Consciousness comes in various forms amongst humans and the animal world. What comes with consciousness is a means to interpret reality. It could be something as simple as the colours seen through the optical apparatus provided, for example, dogs have dichromatic vision made up of blues and yellows whilst humans have colour vision. These examples have hugely different experiences of the world around them, therefore impacting the perception of what is “real”.
Reality is a misnomer, as objectively there is no “real” since again we have such a wide range of the experiential therefore providing us with the impossible task of the development of a single truth. Numbers and/or mathematics could be considered the closest to objective reality amongst humans therefore providing simultaneous and identical understanding of something, for example, 2 individuals both know 1 is in fact 1. However even then these are open to interpretation, think economics or in some cultures the concept of counting things or numbers not existing at all. Language introduces white noise to the objective with numbers, for example, 1 house is not in fact equitable to 1 ice cream, the mere mention of either invoking unique memories, interpretations, understandings, and meanings to the individual.
This all means that again since there is no objective reality, it could be argued that humans in particular because of language have the ability to create their own narrative, therefore “realities”. These narratives can eventually consume us and mask what could be considered abject realities like hunger, death, and pain. And these narratives are prone to extending to corporations consuming leadership and masking their world view of what is really at stake, or what is in fact the reality of those they lead, but also those they affect. Reduced to talking points leadership, internally and externally, portray a rosy spin on all things company-related.
In unprecedented times such as these (namely, a post-pandemic, demand-side heavy whilst supply-side light, global recessionary sort of period, amongst other things including but not limited to the existential climate crisis) more needs to be done in the name of honesty and transparency on the part of the rich, those in power, those that apparently lead and in doing so taking more time to recognize those abject realities. More empathy is needed now more than ever. In other words, our leaders need to lead and in doing so finally align their realities to the individual, not attempt to market to them, but speak to them as the adult they are and make clear the true narrative, the reality of what is actually happening at hand.
By Anonymous
Discourse Institute 