1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,400 Welcome to the podcast Life Unscripted, where we dive into the depths of how our perceived 2 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,120 realities shape our lives and the world around us. 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:19,240 I'm Alan Stafford, your host and guide through the often-invisible, yet profound influences 4 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:22,520 that perception wields over our daily existence. 5 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:29,400 Today, we turn our focus to a compelling topic that impacts every aspect of our social lives, 6 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,360 the social construct of reality. 7 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,160 This concept reveals how our collective beliefs and the norms we follow are not merely given 8 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:43,080 by nature, but are constructed through the interactions within our society. 9 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:48,200 In this episode, we'll explore how social constructs like gender roles, racial categories, 10 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:54,200 and even the concept of money are created, maintained, and sometimes challenged. 11 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,720 We'll dive into the mechanisms that societies use to construct reality from the language 12 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:04,200 we speak to the media we consume and see how these constructs influence everything from 13 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:09,600 our personal identity to the broad structures of power in our communities. 14 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:14,160 As we unpack these ideas, we'll start by defining what we mean by the social construction of 15 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:20,320 reality and discuss some key thinkers who have shaped our understanding of this theory. 16 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:25,560 We'll see how this plays out not just in theory, but in the very fabric of our daily lives. 17 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:30,680 So let's begin by exploring the foundation of this fascinating perspective on how it 18 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,560 helps us make sense of the world we live in. 19 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:36,560 Welcome, welcome, welcome, folks. 20 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:41,760 Listen, this is a very tough concept, I think, for a lot of people to understand, and that 21 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:44,120 is the social construction of reality. 22 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:49,560 I think, specifically, if you're religious, you're going to believe one thing for sure, 23 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:55,960 that is whatever your religion scripture is created the world and therefore everything 24 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,160 in it is a result of that scripture. 25 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:08,400 But unfortunately, for the rest of us, we have sociology and philosophy to blame. 26 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,760 I don't even know if we can say to blame, really. 27 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:16,040 These are the idea of social construction or social construct of reality is really a framework 28 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,560 for sociology and philosophy. 29 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,600 And basically, the premise of the theory of social construction affirms that our perceptions 30 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:30,400 of reality are not directly shaped by the objective world around us, but are constructed 31 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:34,800 through social interactions and cultural contexts. 32 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:41,240 So in essence, I mean, it's shaped by how we think and believe based on the community, 33 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:45,040 the culture, the society in which we live in and grow up in the moyes, the rules, the 34 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:50,160 regulations that they put forth for living in that society. 35 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,360 Let me give you an example here. 36 00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:56,760 And then we're going to get into the characteristics of collective beliefs, and then we'll continue 37 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:57,760 on. 38 00:02:57,760 --> 00:02:59,280 But let me give you an example, a tree. 39 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,880 No, it's not the old adage, if a tree falls in the forest and you're not there to listen 40 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:03,880 to it, does it really fall? 41 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:05,760 No, it's not that one. 42 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:08,560 But we can describe what a tree is, right? 43 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:10,680 We can tell people what a tree is. 44 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:17,720 At least we can give it some sort of definition, but different cultures might see it as a resource. 45 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:26,040 For example, in the Amazon, a lot of the culture down there is in the destruction of the Amazon, 46 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:33,200 not to destroy the Amazon as much as it is to cultivate, to cultivate the wood, the trees, 47 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:34,800 for profit, basically. 48 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:40,640 So we can describe a tree, but different cultures might see it as a resource, as I just mentioned. 49 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:48,880 A sacred entity, as some cultures view trees, or a piece of property, which is, this is 50 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:52,800 my tree. 51 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,000 Basically it illustrates a variant realities based on social context. 52 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:02,640 And really it's the society that dictates how the perception of that tree is. 53 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:04,360 So there's nothing objective about it. 54 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:10,600 It's purely subjective, which goes back to the construction of reality by the society. 55 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:14,600 So before we even get any further, let's talk about the characteristics of a collective 56 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:20,960 belief, a belief based on our social reality, our group, our society, our community. 57 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,080 First off, there's a shared understanding, right? 58 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:27,920 Collective beliefs are commonly held ideas among the members of a community. 59 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,440 And I'm sure you can identify multiple different types of communities that share different 60 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,520 ideas about how things ought to be, right? 61 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:40,280 I mean, we could go right to politics or right to religion, because those are very prominent, 62 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:44,840 and dictating how life should be, or how people should be governed. 63 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:51,960 You have different ideologies, which are shaped by the societies in which they are from. 64 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,940 For example, in the Middle East, Islam is big. 65 00:04:54,940 --> 00:04:57,400 In the West, it's Christianity. 66 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:02,080 In the East, it's, or Central Asia, it could be Buddhism. 67 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:07,960 And then you have varying degrees of different religions, both monotheistic and polytheistic 68 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:09,200 paganism. 69 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:14,140 So those are dictated by the culture, the society, and they represent a common understanding 70 00:05:14,140 --> 00:05:17,000 or agreement, whether explicit or implicit. 71 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,680 And these beliefs are often transmitted culturally through generations. 72 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:28,080 I mean, these are handed down from generation to generation via socialization processes 73 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:35,360 involving families, educational systems, media, and other mediums of cultural perpetuation. 