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Try telling the police, a judge or tax collector that the country you live in is merely a fiction with no basis in your reality. I'm sure they will duly vanish
by krapp 3y ago
Try telling the police, a judge or tax collector that the country you live in is merely a fiction with no basis in your reality. I'm sure they will duly vanish in a puff of logic. Models and abstractions can certainly be very real.
- verisimi 3y agoI'm sure I would get a bad response! Same as if I went to a very religious area, and disputed the existence of their god. Just cos a bunch of people believe this or that bit of nonsense, perhaps almost everyone, doesn't make it real.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- LAC-Tech 3y agoI feel like you missed the point of GP. There's been many situations in history where enough people stopped believing in their country and suddenly the shared fiction was no more. East German police, judges and tax collectors had a lot of power until all of a sudden - they didn't.
- peteradio 3y agoWell I wouldn't suggest to stop believing in Christmas or heaven forbid Santa Claus surely Krampus will beat you with sticks!
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> been many situations in history where enough people stopped believing in their country and suddenly the shared fiction was no more This is like saying crowds aren't real because sometimes people disburse. Like sure, every freshman dorm debated whether reality ends at consciousness. (Descartes did it better.) There is a difference between physical reality and social construct. But there is also a difference between social construct and fiction.