Delusions in Illusions

Buzz Submitted by : Dr. Ali Anani

Buzz : Emerging Illusions

In his buzz "Emerging Illusions" Ali Anani explores the relationship between influence and the impact of illusion on that influence

"Emerging Illusions" is a brilliant buzz from Ali 🐝 Anani, Brand Ambassador @beBee He covers various forms of illusions that go well beyond studies of bias. He covers the effect of networks and covers them through lens of different illusions, including assumption illusions, conflict illusions, leadership illusions and the most widespread illusion of all, which is what I am focusing on here, which is the marketing illusion.  Our delusions stem from that and no one is free of those so long as one remains conditioned by a marketed society.

Marketing in itself is the illusion but our delusion does not derive from marketing, but our dependencies.  We are not independent even though we like lying to ourselves that we are.  These lies we tell ourselves are easy to prove because if we abandoned societal existence and chose to live in a wilderness untouched by our society, we will soon realize just how dependent we are on the functions and services that society provides that is built into the phrase "making a living".  In that dependency we exist in our animal rather than human state. 

One day we will become more self-sufficient in our ways and while we engage green delusions that mimic self-sufficiency, all of us are integrated into the network and the fragility of the network begins with basics like electricity, water and logistics. Through that dependency we have created creative illusions.  Not all illusions are bad, some illusions of freedom serve us to inch us in very tiny ways to a freedom that may in reality be impossible, but it is an illusion of freedom, which is better than having no freedom at all.

The starting point of understanding delusions in our illusions is recognizing what we really fear and the extent of our vulnerability.  That vulnerability while a source for delusions, are only delusions because we do not like to stare into the face of that vulnerability, though art, comedy and music are vehicles we express that vulnerability more easily, it is still a challenge for many to face such truths. This can be exemplified in the lyrics of a song by VNV Nation called "Illusion" :