Reality

I talked about promises and empty promises in my last post and while we live in a world where information is at everyone's fingertips it sometimes seems that we don't have a clear grasp of reality, or at least many of us don't.

Now, reality is not a relative thing, meaning its the same for everybody even if we feel differently about it.  For example, getting shot if a real event.  How it happened and who's at fault is another matter but even so there is a real sequence of events that can be determined.   In fact our criminal justice system relies on us being able to determine that beyond a reasonable doubt. Obviously its not always possible but ultimately whether we find it or not, it is there.

Reality takes a back seat all too often to political and social motivations.  For example, relatively modest proposals to do additional background checks related to the purchase of assault weapons immediately becomes an effort to take all guns away.  A couple of immigrants commit crimes and all immigrants are criminals. There is the reality and then there is the exaggeration.  This is so insidious there are times we don't even need a reality to have the exaggeration.

Look at the birther "controversy" that we had and to some extent still have about Obama's birthplace.  It had no basis in reality but the exaggeration took on a life of its own.  We always had rumors and misinformation, it just seems we have  so much more nowadays, maybe because of social media and irresponsible journalism.

Sadly I do believe that the majority of Americans share certain common values and beliefs.  However its hard to see that in the phony realities that exist.