74 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:36,560 Educational systems are big. 75 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:40,120 They teach, I know that in some schools in the Middle East, they teach that the West 76 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,240 is evil, that America is evil. 77 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,120 You know, we're the great Satan, and they hand this information down. 78 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:52,600 You have history books which omitted classes of people, or races of people, and they taught 79 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,440 only one race in their accomplishment. 80 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:57,280 And what about family traditions? 81 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:02,320 I mean, is there any family traditions that you have that your family clings to, any ideologies 82 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:06,000 that are different from your friends or peers or someone else that was handed down by your 83 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:07,000 family? 84 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,800 You go, well, my mom and my dad taught me this, and my grandparents taught me this. 85 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:10,800 It must be true. 86 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:14,680 Well, I wouldn't say it must be true just because they taught you that. 87 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:18,080 But what I'm saying is they're shaping your reality, right? 88 00:06:18,080 --> 00:06:21,520 And again, there's influence on behavior, right? 89 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:25,760 Collective beliefs significantly influence individual and group behavior. 90 00:06:25,760 --> 00:06:31,320 And they do this by setting expectations and norms that dictate acceptable conduct within 91 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:32,880 the society. 92 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:37,320 We have, why do you think there's so many cultural clashes in the United States? 93 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:40,880 You have different cultures that have different sets of expectations on how to behave. 94 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:43,640 They bring it here to the United States, even in Europe. 95 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:48,960 The same problem exists in Europe, you know, or Canada, where you have people coming over 96 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:53,360 and they bring their cultural backgrounds, their ideologies, their beliefs, and they 97 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:58,840 try to influence their offspring within that new country. 98 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:02,160 And there's a clash of that, a clash of ideologies within that culture. 99 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:07,400 But I think it was in the last podcast, we talked about identity and the one of the characteristics 100 00:07:07,400 --> 00:07:10,840 of a collective belief is that it forms, helps form an identity. 101 00:07:10,840 --> 00:07:12,880 People need some sort of identity, right? 102 00:07:12,880 --> 00:07:17,360 I'm a Muslim, I'm a Christian, I'm a, I'm a Buddhist, you know, whatever it is that 103 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:23,160 you identify with, it helps form that identity, making individuals feel connected to their 104 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:27,240 community through these shared values and common perspectives. 105 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:32,040 If you've ever traveled somewhere and you didn't expect to see somebody from your country, 106 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:36,560 and you connected with that person, you said, oh, hey, you're from Canada too? 107 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:37,560 I'm from Canada. 108 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:38,760 What part of Canada? 109 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:45,600 You guys create this automatic bond because you have shared culture, shared heritage. 110 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:50,880 And this is what I'm talking about as part of a characteristic of a collective belief. 111 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:57,240 You can now bond with this person in a foreign country because you have a shared common belief, 112 00:07:57,240 --> 00:07:58,760 at least in theory you do. 113 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:04,560 I don't know, you might be from different diverse groups in Canada or the U.S. and share, 114 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,640 have something completely different, but I'm just making an assumption here. 115 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,320 But in theory, you would gravitate towards that person. 116 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:14,960 The same thing as if you're, if you're Italian, you know, and you come to the United States 117 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:18,720 and you meet another Italian and you haven't seen Italians for a while in the United States 118 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:20,160 and you like create this bond. 119 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,200 I mean, in the U.S. every, they have everybody. 120 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:26,360 So it's going to be hard not to see another Italian, but you know, you create that automatic 121 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:30,000 connection, especially if that other person's here visiting just like you are, then you 122 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,240 really connect that bond because it's, this is not your host country. 123 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:37,560 And you're like, oh, let's stick together just to drive the point home of collective 124 00:08:37,560 --> 00:08:38,560 beliefs. 125 00:08:38,560 --> 00:08:39,960 Let's give you a few examples. 126 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:42,760 Democracy as a governmental system is a collective belief. 127 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:48,680 I mean, the belief in democracy as an effective system of governance is widely held in a lot 128 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:56,120 of societies, which influences political structures and citizen engagement. 129 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:58,480 And what do we do in a democracy? 130 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:04,000 We try to push that onto other societies, try to sell them our collective belief, which 131 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,320 I don't always think works and it shouldn't work. 132 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:09,720 But we try that human rights. 133 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:14,560 Human rights is another example of collective beliefs. 134 00:09:14,560 --> 00:09:19,680 Those who are so in tune with human rights won't buy into that ideology. 135 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:26,040 That is a collective belief, but it is because not everybody subscribes to the ideology 136 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,480 of human rights. 137 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:30,120 Take a look at Israel. 138 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:32,200 Israel violates human rights. 139 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,280 Take a look at the Middle East. 140 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:35,880 They violate human rights. 141 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:41,600 And again, this is predicated on the fact that we have an understanding of what human rights 142 00:09:41,600 --> 00:09:43,920 are and agreed upon understanding. 143 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:47,960 And I don't think we have that either because to them, human rights might mean, you know, 144 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:49,640 punishment or death. 145 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:55,080 If someone does something that's, you know, that we don't perceive in the West as serious, 146 00:09:55,080 --> 00:10:00,400 but human rights is a collective belief that has shaped, or as I said, tried to shape other 147 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:07,360 countries' belief systems, you know, as far as giving people certain rights and dignities, 148 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:08,360 you know, within their life. 149 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:13,080 But then again, who are we or who is one country to say another country should do that? 150 00:10:13,080 --> 00:10:14,280 I don't know. 151 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,640 It's just a question, but it's a valid question. 152 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:22,440 I personally believe in the rights of all humans and that everybody should be free to 153 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:25,440 go about their business without persecution. 