Fantasy realities

===

“We are witnessing the crack-up of consensus. Most previous societies have operated with a broad central core of commonly shared values. This core is now contracting, and there is little reason to anticipate the formation of a new broad consensus within the decades ahead. The pressures are outward toward diversity, not inward toward unity.

This accounts for the fantastically discordant propaganda that assails the mind in the

techno-societies. Home, school, corporation, church, peer group, mass media—and myriad

subcults—all advertise varying sets of values. The result for many is an “anything goes”

attitude—which is, itself, still another value position. We are, declares Newsweek magazine,

“a society that has lost its consensus … a society that cannot agree on standards of conduct,

language and manners, on what can be seen and heard.”

Toffler, Future Shock, 1970

===

“Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe and which mean very little.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

===

The world has become a confusing swirl of realities. A mixture of fantastical thinking, alternative universes, and an absurd mix of selectively used facts/data points.  The urge for clarity—for a logical articulation of what we’re experiencing, of a mosh pit of realities world suddenly beyond our understanding, is never stronger than in moments of fantasy realities. Of course, by definition, fantasy realities refuse logic, living in a space beyond comprehension, beyond reason.

Which leads me to the battle between fantasy and reason.

One of the most underdiscussed reasons for our deepening sense of crisis and confusion is grounded in the fact while we talk endlessly of individual freedom there is an incredible pressure for conformity or, let’s say, some common thinking. This conformity is often grounded in ‘reason’ or ‘common sense.’ But let me focus on reason (because common sense is possibly the penultimate fantasy).

All the weird ideas that could have been considered counter to reason basically went mainstream. Common sense got flipped on its head. Anything is possible meant it was possible. We became unshackled, free to indulge in our own opinions with fewer and fewer fetters in the forms of facts, rationality, and reason. We began creating reality out of fantasy grounded in, uhm, ‘reason.’ But this reason was grounded in our own truths which made reality something you were free to construct on your own. At some point it seems like the majority of people just rejected the claims of reason and rationality, and reality, and began to embrace fantasies.  As a consequence, experts got thrown under the bus. Fantasy realities demand rejection of expertise, okay, well, the expert advice that didn’t agree with our own opinions that is. This became significantly easier to do the moment we started attaching so called experts with whatever bias we wanted to insert. We began attacking credentials and everyone was on the payroll of someone. At least in our reality so we could craft the reality we want (unfettered by facts).

Here is where we are.

We have turned reason into either (a) a process, i.e., a fantasy tangible thing to build a house of truth on stilts or (b) a method to manipulate, i.e., dubious logic crafting dubious reason. The former creates a cult of some beneficial machine bereft of sense and morality. The latter is a tool of corrupted experts and charlatans. Both, and all, of which means people increasingly dwell in a world of illusion, i.e., fantasy.

Which leads me to nostalgia as a major fantastical illusion.

Nostalgia has been turned into a pathological ideological tool. Nostalgia’s vague outlines gain mythical concreteness as we apply it to our fantasy realities. The problem with nostalgia is that its defining quirk is a weakness for illusion and delusion. As a consequence of this nostalgic whimsical thinking, we begin to believe that we have an accepted standard of reason and truth, but unfortunately a significant portion of the population actually becomes less reality based and more myth-addled. Yeah. it gets worse. Fantasy realities demand a ‘bad guy,’ an enemy, a “reason” why nostalgia isn’t exactly perfect and why the present isn’t using all the perfect nostalgia. That enemy is always tied to some mysterious manipulator. That’s bad, but even that gets worse. If manipulators lurk everywhere, well, we start believing that evil lurks everywhere. We all begin to feel like we are all holding onto an overhead hand hold on a careening driverless bus.

But nostalgia explains everything – the good or bad – which means the present is, well, made up of whatever you want (because all that past stuff is mostly an illusion anyway – note: does creating an illusion present from an illusion past mean we are a reason-based delusional population?). Anyway. The present doesn’t exactly help. The constant 24/7 exposure of actual conspiracies have led many people to assume that anything bad is the intentional result of some conspiracy. I mean, well, if there are that many, certainly they have to be intentional? That asked, this makes it harder to expose and dismantle the truly rare real ones. We’ve moved beyond isolated events to exposure to an onslaught of relentless sudden events. The societal discourse is now clogged more than ever with conspiracy theories and fantasy realities. Reality, the real one, is being bludgeoned by fantasy. One of the most worrying consequences of this is that all the conspiratorial noise obscures the occasional signals of the important things we should pay attention to, but we don’t. To be clear. This fantasy reality issue is highly asymmetrical. Or let’s just say the asymmetrical has gone too far out of whack. Fantasy reality thinking has taken on outsized gravitas versus reality not because the fantasy is any more believable, but rather because the believers have become more strident, more vocal and, well, more. Not to bring politics into this we should just admit that there are more absurd, and just, well, more, fantasy realities on the American Right then on the left. To be clear. I am not suggesting if you are on what is deemed ‘the far right’ you believe in fantasy realities, but of the people who believe in fantasy realities they are most likely somewhere on the Right spectrum. That said. Politicians, in general, thrive on fostering fantasy realities (see opening Eleanor Roosevelt quote as reference) so on this point I am not sure if it is a chicken or egg discussion.

