Socially shared illusion functions as a second reality for participants

Evidence

Essentially the ontological opposition of reality and illusion is inappropriate for the comprehension of this reflexive relationship. For what we call illusion is reality, if it is used as a premise for further experience and action. It is a second reality. The reality of symbolically represented identities, the reality of the social reduction of complexity, is certainly particularly susceptible to disturbance. In the end, however, every reality can be destroyed. That alone is no reason to call what can be destroyed ‘illusion’ and what destroys ‘reality’. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 254

Categorization

• XREF: Doors this open: Stevens’s loyalty to Darlington’s world is ‘second reality’ subscribed to as premise for action — the made world is real because it structures action. Connects to Luhmann’s social reduction of complexity. — connects to: Group membership socializes paranoia by collectivizing shared delusion — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 156; Shared reality is woven from irreducibly perspectival individual experience — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 988; Shared social reinforcement amplifies irrational rationalization of mistaken beliefs — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 88 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: Dense philosophical reframing: the reality/illusion dichotomy is dissolved — anything can be destroyed, so calling manufactured social worlds ‘illusion’ says nothing. Repays long sitting with it.