Illusion or Reality?
What happened in the society seems real as much as a dream seems like an illusion to us.
The main differences between a dream and what is happening are tangibility and control.
Things that cannot be controlled, have no tangible aspect do not mean that they are not real.
They can be both real, and unreal sometimes. It depends on what position we want to place ourselves when we perceive them.
When you observed and hear the fact that an apple is red, to second-guess it does not seems like a good idea. And then you ask people around you to check whether the fact is true, it is likely that the answer is a yes.
What a majority has agreed upon does not makes the thing real either. When you ask a color-blind people, the apple is not in red.
Don't believe in what you perceive. Believe in what you think you will be able to conceive instead.
Especially in the case of ideation in design, the possibility is crucial.
Perhaps in between what is real and surreal, the great painter Salvador Dali knew it better.