Reality is distinguished from assumptions, presumptions and suppositions, imagination, wishful thinking, illusions, desires and dreams. ‘Titanic will never sink’. ‘Sun never sets in the British Empire’. were some of the assumptions of the past which were falsified. Churchill and others closed their eyes to reality: the collapse of colonialism.
Think of the Detroit of 1950/60s: Ford, GM and Chrysler, the big three of U.S. auto industry. Think of Kodak camera and films. Who would have thought that the Soviet empire will crumble or the German wall will be demolished. The changing reality forced us to change our world view. We can foresee certain changes but many come like an avalanche, unannounced and sudden.
The subterranean shifts take time to show in the surface. But there is no stopping of it. The improbable happens. This is the new reality. Even this reality, the present, is not permanent. Subtle changes....
