Imagine the types of rhetoric in your micro-society that have been both newly introduced and normalized. Concepts like unpaid work experience, personality aesthetics, production-driven religious services, and status-driven consumption. All of these concepts did not exist before they one day just did, then on a micro or macro level, society has empowered these concepts, and most detrimentally accepted them.
Why is society becoming so uncritical that it normalizes whatever it is fed? Does this uncritical trend allow herd mentality to take hold, ultimately reducing us to a culture that merely echoes ideas instead of cultivating authentic thought?
Imagined Orders Introduction:
The Legend of Peugeot is centered around a French family company established in the 1810s. The company originally produced steel products before transitioning to automobiles in the late 1800s, where they became a highly sought-after car brand whose reach expanded beyond Europe and became known for their quality (Peugeot History – an Incredible Story since 1810 | Peugeot Australia, n.d.). In author Yuval Harari’s book Sapiens, he uses the Peugeot company to symbolize an imagined order, agreed upon by society, which allows for large-scale corporations to thrive. He argues that Peugeot is more than its logo because we associate the logo with reliability, creating a shared belief of trust in the corporation. Yuval claims, “Peugeot is a figment of our collective imaginations” (Harari, 2015, p. 30). The author summarizes Peugeot in two critical ways: first, the company exists as a trusted network only because we collectively believe in it, and second, it operates through banking systems and property rights, all of which are imagined orders.
Macro and Micro levels:
The concept of imagined orders is one that, if collectively disbelieved, could rewire the workings of our society. I would like to claim that it is necessary for some imagined orders to exist, such as laws and all-inclusive human rights. However, Imagined orders can be so compelling that they drive rigid racial and gender orders and consumer capitalism. The belief that humanity could be ranked by ethnicity has fueled some of history’s greatest injustices, and it has been used to justify the displacement of Palestinians from their land. Additionally, patriarchal systems are upheld as the natural order because of socially agreed-upon gender norms. Gender norms are also compelling enough to convince their respective members to internalize what it means to “be a woman/ man.” The “to be a-” clauses often vindicate men’s tendency to be violent and less emotional, and the opposite for women (How Gender Norms Can Make Domestic Violence Worse for Bipoc | Psychology Today, n.d.). Inclusively on the topic of shared belief, consumer capitalism runs on the collective belief in the value of brands and what is considered a luxury item. Such beliefs are entirely imaginary, yet they’ve gained so much traction that society has adopted them as natural truths. The acceptance and then implementation of collective beliefs allow injustice and social stratification to appear justified.
On a micro-societal scale, the ideas we normalize in online communities can be as devastating as any tyranny, as they discreetly shape our minds and behaviors. Thirty-second clips and social media posts can persuade the average viewer to buy into beauty trends, engage with content to preserve a parasocial relationship, and ultimately gather in spaces that blur the line between community and collective devotion. Beauty trends that promote imagined aesthetics elevate one group as the standard-bearer and make that standard exclusively attainable. These aesthetics could simply be disregarded, but it’s the imagined belief that once you obtain an aesthetic, a certain aroma meant to attract a target audience comes with it. The aroma is actually a wretched stench of inauthenticity, should I tell it, but most would inhale it and trade their authenticity for the shallow approval of an imagined crowd. The same applies to a spectrum of hobbies and beliefs that used to hold real internal value but are written off as symbols of status instead.
The Exhausted Masses:
It is hard to blame the masses for the precarity of the media when the workforce, too, has long abandoned any concern for the people it serves. An article on The Experience Gap In Hiring New Graduate claims that in an analysis of over 95,000 job postings, research found that 61% of those seeking full-time positions at an entry level required at least three years or more of experience. In addition, employers recommend gaining internship experience; internships have been normalized to be experience in unpaid labor in hopes of obtaining paid labor (O’Brien et al., 2020). Hustle culture has also normalized communicating beyond work hours and a constant pressure to work overtime. At what point did people stop working to live and start living to work?
Socially, herd mentality has led society astray in politics, religion, and education. As society inches towards anti-intellectual movements through short-form content, devaluing the teachings of the humanities, and instant gratification, we begin to lose genuine values and critical thinking skills. It is easy for viewers to believe they’ve gained a full scope of a situation through a thirty-second video brief or post. The key issue is that these posts are presented from biased perspectives, shaped by the echo-chamber media the viewer already consumes. Such oversimplified summaries of important topics help fuel the rise of nationalist movements while shrinking the space for unpopular opinions.
Final Remarks:
When society, on a micro or macro scale, is uncritical of the ideas we give space to, those ideas seep into the institutions around us, shaping how we think. Leading us to believe that places of worship should be valued by their production as opposed to the religious messages and twist “woke” rhetoric into a tool for personally policing or antagonizing others. What I’ve come to realize are three claims: first, herd mentality and echo chambers can produce only a limited number of new ideas, making them evidence of cognitive laziness; second, we should be more critical of imagined orders that shape our beliefs and behaviors; and third, a method to combat uncritical thinking is to seek diverse perspectives actively. After all, truth is often found in the company of dissent.
Delivered by Fatoumata Traore