154 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:28,360 However, not everybody agrees with me. 155 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:32,600 And I don't think we're ever going to get anybody, everybody meaning to agree on the 156 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:34,920 same thing to be objective about it. 157 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:38,360 It's just not possible or probable. 158 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:45,160 I guess I should say the possibility exists, but the probability does not. 159 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:49,880 Economic systems, capitalism, that's another, that's another example of a collective belief 160 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:50,880 system. 161 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:56,120 So the Middle East, extreme Islam, they don't believe in a capitalistic society, although 162 00:10:56,120 --> 00:10:57,120 maybe the leaders do. 163 00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:59,640 They just don't want their people to believe in it. 164 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,640 Socialism, we have a big problem in this country with socialism. 165 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:04,120 Not that we are socialists. 166 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:09,360 However, we have this perception that the Democrats want to make the United States a 167 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:12,520 socialistic country, which is somewhat ridiculous. 168 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:17,280 However, you have the right always opposing that ideology, even though as though it's 169 00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:19,280 some sort of satanic or devil thing. 170 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:20,720 I think some socialism is good. 171 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,520 We have some socialism in the US, just like other countries do. 172 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,560 I think we're too big to manage a country based on socialism, but in any event, you 173 00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:31,080 don't have that agreement across the board. 174 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,840 And that's another construct of a collective beliefs. 175 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:38,560 And again, how societies organize and distribute production and goods and stuff is all collective. 176 00:11:38,560 --> 00:11:43,520 It's all basically based on a society's belief in how they want to operate. 177 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:46,680 And there are people within that society that don't want to operate that way either. 178 00:11:46,680 --> 00:11:49,200 And when you get enough of them, you have an uprising, right? 179 00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:55,000 These beliefs are another collective belief example, you know, different religions. 180 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,960 We have the freedom to believe in what we want to believe. 181 00:11:57,960 --> 00:12:03,800 That is my my stand, but you'll have some countries where one religion dominates all 182 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,880 other religions and they don't want that ticket, for example, for example, the Middle 183 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:11,600 East, you know, they Islam is Islam to them. 184 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:12,600 That's it. 185 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:14,800 They don't really, while they might preach, it's okay to be a Christian. 186 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:15,800 They really don't like that. 187 00:12:15,800 --> 00:12:17,920 They don't want that same thing with Israel as well. 188 00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:23,800 You know, they form design a state where the citizens of Israel are not Israelites, but 189 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:24,880 Jewish. 190 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:29,840 And one other concept, which might blow your mind a little bit is scientific consensus 191 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:32,600 is also a collective belief. 192 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:39,240 Yes, folks, beliefs and scientific principles and trust in scientific methods are really 193 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:45,640 collective beliefs that influence educational content, research funding and public policy. 194 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,120 Like for example, homosexuality. 195 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:56,400 It is biologically scientifically proven that there is a, I would say, and pardon my ignorance 196 00:12:56,400 --> 00:13:07,160 on this concept, but there is a biological reason, a scientific reason for homosexuality. 197 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:13,040 However, some cultures don't accept that scientific research. 198 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,040 They debunk it. 199 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:16,960 You know, I know Russia is one of them. 200 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:22,320 The Middle East, another one, even Christianity, a lot of them, not every one of them, but 201 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:23,320 a lot of them. 202 00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:25,040 It's a complex world, folks. 203 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:26,160 I mean, just try navigating. 204 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,320 I guess that's why it's easier to just think. 205 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:33,040 I mean, not to think, but just to accept what you hear and align yourself with like-minded 206 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:34,440 people and just live your life. 207 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:39,120 That might be the best approach than having to think this hard. 208 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:40,120 Sometimes I get tired of thinking. 209 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:43,440 I literally, from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed and in the middle of 210 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:44,440 the night, I'm thinking. 211 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:49,080 And I find it fascinating to think this stuff, to really understand the root of our existence, 212 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:53,560 our thinking, our humanity, culture, just our behavior. 213 00:13:53,560 --> 00:14:02,840 But I want to touch on two individuals, sociologists, social scientists, I should say, social psychologists. 214 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,440 There's social something, right? 215 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:11,400 Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman, who were basically pivotal and pole and popularizing 216 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:16,680 this concept of social construction in their book, The Social Construction of Reality. 217 00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:21,680 I mean, their argument was that all knowledge, including common sense, which to me is not 218 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:28,560 always that common, about the world is derived from and maintained by social interactions. 219 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:31,400 That's people connecting with one another. 220 00:14:31,400 --> 00:14:37,120 Human beings construct their reality socially as they engage in the world around them is 221 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:39,320 what they said. 222 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:40,400 Which is true. 223 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:48,200 We create our reality when we engage in socializing with people around us. 224 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,760 What do you tend to do when you go to a party? 225 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,180 You tend to find or seek like-minded people. 226 00:14:53,180 --> 00:14:58,120 You might be new in this unconsciously, so to speak, but you gravitate towards people 227 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:02,040 who confirm your biases and kind of think like you. 228 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:07,520 And both their work on the book, The Social Construction of Reality, basically aligns 229 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:13,560 with the 20th century movement, particularly in response to the growing interest in phenomenology 230 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:19,200 and existentialism, which basically emphasizes subjective experiences of the individual in 231 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:21,320 understanding the world. 232 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:27,160 So they did a lot of work in basically understanding social construction of reality. 