Nonreality

Hypereality was the state of Western society, now we have Nonreality.

Nonreality is not nothingness, nothingness confirms flux - it is the perception of, or value attributed to things rather than the absence of things.

Nonreality is the dismantling of Western culture and, at the same time, its resistance to this. Hypereality emerges when the significance of things outweigh the function or substance of things.

Nonreality is where the significance of things does not match the thing it signifies. Therefore, the "Hypereal linkage", where value shifted from things to their representation, has been broken. In other words, significance has lost contact with the thing that it originally signified.

One could argue that an artificial Christmas tree is a good example of Hypereality. This is because the actual tree is no longer present, only a representation is left. A sign, to appropriate meaning, rather than the actual thing its self.

A Nonreal Christmas may just include the presents and no artificial tree. Therefore the celebration of Christmas loses any contact with its original meaning, actual or signified. Instead Christmas becomes a celebration of a commercialised culture, that is at odds with the original intent of Christmas.

Hypereality functioned in the sense of representational meanings, that helped people to make sense of the world, even if though the original things have been lost.

Nonreality is a dislocation of represented things to their representational meaning. In other words we have not just compromised substance, we can no longer see the sense of these values that represented substance, by proxy. Therefore, we have an "arbitrary surface" in Western society. In other words, constant flux built around uncertain values.

Nonreality confirms Derrida's (and others') theory of Deconstructionism. The written word is toppling from its pre-eminent position in Western society. It has now reached the stage where the words used in the English language can no longer describe the experiences of individuals living in the west. This can be seen in textual art and poetic experiments, that can be viewed mainly on the Internet.

To comprehend Nonreality one must consider various social movements, occurrences and societal trends within the West, that have occurred over recent decades. Some I will list here;

- The ascent of technology, resulting in greater communications and travel.

- The current state of economies and employment in Western countries.

- The current malaise in Western politics.

- The ascent of multiculturalism.

- The ascent of feminism and changing roles for women.

- The increasing emphasis on business and profitability.

- The increasing amount of education, training and information available to people.