Blogtrek

Thinking is believing

I saw this on Time Magazine's web site today: "He runs Iraq, in no small part, because people think he runs Iraq." (I am not going to post a URL, because in no time flat, it will become invalid.) This exposes Saddam's rule for what it is: it is a rule of abstract entities, a rule of belief. If you are an Iraqi and you think Saddam runs Iraq, then he will continue right on "ruling" Iraq and things will stay the same. But thoughts are free. What if you think differently? What if you think that he is just an ordinary bully instead? If a large number of people in Iraq thought that, the regime would fall quickly.

What else exists because of simply believing it exists? How about the value of the paper money in my wallet? Is there a dollar's worth of material in a dollar? No. That piece of paper is worth a dollar because I believe it is worth a dollar, because my friends and acquaintances think it is worth a dollar, and because the US government says it is worth a dollar. There used to be money that was really worth that (silver coins) but you don't see that anymore. In this case we want to keep on believing. If we don't, a monetary crisis will result and we will lose all of our savings. That happened during the Great Depression and in Germany in 1923.

But maybe with other things, if you stop believing in what you have been in habit of believing or what others tell you to believe, you may blaze a new trail. This is how clothing fads change. For example, people said in the 1960s and early 1970s that people will never own computers, and that it is not necessary to own one. But Wozniak and Jobs had a different idea: they wanted to own a computer and to make a living by getting others to own their own computers. So therefore the Apple II, and now many of us own computers, including this one I am writing on.

Be careful carving out a new belief trail. Trying to live life as you feel like it in Saddam's Iraq may not be a good idea. And you may startle people with your new thinking. But there are so many other belief trails to choose from, and the rewards can be great.