Shared myths

Wow, it’s been 3 years since I wrote. I want to practice putting my thoughts into words again, so here we go.

Let’s talk about shared myths.

The reason we, homo sapiens have been able to scale our societies so well (> 7B globally and almost fully interconnected) is our ability to create and believe in shared myths. It is what differentiates us from our ape ancestors, and it is the reason we have become the dominant species on earth (by being able to coordinate at unprecedented scale). This is one of the core ideas of “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari.

What is a shared myth? An idea that is not real and only exists in our minds (the myth) that a group of us agree to believe collectively (shared). Fashion is an easy example of a shared myth. Societal norms are another.

Now, I don’t believe in shared myths. Everything I believe has gone through stringent quality control and I hold very few ideas to be absolute truths. I do not blindly follow cultural and societal norms. I am aware of my biases, actively seek to understand them. What is not verifiable is always up for debate.

At least, that’s what I thought till Mr. Harari helped me see the all-pervasive nature of shared myths. Our entire society for tens of thousands of years has been built on these stories, and it is very hard for us to be part of one without having strong faith in multiple stories.

Capitalism, liberalism, democracy, independence, fairness, tolerance, justice, equality, religion are all shared myths. Languages are shared myths. So is money and the idea of a country. Even Mathematics is a shared myth. What mathematics seeks to explain may be real, but numbers, algebra, integrals - the language of mathematics, is a story.  1 + 2 = 3 is true only because we all agree on the meaning of 1, 2 and 3.

Hmm.. I believe strongly in most of the examples above. As if they were true.

Yet, for each of these myths, successful societies have existed where these myths are not true. The only reason they are true now is because a large group of us believe in them unquestioningly.

Suppose I go into a coma for 5 years. Meanwhile, one of the shared myths I hold to be true - say, equality (“all persons are created equal”) - has changed. Every single co-conspirator has relinquished their belief in equality.

What happens to my story now? Would I still believe it? *Should*  I still believe it? Why? Fact is - we are all not created equal. Every person is different.