Image courtesy of cesr.org
This post begins a series to recognize people that speak about the world in terms of what they observe and what they can prove. Their voices stand out in the crowd. In their words, they speak not of fantasy, delusion and rationalization. Instead, they utilize the gifts of human cognition, awareness to observe what is here in the world around us. They are not dogmatic, but analytic and take in the world 'warts & all' for what it is and what it is not. They do not separate humankind from nature in any form of grandeur. In short, they look at things the way they really are and not what we would have them be.
Note: The term 'reality' is subjective because of differing perspectives from one person to another. Our individual experiences with language, sensory perception and associative cognition all conspire to individuate and isolate us from each other. The differences can range from miniscule to incomprehensible.
Then, there are shared agreements of 'reality' that occur nonetheless. We can look at a mass grave and all agree that there are dead people there.
Given all of this, it's a wonder we communicate at all.
On to Arundhati Roy. I first learned of her this year. John Cusack quoted her in this article about his film "War, Inc."
