Is reality even Real?
What does reality feel like? Is owning a trillion dollars, a reality? Is pain, a reality? or what if everything is real and we are leading a fake life.
I have been thing about this question a lot now. Being a 35-year-old, struggling through life, ensuring to maintain a balance in life, I am not tired and have started to doubt a lot of things. And one of these things is Reality. This article is a reflection of my take on reality.
We are the masters of our own reality. It’s a reflection of how we perceive ourselves in correspondence to how others see us. It’s the result of someone’s critical analysis of our lives, without actually knowing the complete story. When I talk to the younger generation (the Gen Z) about life, they always ask me if it is real. For them growing up, the constant question of “is it real or is it enough?” was used as an example of self-actualization.
So much so that it becomes their way of dealing with reality, which helps them become who they already were, but also guides them to achieve greatness by giving them hope.
The word “reality” can be defined in several ways.
However, one definition I found interesting was the one given by Sartre in his book A First Truth. He said that reality is something we create when we try to control or manipulate it. Nowadays people try to have better relationships with reality by creating fake or artificial identities online.
They think that when a new person comes to meet them, they’ll think they’ve met someone really. And then they might ask questions like:
Do you know what your true identity is? Does everyone around you believe you’re the same person?
Some people make fake accounts on social media sites pretending to be what they want to be and can not be in reality. Sometimes there’s no connection between reality and the person they are, their character, or anything that they can tell themselves or do.
It’s all made up.
People think it makes sense because they feel they have to face the problems caused by reality. In fact, for them, it does nothing but provides them a blanket to cover their true selves and simply impersonate. They don’t want to face any uncertainties about themselves or rejections. All they want to do is to live a life with a different reality where everything will be perfect and all will go smoothly.
This false world only lasts until they lose sight of what is real and ethically correct. So for them, the reality is not there anymore. It’s just a reflection of how they will experience themselves. There is another version of reality.
That reality is a product of reality.
All it takes is some effort to create a fictitious reality. This is called simulation. It often plays out as either a fiction novel or a reality TV show. Simulation and illusion can be combined together to create a unique experience that doesn’t exist in reality. In fact, this kind of illusion is how many things are created by humans.
The fake world is a work of someone’s own art.
You can say this type of illusion has existed for ages. Most things that are portrayed and thought to be real are made by people to make them look real. Humans invented illusions with the idea to impress society.
There is only one place where we can face the real world and confront our responsibilities, our fear of uncertainty. And I think the easiest way is in the movies. Movies can be a part of reality, too. Just look at the movie Fight Club, a very realistic comedy about teenagers.
Most people go to watch it to escape reality because they have a lot to deal with in their lives. Maybe they have to deal with peer pressure, or they have to face problems related to their job, or family life. Or maybe they have to face issues in their personal life like bullying, drug abuse, or even getting raped.
As they have to face these situations, they start having a hard time seeing what the actual truth is. What do we think about this situation? Where would you be in this condition? Do you think you’re going to die eventually? How long will it take until you get rid of the bad feelings you’ve had in the past days? Why did you end up here? What were you trying to hide from yourself? These are questions that most of us will have.
To avoid them, we need to do something for ourselves. Something that we think will help us and make each day easier. Something that we’ll look awesome in front of other people and tell everyone that we are amazing and beautiful.
It’s important for us that we get through difficult times, and be strong and strong-willed enough to face them without losing ourselves. No matter what the situation is, we can never be okay when we’re sad, angry, or tired. If we’re going to let sadness, anger, or exhaustion affect our physical state of being, we need to make sure that we fight back.
We need to make ourselves stronger. And most of us can never learn how to be strong until we face our fears. Our body will teach us all about resistance to change. Every time we encounter change, it’s like an earthquake; we get hurt again and again. This is why it’s so important to face tough stuff and to find the power to resist it.
People don’t want to confront reality. Because they’re scared of its consequences, or maybe it makes them look bad. So they prefer to stay away from reality. Instead of confronting the real world, they go into a fictional world to avoid facing the reality.
