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Hero For Christ

Rewriting Reality



a powerful method of social change

by Christopher Sunami (revised 8/16/07)

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

- an senior White House aide
(as quoted by Ron Suskind in the New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2004)

Introduction:

The secret behind rewriting reality is that none of us lives in a wholly objective real universe. Rather, much of the worlds we inhabit are constructions, based on what information we perceive, what information we ignore, and what interpretations we make from our perceptions.

This process of selectively perceiving the world is not only benign, it is a human necessity. If we did not filter and process information, we would be paralyzed by sensory overload and unable to make meaningful responses to our environments.

However, it also has a negative side. If our model for perceiving the universe is too limited or too inaccurate, we run the risk of missing important information that may be crucial for our well-being and survival; or conversely of hallucinating imaginary information that may be misleading or hurtful.

For this reason, human beings continually check their worldviews for the following traits:
  1. Is it internally consistent? Do all the pieces line up with each other?
  2. Is it accurate? Does it match up with my actual experiences of the world?
  3. Is it meaningful? Do all the pieces add up to a big picture that has some kind of purpose and makes some kind of sense?

Minor problems in meeting these traits are usually ignored, quickly forgotten, or simply not perceived. But more major difficulties lead to a sense of tension, and distress. As the worldview is threatened, the person becomes defensive and hostile. At extreme levels of cognitive dissonance the person can descend into mental illness, or suffer a nervous breakdown.

Even in such circumstances, however, the possession of a worldview is so foundational to a person’s existence that a dysfunctional worldview it will not be abandoned unless a more compelling worldview can be found to replace it.

The power of a person’s worldview cannot be overstated. It is a determining factor in what kinds of behaviors a person will take in response to a given situation. It is nearly impossible to change a person’s personality, and changing someone’s opinions is often an exercise in futility. But if you change people’s worldviews, you have changed not only the things they have the ability to perceive, and but also the entire range of options they have available for taking action.

This power over a person’s destiny increases exponentially when a worldview is shared. When one person’s worldview is incompatible with another’s, it prevents the formation of a meaningful human connection between the two of them, and they are unable to interact in mutually intelligible ways. But when (and only when) two people or more people share a worldview, larger social groupings can be created which will amplify the underlying assumptions of that worldview.

Rewriting reality (i.e. changing people's worldviews) is therefore the most effective method of creating genuine, wide-sweeping social change.

The Need for a New Worldview

Changing worldviews has always been one of the ways societies grow and change, and has been at the root of every major social shift in human history. In the past, however, such shifts took place infrequently, and humanity had the luxury of adjusting to them over the course of centuries.

Three factors, however, have altered this situation, all stemming from modern technology.
  1. Technological Acceleration: It is often said that technology doubles in power every eighteen months. What this means is that technology is altering our world at an accelerating rate. This places a heavy strain on traditional worldviews (which tend to be very conservative) which will find it harder and harder to keep up with a changing world.
  2. Globalization. Increasingly we live in a world without meaningful physical boundaries and barriers. This means that individuals are exposed to widely-differing worldviews much more often than they would have been in the past.
  3. Amplified Actions: The power of advanced technology also means that the decisions and actions taken by one society also affect other societies to a much greater extent. For example, an ever-increasing list of nations has the power to wage nuclear war.
The first factor means that people will be more ill at ease with traditional ways of looking at the world than ever before, and more willing to accept alternate worldviews. That, combined with the second factor, means that there will be an intensifying worldwide competition for dominance between an aggressive set of new worldviews --a circumstance already taking place.

The third factor means that it is crucial that a positive, functional modern worldview be found --and quickly --because the means of destroying or heavily damaging the planet are in the hands of an ever-growing number of people. ©2004 Christopher Sunami. All Rights Reserved.
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