233 00:15:27,160 --> 00:15:32,760 So basically their work, their work, and this is important to understand that this ho-concept 234 00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:38,400 is relatively new as well, because before that, even though you would have philosophical 235 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:44,100 doctrines that challenged existing models in social science by focusing on everyday 236 00:15:44,100 --> 00:15:50,120 social interactions, basically as the core component of societal constructs, even before 237 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:57,320 them, but they really brought the whole notion of social construction of reality to light. 238 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:03,560 Another argument they proposed was that knowledge itself is not just an individual construct, 239 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:05,480 but a social product, and that is true. 240 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:06,560 I mean, I believe it to be true. 241 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,760 I shouldn't say it's true as though it's a solid statement, it's an objective statement, 242 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:11,760 because it's not. 243 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:18,840 But they argued that knowledge is not just an individual construct, but a social product. 244 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:26,120 So what we consider to be true is largely, as I just stated, is largely- I can't even 245 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:34,200 speak today- is largely agreed upon in society through a process which they called externalization. 246 00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:37,600 And this is basically where individuals project their meanings into the world. 247 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:42,280 We project our meanings- an objectivization, where these meanings gain objectivity. 248 00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:50,160 So basically the idea here with Berger and Luckman is that we take our personal meanings 249 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:57,720 of reality, of our reality, project them into society, where society objectifies them as 250 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:02,800 though we get like-minded people agreeing upon that, therefore we think it's an objective 251 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:08,000 reality when in fact it's not, because just that group of people, that society will agree 252 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:11,480 upon it, and then they would internalize it. 253 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:17,360 The individual person would internalize it, basically absorbing this objective reality 254 00:17:17,360 --> 00:17:22,000 back into their belief system to create this construct of their reality. 255 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:27,720 So if we do a 32,000-foot view of this whole concept, basically you walk along, create 256 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:32,600 a concept, an ideology, a belief system, you project that into your common society, the 257 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:38,800 people in there take that, buy into it, and objectify that, and when they speak about 258 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,480 that, talk about it, preach about it, whatever they do about it in society, you hear it and 259 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:48,680 that comes back to you to reinforce the belief that what you believed was true because they 260 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:52,760 believe it's true because you told them that and they all agreed upon it and then they 261 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:55,320 spit it back and now you believe it. 262 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:56,320 It's like full circle. 263 00:17:56,320 --> 00:17:57,440 You know, it happens. 264 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:02,600 If you take a look at it, if you break down religion, if you break down government politics, 265 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:11,440 if you break down even family household traditions, you'll see that this is true, that it starts 266 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:18,280 with one or two people, gets pushed out into society, society buys it, objectifies it, 267 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:25,320 talks about it, solidifies it into their cultural norms, and it gets pushed back onto the individual 268 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:29,280 as a belief system and objectivity, which it's not objective at all. 269 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:33,040 Again, it's subjective, purely subjective, and I'll give you an illustration on how that 270 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:34,800 works too. 271 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:35,800 Education. 272 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:39,400 Our educational systems are prime examples of this process. 273 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:43,800 The curriculum taught in schools represents basically a body of knowledge, right? 274 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:46,960 That society has agreed is valuable and true. 275 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:52,520 And then this body of knowledge that society has agreed is valuable and true is internalized 276 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,600 by the students who accept this knowledge as reality. 277 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:00,840 And folks, I don't know if you've been following the news, but Oklahoma, the state and the 278 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:07,760 USA just mandated that all schools need to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum. 279 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:13,800 I mean, this is perfect timing for this podcast because now what you have is a governor who 280 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:18,480 wholeheartedly believes that the Bible, which we have separation of church and state in 281 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:23,880 the USA, but this governor believes that the Bible, its curriculum, its ideology should 282 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:28,600 be placed into public school curriculum and taught back to the children. 283 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:32,680 Now, I don't know about you, but I'm all about the freedom of religion. 284 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,360 You are free to believe in what you want to believe as long as you don't bring harm to 285 00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:38,200 you or society. 286 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,560 But in this case, I think you have other belief systems. 287 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,920 You have Native Americans that have a different belief system. 288 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,400 You have Muslims in the region. 289 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:53,840 You have Judaism, which doesn't necessarily accept or believe in the New Testament. 290 00:19:53,840 --> 00:19:59,480 You have Buddhists and you have all walks of other minority types of religions. 291 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:05,480 So it's one man or one group pushing their agenda onto an educational system, which pushes 292 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:07,840 it onto the child as reality. 293 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:11,840 Talk about a perfect social construct of reality right there, an example. 294 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:13,400 We've seen it happen right before our eyes. 295 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,600 Now, you might be saying there's nothing wrong with that and you know, you have the right 296 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:17,760 to do that. 297 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:23,040 But I think as a society as whole, you shouldn't project your own ideologies onto everyone 298 00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:27,320 else who may not have those ideologies because now you're making everybody try to think and 299 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:31,160 believe like you do or the group does and I don't agree with that. 300 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:38,480 And then Berger and Luckman also talked about the concept of habitualization and institutionalization. 301 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:44,880 Both mechanisms basically perpetuate social conducts or constructs, I should say. 302 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:49,680 Habitualization basically describes how repeated actions become patterns that people perform 303 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:50,680 without thinking. 