Dempsey is showing that there are many layers to our perception of reality. It makes Orientation difficult to achieve because reality is not easily perceived as "reality is what I perceive it to be." In my Spectacle of the Real idea (https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/the-spectacle-of-the-real-series), I see that Orientation is a product of recognizing the context that we are in. Today, the context is one of images all mashed up together to create a simulated worldview. Guy Debord wrote, "The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images." The image context is a context of appearance, not of reality. The three ways of learning that Dempsey describes provides an antidote to the impression that everything we see is actually what it claims to represent. From this perspective, Orientation is not a mental reorientation, but a fully embodied one.
The more I have thought about these things, the more I realize two important truths. One is that we cannot know anything fully without deep interaction with people. Our relationships, live in conversation, provide a more existentially real context for Orientation. Two is that it is abundantly clear to me that our problems with Orientation are a product of a social and organizational structure that I call "systems of typicality." By this, I see that difference was to be avoided or destroyed all together. What is emerging, as Dempsey may be describing, is the reality that the more we are individually different from one another, that greater OUR capacity to reorient the world grows. I am thinking of our friend Sarah Kernion and her advocacy for people who are neurodiverse. See my interview with her - https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/sarah-kernion-life-in-a-neurodiverse. There is a convergence of experiences that can all be brought into the container of Orientation. I am finding this to be increasingly true as I seek to understand the inherent, native differences of the people who I encounter everyday. I look forward to reading Dempsey. Thanks for the recommendation.
Dempsey is showing that there are many layers to our perception of reality. It makes Orientation difficult to achieve because reality is not easily perceived as "reality is what I perceive it to be." In my Spectacle of the Real idea (https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/the-spectacle-of-the-real-series), I see that Orientation is a product of recognizing the context that we are in. Today, the context is one of images all mashed up together to create a simulated worldview. Guy Debord wrote, "The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images." The image context is a context of appearance, not of reality. The three ways of learning that Dempsey describes provides an antidote to the impression that everything we see is actually what it claims to represent. From this perspective, Orientation is not a mental reorientation, but a fully embodied one.
The more I have thought about these things, the more I realize two important truths. One is that we cannot know anything fully without deep interaction with people. Our relationships, live in conversation, provide a more existentially real context for Orientation. Two is that it is abundantly clear to me that our problems with Orientation are a product of a social and organizational structure that I call "systems of typicality." By this, I see that difference was to be avoided or destroyed all together. What is emerging, as Dempsey may be describing, is the reality that the more we are individually different from one another, that greater OUR capacity to reorient the world grows. I am thinking of our friend Sarah Kernion and her advocacy for people who are neurodiverse. See my interview with her - https://edbrenegar.substack.com/p/sarah-kernion-life-in-a-neurodiverse. There is a convergence of experiences that can all be brought into the container of Orientation. I am finding this to be increasingly true as I seek to understand the inherent, native differences of the people who I encounter everyday. I look forward to reading Dempsey. Thanks for the recommendation.