The Social Construction of Reality

"You can't legislate morality!"

We like to say that, and when we say it we mean that there is no point in passing laws before people agree with the change: they will undermine it.

So if most people are opposed to interracial marriages, or same-sex marriages, or to universal health care, there is no point in putting those things into law: people won't accept the validity of the law. "You can't legislate morality!"

But you can. In fact, if you pass a law specifying that people of different races may marry if they want to, people will, in fact, gradually come to agree that it is all right, and a good thing.

Why? Because a good part of why we believe something is good, or true, or beautiful, is because the people around us say so. Reality is socially constructed.

I do not know who said that, "He was a brave man who first et an oyster," but he was. If everybody you know, or even most people you know, eat oysters, chances are very good you will enjoy oysters.

If most people wear seat belts, or quit smoking cigarettes, the odds are you will, too. Not everybody will, of course, but what most people do, or do not do, will change how we think and feel.

If people around you say racism is wrong, it will affect how you think. If your kids don't give a damn one way or the other about interracial marriage, or same-sex marriage, it will, almost certainly, affect what you think is right or wrong, or just a misguided concern.

"Guess who is coming to dinner!"

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