Many of the greatest horrors of the history of humanity owe their occurrence solely to the establishment and social enforcement of a false reality. With gratitude to the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper and his important 1970 essay “Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power” for the term and idea, we can refer to these alternative realities as ideological pseudo-realities.
Pseudo-realities, being false and unreal, will always generate tragedy and evil on a scale that is at least proportional to the reach of their grip on power—which is their chief interest—whether social, cultural, economic, political, or (particularly) a combination of several or all of these. So important to the development and tragedies of societies are these pseudo-realities when they arise and take root that it is worth outlining their basic properties and structure so that they can be identified and properly resisted before they result in sociopolitical calamities—up to and including war, genocide, and even civilizational collapse, all of which can take many millions of lives and can ruin many millions more in the vain pursuit of a fiction whose believers are, or are made, sufficiently intolerant.
The Nature of Pseudo-realities
Pseudo-realities are, simply put, false constructions of reality. It is hopefully obvious that among the features of pseudo-realities is that they must present a plausible but deliberately wrong understanding of reality. They are cult “realities” in the sense that they are the way that members of cults experience and interpret the world—both social and material—around them. We should immediately recognize that these deliberately incorrect interpretations of reality serve two related functions. First, they are meant to mold the world to accommodate small proportions of people who suffer pathological limitations on their abilities to cope with reality as it is. Second, they are designed to replace all other analyses and motivations with power, which these essentially or functionally psychopathic individuals will contort and deform to their permanent advantage so long as their pseudo-real regime can last.
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See Also:
(1) Poll: Over One-Third Believe Media Exaggerated Threat of the Coronavirus
(2) WATCH: Bill de Blasio Dances in Times Square While Keeping New Yorkers Out
(3) Doctors, Doctored Numbers, and Democracy
(4) The Eight Worst Media Lies About Trump’s COVID-19 Response
(5) The Year America Went Crazy
Jack’s Note: The lead column is a long one but well worth the effort to read through if you wish to understand that which the Doug Ford’s of this world have absolutely no comprehension of. That is being kind to them. If it turns out that they do know what they are doing they are clearly criminals and rightfully belong in the slammer, not ballyhooed as exemplary members of society.
In a word, in Canada, we are screwed. I do not see any sizeable backlash to this virus opt. Yes there was a big march in montreal but not big enough. I have always been amazed at how much bullshit Canadians will tolerate. Their tolerence of the left, as in Trudeau’s final walk in the snow as opposed the Mulroony’s final demise is a useful gauge. The imposition of the corrupt chretien government was in no small part due to the total sweep of Ontario’s federal seats.
Is it because the youth have been “educated”? Now it takes a Jordan Peterson to tell the kids to clean their rooms while we, or at least some of the grey beards and hair just shake our heads and think or sometimes scream out, ITS JUST COMMON SENSE!
A quote or as close to it that I can recall, attributed to the great Gabriel Dumont has often come to me over the years. “The old ways are dead, the old men are dying and the young have no idea what it means to be free”.