User:MisterLarson

Reality is a crock and I can prove it! There is no such animal. Why? Because no one knows what reality ever was? This world has been a simulation, a pretense, or a controlled version of chaos. My first piece of evidence? Do the words, “there is matter unorganized” ring a bell? In the biggest of all innings, the aforementioned unorganized matter was tampered with before we even got a good look at it. Someone else’s pretense of reality was superimposed on the original matrix of matter. Who knows what it would have been or become? Perhaps nothing, perhaps something but the main point is we will never know what it could have been since it was changed.

If the primordial beginning of reality has no basis, doesn’t the rest fall apart? Let’s take a look at so-called civilization. The aborigines and other tribal people have looked in wonderment at humanity’s efforts to impose its sense of reality on the rest of the world. It is a smaller version of looking on what we considered to be “matter unorganized” and making it into our own image of reality. We build roads, parking lots, buildings, houses, and, my personal favorite, landscaping. We create a simulation of the wild but carefully controlled by lawn mowers, trimmers, irrigation, and pesticides.

In the world of finance, the idea of simulation is not a new one and could be admitted to by the more honest and hardened economist. We used to barter services for services but then the need for money came. We saw an opportunity and created a world of worth and gold standards. The Euro is a failing experiment in trying to recreate the illusion of worth and wealth. There’s the dollar, the yen, the ruble, and more. There were beads and rings at one point. It all is a pretense or a big game of pretend. We hand a twenty dollar bill to the cashier and we both pretend we just gave them something of worth for a service or product. Was it really worth that much? Who decided? Is it always worth that or does it change from place to place or time to time? Reality doesn’t change, does it?

In the world of fashion, it is laughable to see how things become acceptable and unacceptable over time and region. Shoes that cost less than thirty dollars in materials and labor sell for nearly two hundred and fifty dollars because of a symbol and/or name on the side. We pretend these names have worth and meaning.

This is one of the reasons a family is important. It is a share or collective simulation of reality. Everyone grows up around the same rules, the same consequences, the same dreams. The reality that is shared is a stronger one. The more who believe something is true then the harder it is to disprove it or forget it. Growing up without a shared sense of reality or simulation of reality puts a person at a distinct disadvantage. They have to find their own version by themselves and may or may not accomplish it. There are many who don’t.

Sadly, one of the greatest bastions of simulated reality has become televisions and movies. These are often pointed at as the source for all that is true and worthy. This lie has been the death of many marriages, relationships, and families. Unrealistic expectations have been the ruination of many: look at the phrase itself - unREAListic expectations. Expecting that something should honestly be real and when it is not being unhappy, angry, or even violent about this disappointment. In relationships, this can mean thinking the television reality of love or sex is the norm when it is so far removed from it that it would be comical if not so tragic. Given time, many of the taboos of our culture have been explained away or embraced by the stamp of being accepted by television characters - therefore it must be okay.

Reality is like a computer operating system. People choose the version they want by what rules or operating parameters it has. Some want a very hands one approach like Linux while others want it all done for them like Apple. Some want a happy medium between the two and go with Microsoft. There is no one all encompassing reality. In fact, like many people, we have a multi-boot option on our day. We can boot up whatever reality we feel like enjoying at the time or whatever fits the situation.

So...as stated earlier, reality is a crock. There isn’t just one or even two versions of it. No one really knows what it is. We are all just doing our best to pretend and simulate it as fast as we can. Some day it will catch up with us. Some day is coming faster than we’d like to think.