Reality Check

Who is shaping your reality?

It's an important question. The world is far too large for us to understand, so we make models of how we believe the world to be. Some of those models come from our own experience (fire burns, water is wet), but much of the information we add to our model comes from other sources.

It's the sources outside of your own experience that need watching.

For example, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church had a great deal to do with shaping "reality." They defined right, wrong, good, and bad for a lot of people, if not directly, then indirectly by their influence and power over Kings and other rulers. History shows that for a while, the Church may not have been as interested in being the Rock upon which Christ built his house as the they were in consolidating power for themselves.

Fast forward to today. What shapes our reality, at least in the West? Modern media, in many cases. You know Sarah Palin never said, "I can see Russia from my house." That was Tina Fey in her parody of Sarah Palin. And, to be fair, Al Gore never said "I invented the Internet." Yet those mis-constructions of reality are perpetuated over and over.

In the case of our currently elected/sanctified President and His Good Works, much of the information we're getting is...skewed. It's not the Catholic Church doing it this time, to bolster their power and earthly treasures. It's a lot of the modern news and popular media.

And we have to ask: what's in it for them? While today's Catholic Church (to name but one example) has made mistakes and errors -- errors the press has reported on repeatedly -- they don't define our reality today with anywhere near the reach and power of NBC, ABC, the AP, and Reuters.

Like the Church then, the Press now has lost its moral compass. When was the last time the press reported, honestly, on their mistakes, omissions, and own biases?

Take a look at your mental map. Question the received wisdom. You might be surprised at what you find.