Reality is prescribed, not described. My reality is inherently different from yours - my perception is inherently different. Reality is nebulous and not as inherent as it may seem. What is defined as reality is often described by either a majority or by those in power (manufacturing consent, especially). If you want something more materialist, the catholic churn once dictated reality to much of europe, through political and economic power as well as religious. Catholicism was taught the same way we would teach gravity today. For much of the population, that was reality. We now know better, but someday if there is a future 100 years down, the generations then will look down upon us as primitive and backwards with a fundamental misunderstanding of reality.
Reality is prescribed, not described. My reality is inherently different from yours - my perception is inherently different. Reality is nebulous and not as inherent as it may seem. What is defined as reality is often described by either a majority or by those in power (manufacturing consent, especially).
You can talk about Capitalist Realism as a certain expectation of reality, wherein deviation from that norm creates anxiety in the indoctrinated. But there are certain underlying conditions that are universal and immutable. No amount of ideology will fill my empty belly or shelter me from the elements. No ideology will keep the roof of an Amazon fulfillment center from landing on my head.
All "realism" can establish is my anticipation and reaction to personal experience. Language may shape how I perceive the light striking my eye, but it cannot grant my blind eyes vision nor can it blind me to my current condition. The dissonance that emerges from the contradictions of ideology is the result of subjective and objective reality diverging. It distorts the original manufactured message and produces new ideologies in the struggle to process the gap between expectation and experience.
We now know better, but someday if there is a future 100 years down, the generations then will look down upon us as primitive and backwards with a fundamental misunderstanding of reality.
But there is still some underlying universal experience that connects people a century ago to people from today and people a century hence. We're all experiencing the same reality, abet through different lenses. And while people in the current moment may conceive of their reality as "correct" and the past/future as "distorted", this is due to an accumulation of perception-shaping compounded bias. It isn't due to an absence of material conditions. Just an alternative viewpoint.
Reality is prescribed, not described. My reality is inherently different from yours - my perception is inherently different. Reality is nebulous and not as inherent as it may seem. What is defined as reality is often described by either a majority or by those in power (manufacturing consent, especially). If you want something more materialist, the catholic churn once dictated reality to much of europe, through political and economic power as well as religious. Catholicism was taught the same way we would teach gravity today. For much of the population, that was reality. We now know better, but someday if there is a future 100 years down, the generations then will look down upon us as primitive and backwards with a fundamental misunderstanding of reality.
You can talk about Capitalist Realism as a certain expectation of reality, wherein deviation from that norm creates anxiety in the indoctrinated. But there are certain underlying conditions that are universal and immutable. No amount of ideology will fill my empty belly or shelter me from the elements. No ideology will keep the roof of an Amazon fulfillment center from landing on my head.
All "realism" can establish is my anticipation and reaction to personal experience. Language may shape how I perceive the light striking my eye, but it cannot grant my blind eyes vision nor can it blind me to my current condition. The dissonance that emerges from the contradictions of ideology is the result of subjective and objective reality diverging. It distorts the original manufactured message and produces new ideologies in the struggle to process the gap between expectation and experience.
But there is still some underlying universal experience that connects people a century ago to people from today and people a century hence. We're all experiencing the same reality, abet through different lenses. And while people in the current moment may conceive of their reality as "correct" and the past/future as "distorted", this is due to an accumulation of perception-shaping compounded bias. It isn't due to an absence of material conditions. Just an alternative viewpoint.