304 00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:55,880 So again, back in our public education example where the Bible is being now forced to be 305 00:20:55,880 --> 00:21:01,640 taught in public schools, that pattern, that repeated action becomes a pattern that the 306 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,600 students begin to perform without thinking. 307 00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:10,600 And institutionalization follows when these habits are codified and become stable in their 308 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:16,000 thinking, in their mind, making certain actions or behaviors expected and normal within a society. 309 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,880 So that's how you can normalize a behavior or a belief. 310 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:24,440 And that's how you can take a society or group of people with one belief and change the belief 311 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:28,760 by indoctrinating it into their educational system, for example, or forcing it into the 312 00:21:28,760 --> 00:21:30,920 culture of the society or the way they think. 313 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:34,320 And then once you force that into it, it becomes part of society. 314 00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:35,440 They regurgitate it. 315 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,280 They start to buy into it and then it gets spit back into the individual who begins to 316 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:42,200 believe it and accept it as normal. 317 00:21:42,200 --> 00:21:43,720 And we see that in politics here in the USA. 318 00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:45,960 We see that politics everywhere in the world. 319 00:21:45,960 --> 00:21:47,560 But we're seeing that here definitely. 320 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:51,680 And another example of habitualization and institutionalization is money. 321 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:56,880 So initially, back in the day, the idea of trading goods with symbolic tokens or currency 322 00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:59,440 required a leap of faith, so to speak. 323 00:21:59,440 --> 00:22:01,920 I mean, there was nothing really backing it up. 324 00:22:01,920 --> 00:22:08,960 But through habitualization and institutionalization, money has become a normal and unquestioned 325 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,600 part of economic transactions. 326 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,800 Look what money does to people and makes them crazy. 327 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,640 They've been, it's been normalized as a way to bring yourself to power to have wealth. 328 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,040 And I'm not saying money's bad. 329 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:26,200 I'm just saying the abuse of it and the abuse in the pursuit of it may not be a positive 330 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:27,200 trait. 331 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:28,560 But by all means, make money. 332 00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:31,760 If that's the vehicle that we use to make trade, then make money. 333 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,280 If we use bags of rice, then go grow rice. 334 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:39,520 And speaking of money, let's let's explore how the complex social constructs like money, 335 00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,840 marriage and education systems shape our understanding of the world. 336 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,880 Because they play a big part. 337 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:53,320 I mean, marriage itself in this whole, you got to buy a girl a diamond ring concept. 338 00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:59,360 You know, that's an invention by the Beers, the Beers family, who basically had a monopoly 339 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,640 on the minds, the diamond mines in Africa. 340 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,160 And I want to say Europe or Asia as well. 341 00:23:06,160 --> 00:23:10,960 But in any event, controlling that market and then marketing it that a diamond is a 342 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:14,920 girl's best friend and it becomes a symbolism of love. 343 00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:19,280 And know if you were to open up the market in the mines, it would basically be worthless 344 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:20,280 diamonds. 345 00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:22,600 And here's a kicker that you probably haven't thought about. 346 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,560 But money is a social construct, right? 347 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,560 Okay, so we've talked about that. 348 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:29,640 So here's something that may kind of blow your mind. 349 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:31,280 I don't know, maybe it won't. 350 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:36,120 But money, we talked about it as a social construct, but it has no intrinsic value. 351 00:23:36,120 --> 00:23:38,360 There's no intrinsic value to money. 352 00:23:38,360 --> 00:23:44,880 It's worth get this is decided by the collective agreement and trust of the society that you 353 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:46,080 use as it. 354 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:52,000 We've seen countries print money, governments fall that money becomes worthless. 355 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,120 Why? 356 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:54,440 Because the government is gone. 357 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:55,600 The leadership is gone. 358 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:57,040 What's the point of the money now? 359 00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,600 A new government comes in, they print their own money. 360 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,480 There's no intrinsic value. 361 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,400 It's what the people say the value is. 362 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,040 And it usually starts with the government. 363 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:06,320 Think about that about money. 364 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:13,400 While we think it's a stable entity in capitalism, in fact, it's not very stable if a government 365 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,280 decides or people decide it's worthless. 366 00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:19,280 Hence fiat money being printed in the US. 367 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,040 It's no longer backed by gold. 368 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:25,240 And gold is also a social construct of value too. 369 00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,400 From what I understand, there's still a lot of gold in the earth that would make the gold 370 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:31,320 that we have now not as valuable if mined. 371 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:32,960 However, it's hard to mine that gold. 372 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,280 It's deep in it's in places that we can't get to. 373 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:40,080 But back to money, the concept of money basically varies across different societies. 374 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:44,040 Money has a different idea of money and even historical periods too. 375 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:50,280 We barter systems, bartering systems back in the day, back in the middle ages. 376 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:52,440 Even earlier, we bartered for goods. 377 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:53,440 I barter sometimes too. 378 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:55,480 I still try to trade people stuff I have. 379 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:59,760 Hey, you want my drone for your camera type of thing. 380 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:00,760 And I'm okay with that. 381 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,360 If it's something that I find valuable, it doesn't have to be equal value. 382 00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:05,480 It's got to be something I find valuable. 383 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:11,080 And then you also have digital cryptocurrency, which in itself is a Ponzi scheme. 384 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:15,960 It's not backed by anything, but neither is fiat money really, other than the government. 385 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:20,600 But the government, the whole concept of crypto is to not have government involvement. 