Very nice article here from Caitlin.
The part about how civilization is simply a bunch of stories that we’ve all agreed are true whether they are or not is very interesting. In other words, society means believing in a huge set of stories, many of which may be false, distorted, or nonsensical. But to succeed in society, you have agree that all the stories are true, even the made-up bullshit ones.
In other words, society is simply narrative. In a larger sense, since narrative is simply language, society itself is made up of not just language but language games.
All games have rules and all rules of games are completely made up without any objective logic or sense to them outside of the game. In other words, the rules of the game may be ridiculous or absurd, but if they do well to help you play the game, then they work and cannot be questioned. The notion of society itself as a game, say as a baseball game that never starts, stops, or ends is a most interesting one. And those who refuse to follow or break the rules are thrown out of the game, just as they are in a real ballgame.
It never starts it never stops it just goes it never zeroes.– from some on my unpublished fiction:“Meandering in the Midzone: The Thief of Love on the Loose in the Last American Frontier.” 🙂
The idea that a lot of the stories we must believe are nonsense is interesting. Suppose one gets tired of being ordered to believe bullshit. One day you stand up and point out the obvious: the emperor has no clothes! You can lose your job or career. You can lose your home and become homeless. You can even lose your freedom and end up in jail or prison. This is the price one pays in society for a commitment to truth, a determination to point out the obvious, and a stubborn refusal to believe bullshit.
I can’t quite wrap my head around these ideas about society being a game, civilization being based on a set of stories we have all agreed are true, and the whole thing being just a narrative and ultimately a game involving language. In a sense, I get it, but I don’t get it get it, you know what I mean? It doesn’t resonate in my head with a pure understanding to where it becomes obvious and completely makes sense. You follow?
Caitlin’s mind is more advanced than mine is on that score.