As a way to keep track of things, we like to compartmentalize them into categories of reality based on the most reliable source of information - Our senses. We see someone dressed in a suit and assume they are well off. We smell something gross and our version of reality shuns the source. We see a certain food before tasting, and don't like how it looks - we refuse to eat. Until we are forced to eat said food, our reality does not know the taste, but knows it tastes bad. It looks bad, right? But how does it smell - if it smells good, maybe we'll try it. If it smells weird or funny, maybe not.
This practice goes a long way for us in our lives. It dictates social norms, like attire and eating habits. It tells us the difference between a symphony and a cacophony. We use this common imagery to dictate those who appear good or bad. And there are people who enjoy confusing things for us so they can make a buck, gain a political office, or get away with a crime of some sorts.
Let's take taxes, for instance. In our society, we have the common belief or understanding as a majority that taxes are bad. We don't like them because they take our hard earned money and give it to someone else. But what's the reality? Well, those taxes go to the government, the government pays someone to do a job. With that job, someone in our community gets money for themselves, and can use it for whatever purpose they deem fit. Let's say they buy something they need. Turns out, you sell what they need. You then get their money - which was your money to begin with, but, because it was paid into taxes which paid the person's salary, you don't think about it as being yours - and you give them some service or item in return. Then, because you earned money, you pay a portion of what the person just paid you to taxes, and the whole cycle begins anew. So, really, by paying taxes, you ensure the continuation of a paid position in government and a customer who needs your item or service. However, because the image of a taxing government is bad, you decide to hate taxes, and argue against them no matter how much they benefit your community.
Let's take another example, more befitting the theme: News Media. When this form of media coverage began, it had all the journalistic integrity of a newspaper - which upholds the journalists's Code of Ethics. This code is something into which many sign willingly, others do so because their editors demand it of them. All the journalists who sign onto this code are held by it - their jobs and careers on the line every time they speak/write what they say. So, because News Media, paper and print, upholds this code, we begin to believe what it is they say/write as fact, or as close to fact as can be. About 15 years ago (the current time is 2012), something changed. Television Cable News stopped upholding this standard. Why? They were a 24 hour news station - they needed some programming with entertainment value, something that would bring in the ratings. They needed money. They needed shows that would draw money. Hence, we have the Glen Becks, Bill O'Reilly's, Rush Limbaughs, Rachel Maddows and Chris Matthews's. They draw attention due to their fiery, off the cuff and call-it-what-it-is attitudes. They draw viewers, viewers draw sponsors, sponsors make commercials to put in those people's time-slots, and everyone makes money if they just get you off your couch long enough to buy their food/clothes/electronic gadget/drug/First-world necessity.
liberals, and CNN fights to keep the independent center. In order to mask the rouge, they call themselves entertainment news - which does not have to hold the same standard of news broadcasting. So, they can get away with telling blatant lies; Editorial/Opinion columns in newspapers are held to higher standards than the aforementioned names. BUT because they appear on a NEWS STATION, people tend to believe what they say as fact ALL THE TIME.
population believing wholeheartedly that Barack Obama is of Islamic fundamentalist belief, while the other half believe he's the next
In reality, Obama is a modern president like any other - doing what needs to be done while making sure his friends at the top get theirs.
In another case of image versus reality, let's take our social lives, or dating atmosphere. The battle of the
In reality, we are all just people looking to get along
in the world, to find someone to love who understands and accepts us for who we are. But we are often times insecure with ourselves - we don't fit the image we want to portray because we don't have the right body or face, or because we have some random thing about ourselves that makes us unattractive. This is what we tell ourselves. Why? Because we know, deep down, that we want that image, too - we want to be and date that model/actor/cover-photo. So, because we place it upon each other to be that, we will not accept ourselves unless we are anything less. Because we do not accept ourselves as who we are, we try to be something we're not because that's what we think the other person wants. We trap ourselves within the image, and lose reality.
We lie to ourselves, denying who we are or what we've done through some sort of justification. We all do it. Then, because we lie to ourselves, we lie to other people. With relationships based on lies, the end is inevitable. In all cases. Eventually, those lies unravel, and truth is revealed. When that truth hits home, and reality is seen, it's either a great moment, or a tragic end, depending on the truth told. One can only maintain an image so long.
We have dating sites - on these things, they allow you to paint your own image of yourself. How many lie? How many times have you "liked" something a cute guy/girl likes just so he/she will like you? How many times have you feigned interest in a hobby of a good-looker just to hear them talk about it?
This is, in and of itself, the truest Human Art - the painting of the self. What is the image, what is the reality? What is the painting you show to other people?
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