386 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:21,600 So what's it backed by? 387 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:27,000 You know, there's no intrinsic value to crypto, but yet we still keep driving the value of 388 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,000 it up. 389 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:31,600 So again, these are all social constructs that you probably haven't thought about in 390 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:34,680 the past that I'm bringing to light to you for the first time. 391 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,640 And maybe it's not the first time, maybe it's just a reminder, but it is important to understand 392 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,440 that money is a social construct of reality. 393 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:44,200 It's not something rooted in nature. 394 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,560 It's something that we've created in order to do trade. 395 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:52,520 We created a value system around this paper money, even marriage. 396 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:57,640 I mean, I don't know that they had very many marriages with wedding rings in the flowers 397 00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:02,960 back in the early days of Homo sapiens some 200, 300,000 years ago, but it's a societal 398 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:08,440 construct basically defining relationships and roles according to cultural norms. 399 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:09,440 And of course, legal frameworks. 400 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,040 You always got to have the legal frameworks because they got to get their fee out of it 401 00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:13,040 too, right? 402 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,880 The government's got to have a cut in something. 403 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:21,240 I mean, we can make a comparison to traditional arranged marriages and some cultures, especially 404 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:28,520 in India or the Middle East, compare that to Western idea of marrying for love, basically. 405 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,480 There's societal expectations, shape, personal relationships. 406 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,280 So in the West, we marry for love. 407 00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:36,520 And if you don't like that person, you divorce them, go find someone else you love for the 408 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,480 day, so to speak. 409 00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:44,400 But in the Middle East or Central Asia, like India, or even Asian cultures, you're going 410 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,000 to have prearranged marriages and they're not necessarily for love. 411 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,040 There's other advantages for that. 412 00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:55,200 So again, marriage is really a social construct based on the society in which is performing 413 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:57,280 the marriages, having the marriage. 414 00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:03,080 And individual identity is also shaped by society. 415 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:08,080 It's a social construct as well, because each person's reality is molded by the constructs 416 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:13,280 they interact with, which basically influences their choices, beliefs, and their behaviors. 417 00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:18,240 For example, you know, some professional identity, some professional identities, they shape, they 418 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:23,640 are shaped by educational and occupational constructs, such as the belief in certain prestigious 419 00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:25,080 careers over others. 420 00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:28,840 There are people that I know that have doctorate degrees that snub their nose and look down 421 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,400 on those who are not educated formally, institutionally. 422 00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:36,960 And I'm not a big proponent of institutionalized education, even though I have advanced degrees 423 00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,080 from institutions. 424 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,240 But the bottom line is, I don't necessarily agree that it's for everybody. 425 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:47,640 And I don't agree that you can gain knowledge from an institution and you can't without 426 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:48,640 the institution. 427 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:51,080 Because I think equally you can gain it without the institution. 428 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:56,880 But yet, because they have this piece of paper, again, a construct of reality, stating that 429 00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:01,720 oh, he has a doctorate or a master's from this prestigious university, he's better. 430 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:05,000 No, unfortunately, I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not. 431 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:06,520 What makes a person better? 432 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:07,960 And I don't even think a person is better. 433 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:13,360 I think what gives a person an advantage in society is their ability to think critically. 434 00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:18,960 Is their ability to be open-minded and accept other people, not so much because of their 435 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:19,960 degree. 436 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:21,440 And that's a lot to take in. 437 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:25,920 I mean, and hopefully, you know, you've gained something from this segment. 438 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,040 But I challenge you to take a look at your own social constructs. 439 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,600 What have you created in your society, in your mind, about who you are based on your 440 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,360 cultural norms? 441 00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:38,120 What are your belief systems? 442 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:42,560 Those are all social constructs of who you are, where you live, and how you were brought 443 00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:43,560 up. 444 00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:46,800 That's a good exercise to go through is to examine that. 445 00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:47,800 All right. 446 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:54,240 So I want to turn to some real-life applications on this whole idea of the construct of a social 447 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:55,240 construct of reality. 448 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:59,920 You know, I want to preface that by saying that social constructs are really not static. 449 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:00,920 They evolve. 450 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,380 They evolve and can be reshaped through societal actions and even events. 451 00:29:05,380 --> 00:29:07,640 So for example, let's take gender roles. 452 00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:13,400 Gender roles in Western societies, specifically in the 20th and 21st century, we've seen women's 453 00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:19,520 suffrage, you know, the right to vote, feminist movement, and recent shifts towards recognizing 454 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:23,040 non-binary and transgender rights. 455 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:29,520 These changes have reshaped societal expectations and norms around gender. 456 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:35,920 This has had a tremendous impact on everything from workplace policies to family dynamics. 457 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:38,080 I mean, it's still ongoing. 458 00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:45,920 We're right now in the midst of this transformation and this shift in the social construct of 459 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,840 reality in our Western societies. 460 00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:50,480 Think about it for a second, folks. 461 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:55,840 There was a time when you wouldn't say that you were even gay or that you wouldn't say 462 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:59,520 that you're a transgender or even bring that to surface. 