Perception is Everything

Beau Otto made some interesting observations and formulated some mind-blowing statements in his presentation on optical illusions. He pointed mainly, to how the human perceives information that the brain records. The human brain is a complex thing, and the way you see something, in a certain light, or what your mind tells you what you are seeing is truly amazing. Sometimes this can alter the way a person thinks or acts and can change their life forever.
The way people perceive something can leave a lasting impression on them forever. It could even be the simplest of ideas that throws off the way you think, act or make decisions. The way our lives are lived, is by the way that we perceive things. For example, the optical illusion of the shapes near the beginning of his presentation was intended to make us see something that was the same but looked different. This is a great example that follows us through life. You can't judge a book from its cover. The illusion made us see something different when it was in fact the same. This clearly ties into the concept of racism. We may look different on the outside but on the inside, we are really all the same.
The world operates on the idea of perception. If we look in nature we see the defense systems of thousands of different animals and organisms. In reality, these critters are using, not only disguise, but perception to their advantage. They may spread their wings and blend into a tree to escape danger, and everything around them perceives them as a part of nature. They, as well as many other things, including people, use these strategies to their advantage. This connects to the "loners" and "uncool" people of society. They alter their image to change the way that people perceive them. The world revolves around the ideology of perception and the people of society rely on it without even realizing it. Perception rules all, perception is everything.