Reality isn't always perception, part 1

You've heard it - "perception is reality". What does it mean? Is it relevant? Does it matter?

What it means

According to one source, "perception is reality" applies to people who let ideas from philosophy, e.g., religion, economics and other fields shape their view of reality. For them, their perception is, for the most part, actual reality. Reasonable counter arguments don't carry much weight and usually can't change perception. Facts or evidence that contradict are generally dismissed as of marginal weight, wrong, biased and/or outright lies. Not surprisingly, facts that do fit with the perceived reality are accepted and reinforce perception. To that extent, reality and perception overlap.

Who cares?

So, what's wrong with that? For many things, not much. Its just part of human behavior with no harm for the most part. People can believe whatever they want, real or fairy tail. Knowing you are right is comfortable. Having doubts isn't. Allowing unquestioned perception stand in for contradicting reality has strong appeal. But in some areas like science, business and politics, things are wrong with that when rejecting unspun (true) reality leads to waste or failure.

Vested interest tactics

In politics, vested interests like the Democratic and Republican parties and other special interests understand human behavior very well. They know that distorting or ignoring inconvenient reality is a powerful way to persuade. Spin reinforces partisan perceptions, masks weaknesses in the spinners' arguments and confuses most average people with an open mind. All of that is intended. Vested interests have an awful lot to lose if perception becomes too polluted with true reality. Their role is to keep partisans in the ranks (pander) and distract the rest of us (inject emotion, etc), while quietly maintaining the rotten status quo.

Unfortunately, that tactic results in people with beliefs that are at least party grounded in fantasy (spin). That makes it easier for vested interests to move public opinion in their direction. From their point of view, a misinformed, confused voter is a good voter. Voters who don't drink the Cool-Aid tend to be problematic, being a little harder to fool.

Given our current unhappy state of political affairs, reality probably isn't doing much good for most vested interests. It makes most of them look pretty bad and doesn't help them maintain the status quo. Under present circumstances, the incentives to take advantage of human behavior are enormous. What we get is a lot of political rhetoric and policy grounded in a fair amount of fantasy.

Our politics and policies are heavily influenced by what comes from a combination of (1) the normal human tendency to want to believe that comfortable perceptions are reality and (2) sophisticated and well-financed vested interests who know how to play that human trait for their benefit. From the perspective of a non-ideological, neutral observer (me), that toxic stew looks like a major source of failure and waste in American politics today. It keeps us misinformed, distracted and unfocused, i.e., easily misled.

End of part 1, part 2 (examples of the perception-reality disconnect)