Living in the Real World
Are people losing touch with the real world, ignoring truth for fantasy? Of course, the idea that a person can choose their reality is the very nature of “postmodernism,” prevalent in our culture. It makes an intriguing philosophical premise, but one not so useful in the real world. Our choice doesn’t change reality, and I doubt that many people actually think it does. Yet, many act as if live in a make-believe realm, until reality comes back and asserts itself, often painfully. Michael Savage entitled a book Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, rightly diagnosing this tendency as nuts!
American freedom, prosperity, and the media may shape a false sense of reality that can be difficult to ignore. Prosperity insulates many of us from the ugliness of need the reset of the world knows well. Freedom and law keep oppression at bay. Very little that we see on television or in movies is real, true to life, or an accurate picture of how things are; not even news and documentaries are faithful to the facts. Perhaps worst, public schools generally teach an ideologically altered view of history that tells neither the true patriotic story of the United States nor the success of capitalistic freedom, the source of American prosperity. Distortion, exaggeration, and outright fabrication are everywhere.
I find it strange, though, where it turns up.
For example, on an episode of CSI: New York, lead Detective Mac Taylor says to a particularly bloody serial killer he has caught, “That’s between you and your own personal god,” something I doubt anyone would say or even think in real life. Even stranger, though, he follows that remark, a short time later with, “Go to hell!” People say such things as meaningless expressions of disgust, but the inconsistency makes the point. God and hell are part of what some of us still know to be reality, a theistic worldview. The idea of a god that is a personal choice is absurd.
Science provides another especially bizarre example. Global warming, in particular, has become scientific dogma—both an established opinion and, worse, an article of faith. The faithful refuse to listen to contrary opinions or even contradictory evidence. As such, global warming moves from the real world into the realm of religious fantasy because genuine science never rejects evidence, although the dogmatic have often done so, both the religious and the pseudo-scientific kind. People like Al Gore prefer to see a world that suits their agenda and political aspirations; the real world continues without regard to his or any other opinion.
The scariest indication of this tendency to live in the realm of fantasy relates to politics. Far too many people accept and trust empty political rhetoric. Presently, one of the emptiest is a promise of change, assumed to be offering an unspecified improvement over the present. Assumptions are always risky, in any context. Rarely are things what we assume them to be; only careful inquiry and study will provide useful, substantive information about people's thoughts, opinions, wishes, and intentions, as well as their ability to accomplish what they say or want. Those who promise change without both identifying to what they plan to change and how they plan to accomplish it are encouraging gullible, trusting voters to assume the candidate wants the same things as the voters, despite the obvious fact that voters themselves don't want the same things.
Worse, some of what candidates promise clearly comes with a price, at the very least, one of “unintended consequences.” It's rarely obvious whether the consequences of political choices are intended or not. Some well-meaning leaders may naively assume they can accomplish the things they promise without negative effect; many, I fear, know very well that their programs will be costly in direct and indirect ways—in higher taxes, inflation, lost jobs, and less freedom. Most who are obviously socialists want the power of control over as much of the nation's life as possible. Many seek to buy the support of voters to assure that their time in power lasts as long as possible—such is the nature of career politicians. None of this should be a surprise to any but the most gullible.
The frightening part is the willingness of people to believe they can “have their cake and eat it, too.” Candidates routinely promise the sun, moon, and the stars like some sort of bizarre lovers, and people listen like teenagers infatuated by their first loves. Most of us look back on those juvenile experiences with regret and wisdom; we know they were not realistic feelings or expectations. Unfortunately, people listening to candidates don’t seem to understand that.
I have been a long time student of King Arthur and Camelot legends; I have a rather substantial collection of stories from Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur to some of the most recent variations like Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon. I recall the comparison of Jack Kennedy to Arthur although I never completely understood it; I understand the comparison to Barack Obama, even less, except to observe how much people are drawn to idealistic fantasy.
The utopian Camelot really grew out of Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical vision of Camelot, but most sensible people know that such places don’t exist in the real world of imperfect humans. The attraction of an idealized fable is ironic given the caricatured evils of the Bush administration. Sometimes it seems as if the perception of good and evil comes more from Hollywood than from the real world, so it sees relatively decent man like George Bush as worse than the architect of 9/11, the Iranian President who threatens another Holocaust, or the long-time dictator of Cuba.
JFK and Obama both have “star quality,” but we’re not living in a movie. Yet like a movie, a political campaign creates an image using a mix of truth and illusion to tell a story. We should know that a film is not reality not matter how genuine it appears. That is the “magic” of modern movie making; it can make magical realms, alien worlds, or long extinct creatures seem real. It can take any historical or scientific subject and re-write it to entertain or mislead. We should know that about movies and television, and we should know that about political campaigns.
The real world is neither Sherwood Forest nor Neverland. I have always enjoyed the swashbuckling figure of Robin Hood in his many incarnations, but I doubt anyone non-fictional character is trustworthy enough to take from the rich and give to the poor. A well-intentioned thief is still a thief as are the myriad of socialists with a similar agenda but far less civic-minded. The rich are not evil for having wealth, and the poor aren’t good for being needy; there is little justice in redistributing wealth and great injustice in the guilty hands of government-sanctioned theft. Robin Hood should stay in Sherwood Forest.
Peter Pan, on the other hand, is a tragic figure as is any child who remains childish and immature and sees the world without adult understanding. The “Lost Boys” were orphaned and lacked a mother to love and care for them, but citizens are not children to depend on a government that neither knows nor really cares about them. That is the most desperate and awful fantasy, on that can only disappoint. Adults face the world and care for themselves. In friendships, families, and close communities, they help each other, encouraging self-sufficiency, caring for those who truly cannot care for themselves, and lending a hand when temporary circumstances call for it.
Freedom and capitalistic enterprise offer the greatest gain for all; socialism promises utopia but delivers shared misery where everyone gets a small piece of a shrinking pie. In the real world, there is no “free lunch,” unless it’s just bread and water. Social Security will never be “happily ever after,” and universal healthcare can only be rationed, inadequate care. Political promises are fairy stories (to put it kindly, lies is closer to reality), “change” is an empty legend, and “wishing won’t make it so.”
Somehow, we must help our fellow citizens to get back to reality. The real world may be harsh, at times, but only in reality can we make a good life for ourselves, only in reality will we enjoy the fruits of our labors and the satisfaction work brings, and only in reality are we safe from those who prey on those naïve enough to believe in fairy tale places like Camelot, Neverland, and Sherwood Forest. People need to see that Obama isn’t Arthur or Kennedy, Hillary is more like Captain Hook than Robin Hood, and, no, I don’t have a character for McCain!
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