With the main problem being in how malleable any one of us can take that abstraction to illogical ends, while insisting that it's not illogical at all. Fanatics and morons alike lack limits to illogical thinking.
In a sense, we can create our own realities and impose our vision of reality on to others, people with whom we have no virtual contact at all... (as well as environments we're separate, as you've pointed out.) I think that one of our greatest attributes is one of utter self-delusion.
This is, of course, the playground for the propagandists and polemicists, as well as the narrow minded. I'm quite sure that history as we know it is one great false narrative. Rather than the story itself, my first thought is to consider the motives of those who tell their story and rarely assign any objectively to it.
The more disconnected we are, the more impetus that we have to form connections, even if they're falsely arranged. We all have incentives to be led. Objective truths are rarely universally accepted, especially when they put our own investments at a disadvantage.
What's imagination and what's real? What gaps of fallacy are we willing to fall into and yet deny that we've fallen into them?
I wish that I had some answers, if in only to approximate some accuracy in my extrapolations. But, I lack a formal education and haven't taken the time to do more research, reading those who have taken much more time than I have thinking about this stuff. I'm quite sure that I'm treading well worn ground here, in my own haphazard way.
I am sure of one thing though, that were I to learn more, I would come to the immediate conclusion that I really don't know as much as I thought I did. More answers alway bring more questions.
What I'd love to do, however, is take my own abstractions into the realm of writing science fiction. Something positive. Extrapolate and build new symbols. It may never come to pass, but it's not intended to.
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