in memory.” (14). The limbic system is the emotional center of the brain, and it decides the experiences people notice and store in memory. Therefore, what we call the reality is what generations before us hand down be it from the media, history books, science and medicine, governments among others. The ability for individuals to influence reality can be attributed to the limbic system’s ability to monitor and keep track of what will earn the individual praises or blames. Individuals are, therefore, are prone to altering the truth in order to earn praises. This means that if what has been handed to generations as the truth is actually a lie, it is bound to take root since people are subconsciously unwilling to shoulder blames.
Kicks, (15) admits that in spite of overwhelming evidence that undermines the “lies” being fed to the populace from different quarters, finding the truth is hard and, the reality is elusive. He postulates that people might spend the rest of their lives searching for the reality but, the failure to decipher the truth should not cow them into believing in “lies”.
We can find reality on controversial issues by comparing the views that come from divergent panels of contributors or experts on a topic. The contributors could be coincidentally unified by their disapproval of an issue. Though none of the contributors essentially endorses the views of another, almost all of them may dispel the “lies” in a certain issue. It is upon the people interested in discovering the truth to piece together opinions and come up with a conclusion.
In some cases, it is possible to discern the reality by conducting scientific research (Honner, 23). For instance, to prove that one cannot get high by licking toads the animals can be screened for the presence of intoxicating substances. Moreover, to prove that crappy foods do not solely contribute to a fat population, scientist and nutritionists can conduct unbiased research into the actual causes of growing fat. These developments can help lay to rest some controversies and “lies” (Honner, 23). However, the realities or truths concerning some controversial issues such as the actual lifestyle of Christopher Columbus or Martin Luther King may forever remain a mirage and the populace will have to make do with what the media has availed
Works Cited
Honner, John. Niels Bohr and the Mysticism of Nature. Zygon Journal of Science and Religion.
Vol. 103. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2005. Print
Howard Bloom, H. Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st
Century. Reality is a shared hallucination. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2000. Print
Kicks, Russell. You are still being lied to: the remixed disinformation guide to media distortion,
historical whitewashes and cultural myths. Disinformation. 2009. Print
