{"id":450,"date":"2020-12-08T22:53:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T03:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=450"},"modified":"2020-12-08T23:06:43","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T04:06:43","slug":"alternate-truths-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Alternate Truths"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>Illusion:<\/strong> an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception (of a sensory experience).<\/em><\/p>\n

Delusion:<\/strong> an idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument; typically a symptom of mental disorder.<\/em>
\n\"Screen<\/a>
\nThere\u2019s a point when a strongly held conviction, a belief system, or a defining personal style morphs into something else. When an \u2018I know this much is true. . .\u2019 moment crosses the watershed into Neverland. When one\u2019s credo becomes abruptly more sinister, more dangerous. <\/p>\n

What makes this \u2018crossing of the Rubicon\u2019, this passing over the threshold from \u2018generally accepted reality\u2019 to a state less firmly tethered to the real world particularly worrisome is just that<\/em> \u2014 that we\u2019ve floated away from the mothership. That we\u2019re no longer able to conduct meaningful \u2018reality checks\u2019. The feedback loop that keeps us grounded has breeched . . . and we\u2019re adrift. Worse, we become increasingly attached to a self-referential, alternate universe, a \u2018do-loop\u2019 with no hope of fact-based correction. <\/p>\n

The two versions of this New Yorker<\/em> cover remind us that, with \u2018selective pruning\u2019, we \u2018see\u2019 what we want or are intended to see: the elegant, cocktail-sipping gal that has become the image of a Covid-times poster child. Pull back for for full frame and the rest of the story, the \u2018truth\u2019 reveals. Illusion of grace and style is supplanted by unshaven legs, days or weeks of detritus, device distractions, sweats over suits, the cavalier dereliction that displaces discipline. Illusion.<\/p>\n

As state after state has certified and re-certified vote counts, suit upon suit has been tossed aside by the judiciary, \u2018witnesses\u2019 undone not by crafty examination but by their own \u2018weirdness\u2019, and November 3 recedes into the mists with January 20 looming on the horizon, the \u2018version of reality\u2019 that has held sway for a truly disturbing number of folks for the last four years has shifted from illusion to delusion. <\/p>\n

An election has been won. . . and an election has been lost. I\u2019m reminded of Arthur\u2019s duel with \u2018the Black Knight\u2019 in Monty Python\u2019s Holy Grail. As Arthur progressively dismembers his \u2018worthy adversary\u2019, BK sinks deeper and deeper into denial. Losing an arm (\u2019Tis but a scratch\u2019), a second arm (BK crows \u2018Oh, had enough, eh?\u2019) and confronted with the reality of his armless state (\u2018just a flesh wound\u2019). Legless (BK\u2019s defiant retort \u2018I\u2019ll do you for that\u2019). Progressively, \u2018I\u2019m invincible\u2019, \u2018the BK always Trumps<\/em> hurt\u2019 \u2014 and ultimately \u2018we\u2019ll call it a draw\u2019. <\/p>\n