What is Real? (Three Levels of Reality)

Everything is more complex than we generally think. What we experience daily is thought to be unquestionably “real.” Yet the deeper we look, the more we realize that reality is at least three-layered—shaped by our seeing, sustained by our shared meanings, and rooted in ultimate truth that, according to AI, “precedes us, holds us, and does not depend on our perception to be real.” 

Level one: From the time we get up in the morning until bedtime each night, we have no question that the family members we greet, what we eat for breakfast, the news we read in paper or online, the car we drive to work or to the store, the work we do by our hands or on the computer, etc., etc. are all real.

On this first level of reality, the question of what is real is seldom raised, as there is no need at all to doubt it. But there are other levels that many people do think about, although it seems that there are some who are content to live their lives only on this first level. For them it may be true, to a certain extent, that “ignorance is bliss.”

Level two: Things get more complicated when we enter the realm of thought and reflection rather than remaining in the world as experienced by our five senses. Further consideration indicates that much of what we consider real is actually socially constructed.

Peter L. Berger (1929~2017) was an Austrian‑born American sociologist and Protestant theologian, best known for his work in the sociology of knowledge and of religion. He ended his long teaching career as University Professor of Sociology and Theology at Boston University from 1981 until his retirement in 2009.

Berger’s book, The Social Construction of Reality (1966), co-authored with Thomas Luckmann (1927~2016), is a classic in the sociology of knowledge. It asserts that what we humans experience as “reality” in everyday life is largely a human, social product rather than a fixed, purely objective given.**

In their book, Berger and Luckmann introduce the concept of “plausibility structures,” and Berger further develops that idea in his next book, The Sacred Canopy (1967). That concept was then popularized by the British theologian Lesslie Newbigin in his influential book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (1989).

In July 2018, I posted a blog article titled “There Really Are ‘Alternative Facts’," and I encourage you to read that important post (here). The point is that on this second level, “facts” are only what the society one belongs to agrees upon as being real or true. For example, for those who are die-hard MAGA supporters, whatever the POTUS says is considered true and trustworthy.

On the other hand, most of the rest of us are painfully aware that every day he says things that are false or misleading. We so often disagree with what he claims to be factually true. Our plausibility structure is based on the anti-Trump Democrats and Independents who think that much of what he says is neither true nor trustworthy.

So, what is “real” in this case? The answer depends almost entirely upon the “society” to which we belong. Thus, what we consider to be real in the realm of religion, philosophy, and politics is socially constructed, formed by our thought-community.

Level three: Finally, we are challenged to consider whether there is ultimate reality, and if so, what that might be. From the ancient past, there have been some/many who have explored the profoundly important metaphysical and religious question of what is ultimately real.

There are those, of course, who don’t acknowledge this third level. But I believe AI is right: ultimate reality “precedes us, holds us, and does not depend on our perception to be real.” Most of us need to spend more time and effort exploring, evaluating, and engaging with this level of reality. While it may or may not be “blissful,” that is where we find the real meaning of life.

_____

** In addition to this seminal book, Berger is also the author of two significant sociological/theological works: The Sacred Canopy (1967), a foundational text in the sociology of religion, exploring religion as a protective framework for understanding existence amid modernity, and A Rumor of Angels (1969), which examines signals of transcendence in modern society, challenging secularization theories. In addition, he is also the editor of a much later book of interest, Between Relativism and Fundamentalism (2010).

In Memory of LBJ

 Lyndon Baines Johnson was never one of my favorite presidents as a man—he seemed quite unrefined, especially compared with the suave John F. Kennedy whom he succeeded after JFK’s shocking assassination. Yet I’ve come to rank him among America’s most effective presidents, thanks to his unmatched legislative triumphs like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. 

Those of you who were born by 1950 certainly remember Kennedy’s assassination on November 23, 1963, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson’s sudden elevation to the presidency aboard Air Force One on that fateful day.

Although Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for president, JFK (who was nine years younger) secured that nomination on the first ballot at the July 1960 Democratic National Convention. He then promptly selected a running mate, offering that position to Senate Majority Leader Johnson, who had placed second in the presidential balloting.

Johnson thus became the 36^th POTUS and was elected for a full four-year term by a landslide in the 1964 election. By that time, he was widely known as just LBJ, and in that presidential campaign he widely used the phrases “All the way with LBJ” and “LBJ for the USA.” 

LBJ was born in Texas in 1908, and in 1930 he graduated from what is now Texas State University in San Marcos with a Bachelor of Science in history and a high school teaching certificate. (TXST compares unfavorably with the other two public Texas Universities, UT Austin and TAMU.) He taught at Sam Houston High School in 1930-31 and also entered politics that year.

Johnson served as a congressional aide from 1931 until 1937, the year he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for over 23 years. In 1949 he was elected as a U.S. senator, and he served as the Democratic whip from 1951 until 1953.