463 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:07,600 Now there's a complete shift in mindset, ideology about the acceptance of transgenders and non-binaries 464 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:12,720 and even, like I said, women's suffrage, the right for women to vote, the whole feminist 465 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:13,720 movement. 466 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:14,720 And again, I'm not saying this is wrong. 467 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:21,760 I'm just saying this is just how society shifts and the fact that social constructs are not 468 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:22,760 static. 469 00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:27,360 They don't stay one way because if they did, we'd all be still in the Middle Ages or the 470 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:28,360 Stone Ages. 471 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:36,400 We wouldn't accept the concept of money, marriage, a religion that didn't exist over 472 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,560 2000, well, over 4,000 years ago, maybe. 473 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,640 So none of this, we would still be back in those days. 474 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:49,680 Even significant changes in racial attitudes through the civil rights movement here in 475 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:57,240 the United States has had a profound impact on social constructs of our reality, how we've 476 00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:58,640 shifted our mindset. 477 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:04,160 I mean, we've seen it in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act movement and even Black Lives Matter 478 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:05,160 movement. 479 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,560 We've seen that shift in our reality. 480 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:16,280 And these movements have challenged and sometimes shifted racial stereotypes and systematic discrimination 481 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,320 within various societal institutions themselves. 482 00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:25,120 So again, it reinforces the fact that the social construct of reality is not a static 483 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:26,120 ideology. 484 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,000 It's not static at all. 485 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,760 And it will continue to change as we come to the light with new ideas and new ways of 486 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:34,960 living and new thoughts. 487 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:35,960 I don't know. 488 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,600 It's kind of kind of worrying to me what's going to happen in the future. 489 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,880 And here's a big one too. 490 00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,880 Social media's role in reality construction, that's big. 491 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:53,520 Take a look at what social media is doing in political races, you know, in, in fake 492 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:54,520 news. 493 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,880 And I'm not using fake news as in everything's fake news. 494 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:05,240 I'm talking about mis, miscommunication or dis or misinformation and disinformation by, 495 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,000 you know, nefarious parties. 496 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:12,680 I mean, you've got Facebook, Twitter, which is now X and Instagram, TikTok. 497 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,080 These are all reshaping public perceptions and realities. 498 00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,480 I mean, TikTok alone is to me, a modern day freak show. 499 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:24,400 But yet somehow we learn to accept this and think, okay, well, this is, is this the new 500 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:25,400 normal? 501 00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:26,900 I guess it's the new normal. 502 00:32:26,900 --> 00:32:27,900 Let's carry on then. 503 00:32:27,900 --> 00:32:29,240 And I don't mean freak show in a negative way. 504 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:33,560 I'm just saying it's just deep parts from what I'm used to. 505 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:37,400 And I understand I have biases just like everybody else has biases, right? 506 00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:39,280 We all have these biases. 507 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:40,280 We all make these judgments. 508 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:43,160 And I try not to make judgments, but I do. 509 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,920 And when I do, I realize it and I step back and say, you know, that's not right. 510 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:49,240 You know, people are entitled to be who they want to be. 511 00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:55,280 But when I look at TikTok, man, that's like, that's like an emerging new shift in a reality 512 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:56,800 for me sometimes. 513 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,320 And one of the biggest things on social media is the echo chambers or these filter bubbles, 514 00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:06,480 basically where a user is exposed to only information that reinforces their preexisting 515 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:07,480 beliefs. 516 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:11,600 It's confirmation bias right there because the algorithm is designed to feed you what 517 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:12,760 you're already looking at. 518 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:21,480 So if you're looking at, let's say, anti gay stuff or pro maga stuff or whatever the case 519 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,120 is, that algorithm is going to feed you that nonsense. 520 00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:29,200 I know with me, those algorithms, they probably don't know what to do because I look at everything. 521 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,640 It's not just one thing I look at. 522 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,160 I don't ever get the same thing because I'm constantly scrolling and looking for different 523 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:40,560 things and ideas and just really trying to take a look at human behavior in the scope 524 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:41,800 of social media. 525 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:43,560 But it does it. 526 00:33:43,560 --> 00:33:49,880 It puts you into these echo chambers and it feeds you stuff that you already have this 527 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:55,840 predetermined belief system in further shaping your reality on that. 528 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:56,840 That's insane. 529 00:33:56,840 --> 00:33:58,680 And yet most people aren't aware of it. 530 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,400 By now, the majority of people understand the algorithm. 531 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:03,080 I don't even know if it's the majority of people. 532 00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:04,440 That's not even fair to say. 533 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:06,840 I don't know if everyone's aware of that. 534 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:15,360 And COVID-19 also had a major shift, big global perception and changes regarding health, safety 535 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,200 and science just because of the pandemic. 536 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:24,080 It really, I don't want to say it messed people up, but it messed people up to a certain degree 537 00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:28,680 and really rattled their belief system, shook the foundation of what they thought. 538 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:35,280 I mean, it was a constant shift and changing in mindset through that entire process. 539 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,560 Some came out okay at the other end. 540 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:41,880 Some are just like completely non-believers of anything. 541 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:43,040 It's baffling to me. 542 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:48,680 The real takeaway from COVID-19 though is that how different countries, their responses 543 00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:52,720 have reflected in influenced public trust and science and government. 