A Context of Reality

In a recent Joe Rogan podcast they started talking about ‘there is no reality it’s all perception’, where Joe said that if a basketball missed the hoop, there is no perception here; the ball not going into the hoop is reality.

I think the rabbit hole is calling, because they didn’t really go down one on the show as his guest just agreed with him. But let's explore the reality or perception of this basketball.

So, let’s say the game is between LA Lakers and Chicago Bulls, it’s a tight game being 89 – 90. It’s the NBA Final series at 3-3 games. 1 Second on the clock and Lakers shoots.

If the ball goes in Lakers win the finals and half the crowd will go nuts while the other half will hold their heads in their hands.

A Laker's player shoots, the ball misses; The Bulls win and all Chicago goes crazy and burn the place down.

Bull’s fans will be talking about this night for the rest of their lives.

But it later turns out that the Lakers’ player had a drug cartel debt to pay and he missed on purpose. So the ball didn’t miss the hoop, the ball went exactly where the player wanted it to go.

But Joe’s point was the ball didn’t go into the hoop (that’s the reality), or is it?

The word ‘missed’ is thrown out. The Lakers’ Player didn’t miss his spot, the ball went exactly where it was supposed to go. But it didn’t go into the hoop.

This event of the ball not going into the hoop creates two very different consequences and has two very different meanings depending on if you are a Lakers or Bulls fan.

You have one event generating two completely different consequences, generating two different meanings only to someone impacted by the event.

So now here is where reality gets distorted. I have the event – the ball didn’t go into the hoop. Why didn’t it?

If I strip away all the context, the fans, the stadium, the player with a drug cartel debt and I didn’t see, hear or read about the game, but the reality is a basketball didn’t go into the hoop, that’s all I have, I have a couple of questions.

Was the hoop on the ground so the ball couldn’t go through the hoop?

Was the hoop too small so the ball could never go through it?

Was the ball ever thrown at all? So again, it’s never going to go through the hoop.

The point here is reality is contextual and must be understood by the observer i.e. what are the consequences or the meaning this 'reality event' has on the observer. I have to understand that the ball was meant to go into the hoop, otherwise the reality of the ball missing the hoop doesn’t exist.

The reality of the ball not going into the hoop is only based on all the context for someone who saw it (read about it) and understands basketball.

Anyone who has never seen basketball and doesn’t know what we are talking about, it’s just an event that has no meaning. A ball didn’t go into a hoop.

Take away the context and all you are left with is an event – A ball somewhere didn’t go into a hoop somewhere. That becomes dissociated and has no meaning, which has no significance which we can’t sensorily experience which means nothing happened in our world of reality.