Question Reality

"Question reality" was a popular slogan found on bumper stickers, typically positioned on the back of Volkswagen buses, back in the 60s. Popularized by hippie psychologist Timothy Leary, many have pointed out the fact that the phrase can be traced to the Greek philosophy Socrates.

The slogan focused on the counterculture movement, which opposed escalation of the Vietnam War, and supported the free speech and civil rights movements, Earth Day and other popular issues of the day. Later, a variation of that phrase on bumper stickers morphed into "question reality."

So it was interesting to participate in a Zoom session with students from the UO chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America as they interviewed public relations and advertising professionals, all recent graduates, in a question and answer session recently.

The final question, as posed to the professionals in attendance by the moderator of the Zoom session, was this: "What have you been doing, other than work, to navigate through the pandemic." To a person, they all responded with "reality television" like "The Bachelor" and others.

My "reality television" has been the news: the daily pandemic numbers (and now vaccination numbers), the presidential election and most recently, the impeachment trial. As I heard the professionals respond to the question, I couldn't help but think that the 24-hour news cycle provides plenty of reality.

There is, of course a certain paradox in the defense team for a reality-show president complaining about the use of visual images in the impeachment trial that  the longtime star of "Celebrity Apprentice" could appreciate. Perhaps it's just a case of "live by the sword, die by the sword."