The truth is America’s unhinged right has become much larger and more influential than the unhinged left. In addition, the unhinged right now has significantly more power and effective control than it is ever had. The truth is only the American right has a large and organized faction based on paranoid conspiracism that has spanned over decades.

Kurt Anderson

So. Maybe my point is that fantasy thinking has seemed to gain momentum. There have always been people with fantasy realities and those random beliefs have been incredibly resilient and enduring. They have had the ability to morph into other forms to fit into different groups as time and context have changed. This can partially be explained in that in the past (and worryingly too often in the present) most of the reality-based people typically ignored the fantastical thinking, if not were amused by it, as the quacks, charlatans and paranoid conspiracists pushed and pulled and encouraged people to believe their fantasy realities. Uh oh. Over time the quacks, charlatans and paranoid conspiracists carved out ‘believable-enough’ slivers of fantasy factions and we saw more people gravitate towards them. ‘Believable-enough’ is key here because as with most things, for every force, there is typically an equal and opposing force. In this case the slivers of fantasy realities grew as a force as the world became more complex, more un-understandable and, consequently, more difficult to explain, i.e., less believable. What were once vague unbelievable dangers now seemed very very real and believable. From those seeds grew fantasy realities. Yeah. I just rationalized fantasy realities with reason.

Which leads me to sensemaking.

Sensemaking is the weapon against fantasy realities. The sensemaking process is a cognitive and social process of creating meaning and understanding out of complex or ambiguous information. It involves interpreting and making sense of data, information, and experiences in order to develop a coherent understanding of a situation. The sensemaking process typically involves the following steps (source lost or maybe this is a good ChatGPT response):

1. Perception: This is the initial stage where we perceive or become aware of information or data that is relevant to the situation.
2. Attention: We focus our attention on the information or data that we perceive as being most relevant or salient.
3. Comprehension: We attempt to understand the information or data by organizing it into a coherent framework or mental model.
4. Interpretation: We make sense of the information or data by interpreting it in light of our existing knowledge, experiences, and expectations.
5. Integration: We integrate the new information or data with our existing mental model or framework, making adjustments as needed.
6. Evaluation: We evaluate our understanding of the situation, checking for inconsistencies or gaps in our understanding.
7. Action: We take action based on our understanding of the situation, either by making decisions or taking other appropriate actions.

Sensemaking, in my words, is transactional and structural. What I mean by that is while everything above is iterative and an ongoing process, sensemaking performs on two axis: the current situation (finite in its time and resources) and the situation as it evolves (a seeming infinite onslaught of information, data and inputs that make the situation dynamic). Effective sensemaking accommodates the challenges of the “now” (the law of the situation) as well as offers a foundation to navigate ‘the long now’ by offering a coherent set of lily pads in an uncertain, dynamic, in-flux, world barraged by fantasy reality spewing charlatans.

I would also point out that from a societal perspective sensemaking is largely a social process or, as James Carse suggests, “the smallest unit of change is a conversation.” The more conversations that take place with regard to reality, the less likely some fantasy can impersonate reality. The social process, the conversations, make everyone an individual and, yet, part and parcel of all reality (Hanzi Freinacht calls this being a transvidual). Try this thought on for size. If we encourage sensemaking, conceptually we all become accountants. Not in the traditional sense, as in dollars and cents, but instead you keep account of political trends, ideological thinking, military actions, religious leadership, technological developments, communities, local news/activity and even the price of wool, oil, cheese, milk and tea, i.e., reality. In some way you keep account of the ten thousand threads that make up the tapestry of reality. Yes. That can sound a bit daunting. A bit overwhelming. A bit like, well, it makes fantasy realities sound a bit more appealing. I will end there because, as well know, our favorite indulgence always looks appealing – the Haagen Daz ice cream, the double chocolate cake, even the favorite brand of shoes – but we know we can’t afford it all the time because it isn’t healthy; for the body, mind or wallet. Fantasy realities are exactly the same. Appealing but unhealthy. Ponder.