544 00:34:52,720 --> 00:34:59,680 Here in the United States, you had the number one viral ologist, Dr. Fauci talk about and 545 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:05,040 basically pretty much leading this charge on COVID-19. 546 00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:10,720 And some of the stuff that he was saying was probably not 100% by his own admission at 547 00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:15,040 the time, but it's what we knew best to do, for example, lockdown the schools. 548 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,280 Later on, he admitted that was probably not the best thing to do. 549 00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:24,400 However, at the time, based on the data, that was the best thing to do because we didn't 550 00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,520 really know what to do because we hadn't really gone through something like this with this 551 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:29,840 type of population. 552 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:35,840 So in any event, it caused a lot of uproar with people and they started to hate him. 553 00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:40,000 And not just because of that, because of other bits of information that he put out, which 554 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,760 later proved to be true. 555 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:45,160 But my point is you had people who couldn't think critically and accept the fact that 556 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:48,800 we're going through this together and that this is our new reality. 557 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:54,440 And we have to figure out the best way to approach this to minimize the collateral damage that 558 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,000 this virus has caused on humanity. 559 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,520 And yet it charged a lot of people towards hatred. 560 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:06,560 It changed their reality and created a mistrust about the government and science in them when 561 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:07,560 it shouldn't have. 562 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,600 Maybe I shouldn't say it shouldn't have, but it did in any event. 563 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:13,240 So I mean, these are life events. 564 00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:21,320 These are current events that set off a chain of events that lead to a complete shift in 565 00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:25,640 the reality of society, our social construct of reality. 566 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:30,720 I don't know about you, but I think it's quite fascinating to do some deep thinking about 567 00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:37,540 just reality itself and the construct of reality and what we put into it and what we get out 568 00:36:37,540 --> 00:36:38,600 of it. 569 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:39,600 I get it. 570 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:44,080 We need rules and regulations for a civilized society. 571 00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:49,240 We need to learn to identify with certain groups of people for safety reasons, for health 572 00:36:49,240 --> 00:36:52,120 reasons, for survival reasons. 573 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:58,720 But I think the big takeaway from understanding this whole idea of constructing realities 574 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:04,200 based on our life experiences and society is that we should continue to do that. 575 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:08,880 However, we should also be open-minded and accept other people. 576 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:13,400 We don't have to agree with their point of view because if we agreed with everybody, 577 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:20,520 then we really would all be one, you know, basically one big construct, one big ideology. 578 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,720 And that's not how life is and that's not how humanity is and that's not how cultures 579 00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:25,600 and societies develop. 580 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:30,880 But if we learn to accept other cultures and other societies and their belief systems and 581 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:36,120 have a mutual respect for one another, I think we can survive in this world with a little 582 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:37,120 bit more peace. 583 00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:41,440 Like I said, you don't have to agree with it and you don't have to accept it. 584 00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:44,400 But don't go out of your way to destroy it, you know what I mean? 585 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:45,400 And that's what we do. 586 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,160 We like to destroy other people's ideologies, their beliefs because we feel ours is better 587 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,000 when ours is no better than theirs. 588 00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,000 I mean, you probably think, oh, mine's better. 589 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:58,000 Yeah, I don't think so, buddy. 590 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:03,960 But in any event, that was my spiel on the social construct of reality. 591 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:07,960 I want to encourage you, you know, as you go through the next few days, week, months, 592 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:13,720 the rest of your life, I want you to reflect on how your own realities are constructed. 593 00:38:13,720 --> 00:38:15,960 Think about what you believe in. 594 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:20,440 Think about how they're connected to the society in which you live in and to your family and 595 00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,000 to your history. 596 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:32,520 What role do they play within the social construct of your community, of your country, you know, 597 00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:34,000 of your belief system? 598 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,360 And then I want you to sit there and think, well, you don't have to sit there. 599 00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:38,360 You can stand. 600 00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:43,360 But what I want you to do is be able to think what parts of your perceived reality might 601 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,620 be open to reevaluation or even change. 602 00:38:46,620 --> 00:38:52,160 So for example, if you anti a certain group, and that's predicated on maybe a religious 603 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:58,840 belief, just a personal belief, just something you were taught, whatever it is, is that open 604 00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,240 to reinterpretation to reevaluation and to change? 605 00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:05,560 Again, it doesn't mean you're going to become that person. 606 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:10,360 It just means you understand them a little better and accept them as human as people 607 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,520 as well, who are entitled to have their own belief system. 608 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:17,880 And as always, if you want to discuss any of this, you're free to do it on my YouTube 609 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:25,640 channel where I have my audio podcast, and there's a discussion, you know, room for comments, 610 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,960 and it would be life unscripted with Alan Stafford. 611 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:33,600 Or you can listen to this podcast on any of your favorite streaming stations. 612 00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:39,280 I want to really express my gratitude to the listener to you for taking the time out of 613 00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:43,000 your day to listen and engage with this podcast. 614 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:48,240 I look forward to doing more to bring in the light, more of my insights, and maybe helping 615 00:39:48,240 --> 00:39:55,720 people understand that reality really is a construct, and we can be and decide who we 616 00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:56,720 want to be. 617 00:39:56,720 --> 00:39:59,360 We're not limited by any doctrine. 618 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:04,360 Until next time, my friend, stay positive, think critical, and be open. 619 00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:16,120 I'm Alan Stafford for Life Unscripted.