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The Nature of the Consensus
What is the nature of the Consensus?
First, there's the “Consensual Reality” bit, in that Sleepers can't influence reality unless their collective beliefs are aligned: a minority view isn't going to be strong enough to overpower a majority view, all else being equal; and even a majority view may not take hold, if it's opposed by a substantial minority. There's also the matter of Mythic Threads and Hypernarratives, where minority beliefs do have some influence, generally by not directly opposing the majority view: see the last paragraph of the Significant Instruments box on p.588.
Then there's the fact that Consensus beliefs tend to be localized — or, put another way, the Correspondence Range chart applies to the Consensus every bit as much as it does to the Awakened (likewise with other “separation factors” such as the Time chart and Spirit's Gauntlet ratings; more on these below). The influence of any given Sleeper's beliefs is strongest in his immediate vicinity, and gets weaker as his familiarity with the subject decreases. This is where Reality Zones come from: the residents of a small town have more influence on the nature of reality in that town than they do in the neighboring town, and vice versa. This means that the VA efforts at getting Sleepers to transcend distance (culminating in the Internet) leads to a more homogeneous overall Consensus, as the influence of any given Sleeper can be spread far and wide. Ironically, the fact that the Consensus isn't homogeneous means that it's possible for localized reality zones to suffer from various types of Quiet: the entry for Irrationality Zones (under Localized Reality) ends with a mention of Irrationality Zones that have succumbed to Denial; and more generally, Irrationality Zones can be thought of as pockets of the Consensus that have succumbed to Quiet, usually manifesting as Madness.
But third, you have Earthly Foundations: aspects of reality that prove stubbornly resistant to the influence of the Consensus. There are several schools of thought about why Earthly Foundations exist: there may indeed be certain truths that are hardwired into reality, and are innately true (what MRev referred to as Cosmological Constants; the opening paragraphs of Technocratic Reality implies that much of modern physics is in fact this kind of Earthly Foundation, with technomagick being an extrapolation on innate truths built into the fabric of reality); there may be influences from other times that are strong enough to endure even in the face of an opposing Consensus today (Historical Inertia; note that the nature of Time is such that the past influences the future much more readily than vice versa); and there may be inhuman entities capable of influencing reality, such as the Greater Spirit Entities mentioned on pp.486–487 or rare Lesser Entities (same pages) that have somehow acquired Avatar-like abilities (arguably, the Technocray's efforts to strengthen the Gauntlet are as much to isolate Conventional Space from these ultraterrestrial influences, granting the Consensus of humanity more of a monopoly on this side of the barrier — which is only effective to the extent that the entity in question is confined to the other side). But regardless of why, the result is the same: there are some things that will be true (or false, as the case may be) even if the local consensus of humanity says otherwise. Note that this allows for a more widespread version of the aforementioned “pockets of Quiet”: an overall disbelief in an Earthly Foundation is arguably an overall case of Consensual Denial.
That third point is especially significant, since it drives home an important truth — that the Consensus and Reality are not interchangeable terms: the Consensus influences Reality, just as the Awakened do; but it doesn't define Reality. Put more bluntly, Reality doesn't need Magick. This is something that mages generally don't dwell on, since accepting it requires a humility that tends to run counter to the pride that exists at the heart of Magick. But just because you don't believe something, that doesn't make it false.
First, there's the “Consensual Reality” bit, in that Sleepers can't influence reality unless their collective beliefs are aligned: a minority view isn't going to be strong enough to overpower a majority view, all else being equal; and even a majority view may not take hold, if it's opposed by a substantial minority. There's also the matter of Mythic Threads and Hypernarratives, where minority beliefs do have some influence, generally by not directly opposing the majority view: see the last paragraph of the Significant Instruments box on p.588.
Then there's the fact that Consensus beliefs tend to be localized — or, put another way, the Correspondence Range chart applies to the Consensus every bit as much as it does to the Awakened (likewise with other “separation factors” such as the Time chart and Spirit's Gauntlet ratings; more on these below). The influence of any given Sleeper's beliefs is strongest in his immediate vicinity, and gets weaker as his familiarity with the subject decreases. This is where Reality Zones come from: the residents of a small town have more influence on the nature of reality in that town than they do in the neighboring town, and vice versa. This means that the VA efforts at getting Sleepers to transcend distance (culminating in the Internet) leads to a more homogeneous overall Consensus, as the influence of any given Sleeper can be spread far and wide. Ironically, the fact that the Consensus isn't homogeneous means that it's possible for localized reality zones to suffer from various types of Quiet: the entry for Irrationality Zones (under Localized Reality) ends with a mention of Irrationality Zones that have succumbed to Denial; and more generally, Irrationality Zones can be thought of as pockets of the Consensus that have succumbed to Quiet, usually manifesting as Madness.
But third, you have Earthly Foundations: aspects of reality that prove stubbornly resistant to the influence of the Consensus. There are several schools of thought about why Earthly Foundations exist: there may indeed be certain truths that are hardwired into reality, and are innately true (what MRev referred to as Cosmological Constants; the opening paragraphs of Technocratic Reality implies that much of modern physics is in fact this kind of Earthly Foundation, with technomagick being an extrapolation on innate truths built into the fabric of reality); there may be influences from other times that are strong enough to endure even in the face of an opposing Consensus today (Historical Inertia; note that the nature of Time is such that the past influences the future much more readily than vice versa); and there may be inhuman entities capable of influencing reality, such as the Greater Spirit Entities mentioned on pp.486–487 or rare Lesser Entities (same pages) that have somehow acquired Avatar-like abilities (arguably, the Technocray's efforts to strengthen the Gauntlet are as much to isolate Conventional Space from these ultraterrestrial influences, granting the Consensus of humanity more of a monopoly on this side of the barrier — which is only effective to the extent that the entity in question is confined to the other side). But regardless of why, the result is the same: there are some things that will be true (or false, as the case may be) even if the local consensus of humanity says otherwise. Note that this allows for a more widespread version of the aforementioned “pockets of Quiet”: an overall disbelief in an Earthly Foundation is arguably an overall case of Consensual Denial.
That third point is especially significant, since it drives home an important truth — that the Consensus and Reality are not interchangeable terms: the Consensus influences Reality, just as the Awakened do; but it doesn't define Reality. Put more bluntly, Reality doesn't need Magick. This is something that mages generally don't dwell on, since accepting it requires a humility that tends to run counter to the pride that exists at the heart of Magick. But just because you don't believe something, that doesn't make it false.
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