In January 1953, LBJ was chosen as Senate minority leader by his fellow Democrats, the most junior senator ever elected to that position. In 1954, Johnson was re-elected, and since the Democrats won the majority in the Senate, he became the majority leader, and some say he was the most effective Senate majority leader ever.

The first years after LBJ’s election as POTUS in 1964 were highly successful. Many months ago, I first thought about writing this tribute to Pres. Johnson upon thinking about the importance of the legislation he was able to pass in 1964 and ’65. I didn’t realize at the time, though, that it was partly because he was finalizing the legislation initiated by JFK.

That connection was portrayed well by the 2016 movie LBJ. Although it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, it didn’t reach theaters until November 2017. I wish it had been released immediately after it premiered, as it could well have changed the outcome of that very close, and very unsatisfactory, 2016 presidential election.

The film, which I don’t know why June and I didn’t watch in 2017, didn’t make me think any more highly of LBJ as a man; I didn’t like his cussing and crudeness at any point in his life. But it did cause me to think even more highly of him as a president and helped me to agree with a recent ranking of Johnson as the ninth best president in U.S. history, one notch above JFK.

If you are at all interested in learning more about one of the most prominent U.S. presidents, I encourage you to watch the movie LBJ, which was directed by Rob Reiner, who was tragically stabbed to death two months ago (in Dec. 2025). It is available for free streaming on Kanopy, available on DVD in many public libraries, and for rent at just $4 at Prime Video.

LBJ, quite unlike the current POTUS, was a man of integrity, who overcame his southern prejudices and signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. In spite of his later over-involvement with the Indochina War in the 1960s, he is a man well worth remembering and honoring still.

The Affordability Conundrum

According to a recent online post by CNBC, “Affordability is a buzzword right now.” That certainly seems to be the case, but what does affordable mean? Dictionaries define affordable as “able to be afforded” or “having a cost that is not too high”—but those definitions are so ambiguous they have little meaning. Despite its current popularity, affordability seems clearly to be a conundrum. 

Marked cost-of-living increases in the past year have sparked widespread discussion about affordability. In campaigning for the 2024 election, the current POTUS promised that “starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again.”

In a September 2024 speech, Trump promised to get gasoline “below 2 dollars a gallon,” and said this would bring down “the price of everything from electricity rates to groceries, airfares, and housing costs.” Obviously, that hasn’t happened, so what the president says about affordability and what a majority of the voters perceive is a distinct part of the affordability conundrum.

In 2025, gas prices did go down by about 30 cents a gallon (from an average of $3.10 to about $2.80). That has made gasoline more affordable, but $2.80 is a long way from below $2.00—and that decrease is mostly due to lower crude oil prices and weaker global demand rather than due to something Trump did or didn’t do. No president has much influence on gas prices.

As you know, the Olympic Winter Games are now in progress, but the drawing for inexpensive tickets for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles went on sale last month. In fact, I decided to write this blog article when I saw an announcement saying, “Affordable tickets for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics start at $28.”

But, I thought, what about travel and lodging expenses? What is the use of buying an affordable ticket if you don’t have enough money for traveling to LA or staying in a hotel there? According to AI, it is estimated that round-trip flights from Kansas City (where I live) to LA will likely be $400 to $800, and a two-night stay in a LA hotel about the same—a minimum of $1,200 for one person!

So, the “affordable” ticket ends up not seeming so affordable after all.

What about “affordable housing”? There is much in the news media about that issue currently. What is termed affordable housing typically limits costs to 30% of household income to avoid burdening limited means. Obviously, what is “affordable” for middle- and top-income households is certainly not affordable for low-income families.

“Affordable groceries” also depends on one’s income. From what I have found, low-income households spend almost 33% of their after-tax income on food. According to 2023 USDA data, those in the lowest income quintile have an average after-tax income of $16,171, and the average spent annually for food was $5,278.

That percentage of income far exceeds the 10-15% typical for median earners and especially the slightly more than 8% for high earners. And my guess is that the median- and certainly the high-earners eat far better (more delicious and more nutritious) food than low-income people. So, affordability relates to far more than just how much something costs.

The most reasonable approach to affordability seems to be with those who advocate democratic socialism, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York City (the same three I also mentioned at the end of my Nov. 10 blog post).

Mayor Mamdani has repeatedly said that affordability is the central crisis facing New Yorkers, and he frames most major policy proposals around lowering the cost of living for working‑class residents. His public statements emphasize rent relief, affordable housing construction, cheaper essentials, and investments that help families stay in the city.

Mamdani links affordability to daily essentials, proposing city‑owned grocery stores to reduce food prices; fast, fare‑free buses to cut transportation costs; no‑cost childcare and support for newborns. He argues these reduce the financial burden on families and help them remain in the city. This, he says, can and will be done by levying higher taxes on those who are wealthy.

So, as we think about the affordability conundrum, let’s consider what that means for all our fellow citizens and not just for us in the middle class. And let’s continue to oppose the present administration’s policies that have shifted so much money from the lower classes to the billionaires who are profiting “bigly” from their benefactor in the White House.