Perception Vs Reality

Do we worry too much about opinion, and care too less about the truth?
Hence do we end up being controlled by popular perception, rather than grounded in personal reality?
Is it surprising that we lose our freedom and feel torn apart? Stressed out?

Isn't justifying all of it saying "Perception is reality" another way of saying "Why bother about the truth, if nobody's going to AGREE to it anyway?" Which soon becomes "Find the popular perception, and conform to it"

We follow someone else's path, reach someone else's destination; and then wonder how we got lost. We are too lazy to challenge convention, and wonder why we are not innovative. We try hard to conform, sometimes even win the contest - and then wonder when we lost our originality.

The winner in a popularity contest, is not the best original but the best conformist. The first rule of the rat-race is that everybody has to run on the same path.

The first rule of the rat-race is that everybody has to run on the same path.

The problem is not that being in touch with reality is difficult. The problem is in thinking that it is pointless. The problem is not in failing to 'find the truth', or in never succeeding. It is in thinking that it's not worth trying. In thinking that it is a point to be reached, when in fact it is a constant process.