Inventing the Social World
by
Charles Lamson
A dollar bill is just a piece of paper. Although it is nicely printed, it is not a precious work of art. So how can a dollar bill have value? Why should anyone trade a cup of coffee for a piece of paper? It can only be because people with coffee believe that paper money can be traded for things they want. If people did not believe that paper money could be traded for things they want. such money would be worthless.
The power and reality of money derive from shared belief, nothing more. People who have lots of money are powerful because they can use their money to get others to work for them. If no one would trade goods or services for money, having money would bring a person no power. For money to bring power, people must create and share a belief in its value - and then they must act as if that belief were true.
Think of the diplomas you have or will get. You probably hope that these pieces of paper will help you get a job. But why should anyone give you a job because of a piece of paper? A diploma is no proof that you are competent, honest, or hardworking. If a diploma helps you get a job, it is only because an employer believes that in getting the diploma, you acquired skills and habits that will make you a good worker. If employers stopped believing this, diplomas would be worthless in the labor market, and many schools would be empty.
Wars could not happen without shared belief. If a teacher said to you, "The students in the back row are evil, and you must kill them before they kill you," you would probably not rise up and attack anybody. But suppose the president went on television and said, "The people in Oceania are evil and want to destroy our way of life, so we must bomb them before they attack us." Would you cheer as the bombs fell? Many people would, even though they knew nothing about the people in Oceania.
For wars to happen, people in one country must believe that ordinary people in another country are a serious threat; that politicians tell the truth; that it is okay to kill if an elected official says so; and that there is no peaceful way to resolve conflict. When these beliefs are plainly stated, they seem so unlikely to be true, that it is astounding that wars ever occur. Yet wars involving millions of people have occurred, and still do. We can see from this that shared belief is enormously consequential.
To talk about the power of shared belief is to talk about the power of ideas. In America, where many people like to think of themselves as "down-to-earth," the power of ideas is often not grasped. Sociological mindfulness helps us appreciate this power more fully, as the examples of money, diplomas, and wars show, ideas matter a great deal. (When a person says, "Ideas are just talk; they don't matter," s/he is misled by a dangerous idea.) But we should also see that money, diplomas, and wars are not special cases. Every part of the social world exists only because of the ideas people embrace and act upon.
To be continued...
*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 11-12*
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