Sousreal • (su-rēal) • adj.
Definition: Beneath reality
Origin: The Sustainable Culture Lab
A subtle but growing frustration of mine in the last several years has been the misuse of the word “surreal.” We often use this word to describe something that merely does not seem real, however, this is not its actual meaning. Surreal derives from the French surréalité and “sur” means “above” or “super.” Surreal is supposed to mean “above reality,” and is akin to a dream-like state where the oppressive limitations of life have been shattered and we have an elevated existence.
In the first Manifeste du Surréalisme published in 1924, French writer André Breton articulated that the aspiration of surrealism was to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality.” From “super-reality” came surréalité. Surreal has an inherently positive meaning, and so my frustration with the word’s misuse only grew over the last four years as Americans used “surreal” to describe the anything but super actions of Donald Trump.
After each press conference where Trump spewed lies, conspiracy theories, and sunk lower into the abyss, I would hear a political pundit and everyday Americans describe his actions as “surreal.” They did not want to believe that this was our reality and used “surreal” to articulate the situation, but there was nothing above-reality about Trump. Instead, there were plenty of “below-reality” things about him and we simply did not have the word to describe this iteration of reality. Sousreal can be this word.
Beneath Reality
Over the last four years, Trump’s actions would frequently be described as a new low, and then as he repeated the new low over and over again it became our new normal. Once we became accustomed to our normalized lowness, he would go even lower. The need for him to elevate himself to the dignity of the presidency became imperative, yet we knew he was incapable of elevating himself. This week, Trump sunk to another low as he challenged the integrity of our democracy because he cannot accept that he has lost the White House. Over the next couple of weeks, I am sure he will find a way to unearth another new low, but the key takeaway is that Trump’s actions are beneath us. They are beneath what we would like our reality to be, which makes his actions sousreal.
I coined this word by substituting the French “sur” with “sous,” which means “below,” and I was first inspired to formulate sousreal after visiting the “Manifesto: Art x Agency” exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. The exhibition focused on how the combination of philosophers and artists has a history of making sustainable and revolutionary change. The exhibition spoke to a core principle of The Sustainable Culture Lab, so I wanted to visit and possibly gain new insights on how to better shape the organization.
One of the various manifestos in the exhibition that combined art and philosophy was Surrealism, and being reminded of the importance of dreams and a higher existence further clarified my innate frustration with the growing misuse of the word. Americans were using a word created to describe a dream-like state to instead describe a living nightmare. It was at this moment that I thought about the necessity of coining a word to articulate the opposite of surreal.
A Sousreal Existence
Earlier this week, I was talking to a friend about this week’s newsletter, and they asked me if we even need the word “sousreal.” They understood the distinction between surreal and sousreal, but wondered if our current usage of surreal was as problematic as I made it out to be. This was a great question and it also highlighted our normalized sousreal way of life.
By using a word created to describe an elevated way of life to instead describe a low existence, we are now using a word intended for something good to describe something bad. We are using good words to describe bad actions, and in doing so, we normalize these bad actions and give them the façade of good actions. This also dilutes our ability to do good actions when our words intended for these actions are also being used to articulate terrible ones.
If Donald Trump does something so bad that it makes you question if his actions are even real, and the word we use to describe this horror actually means “higher reality,” we tacitly and linguistically condone his actions when we believe that we are condemning them. We have to have words to distinguish between good and bad because otherwise, it will become far too easy for the word “good” to be used to describe both good and bad actions. When a language has been corrupted, it loses its meaning, and the people who aspire to do good and prevent bad things literally do not have the language to articulate this core human necessity. This in and of itself equates to a sousreal existence.
Sousreal makes it easier to articulate a nightmarish status quo, and it also liberates surreal to be used for its intended purpose. I remember when Barack Obama became president, millions of Americans expressed that a Black president represented a higher reality that many people doubted America would ever obtain. Obama’s victory felt like a dream. It was surreal, and the Obama administration’s mantra has always been “When they go low, we go high.” It is beneath us to equate low with high and to use the same word to describe Barack Obama’s victory with Trump’s daily embarrassment.
On Saturday, the news networks announced that Joe Biden had won the state of Pennsylvania and its twenty Electoral College votes, making him the next president of the United States. Immediately after the news broke, I could hear the jubilation in the streets. Car horns were honked, music was played, people began to dance, and soon the party gravitated down to the White House. This euphoria spread across the country and the majority of America danced together. Today’s actions are not our normal reality. It was like a dream. It is a dream we would like to live again. It was surreal.
We need the word sousreal to both appreciate the surreal and to prevent us from normalizing a sousreal way of life.