Thursday, February 16, 2006

Reality of the unreal

Reality. Shouldn't everything we do, every decision we arrive at, be grounded in reality? But is there any way to arrive at a conclusion as to what this reality thing actually is? A hell of a task! Let's see if you can agree with my list of unreal things, which may be illusionary or human inventions and yet basically run the world:
  • Money is not real.
  • God is not real.
  • Ideologies are not real.
And yet almost every action of mankind is based upon these illusions.

A few things that are real, at least as far as I can tell, include:
  • The stink of the shit in my daughter's diaper.
  • The suffering of a family who lives through Winter in an unheated tent in Pakistan after their home was destroyed by an Earthquake.
  • The pain of the feet of their little boy who walks barefoot through the snow.
  • The rain falling from the sky, drumming onto my window this very moment.
  • The angular momentum of our spinning planet.
  • Photons.
  • Electromagnetic fields.
  • Atoms.
  • Gravity.
  • The sun.
  • The stars in general.
  • Black holes in the centres of Galaxies.
  • Human brains.
  • Emotions:
  • Anxiety
  • Love,
  • Fear,
  • Compassion,
  • Joy,
  • Greed,
  • Sadness,
  • Envy,
  • Hatred.
  • Amie the dog snoring on her own armchair in our living room.
They are real.
They can be observed, felt AND they can be measured with physical instruments. They are not invented.

The list of real things that are not invented is truly endless. And still the actions of our leaders have little to do with the endless items on the reality list. They are mostly concerned with the three items on the list of unrealities.

I assume most of you out there won't agree...




No comments:

Post a Comment