To Be is to Be Perceived: Falling Trees in the Woods

Like Xeno’s paradox, the counter-intuitive claim of Bishop Berkeley (pronounced Bark-lee for some strange reason) that esse est percipi, to be is to be perceived, is difficult to refute. The good bishop argued the world outside of us is only collection of ideas, dependent on the mind. It is difficult to refute, in part because the world outside of us intersects with us through our minds. “If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound” with a strong, The Bishop declares, “No.”

Perception, in our day, however, seems to reach our minds, more often than not, through our screens. We have moved from “To be is to be perceived” to “To be is to be on TV.” Our self-worth is often measured in followers, subscribers, interactions on everything from Twitter to Youtube to Tiktok. The democratization of other people’s attention has put us all in a contest we cannot win.

There are, however, blessings as well. You and I know about the recent beatings in Cincinnati not because Walter Cronkite told us, but because of social media. The rotting husks of national media, at least those outlets on the left, didn’t cover the story at all. For two days ABC and NBC news said not a word about Tulsi Gabbard’s release of formerly classified documents that may implicate President Obama.

The utter silence by legacy media about President Biden’s mental decline is yet another example of the hope some have that if a story isn’t covered, it means it didn’t happen. Indeed we ought to be shocked that there has been no story from the MSM on their failure to report that story. They seem to be hoping we’ll forget. Probably with good reason.

“Curating” the news, determining what is news and what is not, may have been weakened by social media. But it’s not dead yet. Even when social media allows a story to get out, it rarely allows for it to stay relevant. Remember the mysterious orbs from late 2024? Of course you don’t, except that I reminded you. No explanation has come forth. But no one seems to care. The story is no more.

There is, however, one that perceives all things. He is in turn the all-powerful judge of heaven and earth. We who affirm both this world and the next are real walk in confidence that justice will be done. There is nothing wrong with being informed. But we need not despair over what we do not know, nor what we know and others do not. He knows. And He reigns. He has promised us that all will be revealed and that justice will be done.