saw a post about hyperrealism and it reactivated some thoughts i had earlier this year. needless to say as a person with an identity-defining fursona, i'm invested in the hyperreal. and i guess at a fundamental level i think the confusion of symbols for reality is not born with (and would not die with) consumerism.
an example of hyperreality i've seen cited is "a plastic christmas tree that looks more convincing than a real tree". but both "plastic" and "real" christmas trees are symbolic. the unobserved universe has no "real trees". it has no separate things. a "real tree" is a gestalt. it's a pattern of sensory information. when you give it a name, it becomes symbolic of that pattern. if we are to understand hyperreality as a cultural state of confusion between symbols and reality, a "real tree" is hyperreal.
do you believe there are different countries? countries are symbols.
do you believe there are different species'? species' are symbols.
colors. genders. math. time. all of these things are abstractions of sensory experiences. consumer culture creates feedback loops of abstraction (symbols of symbols, plastic christmas trees etc). and the confusion of "symbols of symbols" for "mere symbols" is not unconcerning! (these feedback loops exist outside of consumerism too: countries, laws, genders, religions, etc. are all symbolic of symbolic things imo) but if the problem of hyperrealism is the occupation with abstractions then you need to look deeper than consumerism. to get in touch with what's real you need to observe the universe without language. and odds are, without the help of hallucinogenic drugs, you probably can't.
in my mind the confusion with symbols for reality is the very thing that separates the humans (one abstract symbol) from the animals (another abstract symbol).
