Humans create social constructs in order to help build cohesiveness between themselves, and other people. This shared understanding allows people to communicate thoughts and ideas between each other with greater efficiency, and allows groups of humans to act as a coherent group with common goals. Something that exists as a social construct does not exist in physical reality, however, those that hold it true believe it as much as they believe the reality that they see and feel. As such, social constructs are indeed real, and do indeed exist.
I was listening to the Sitch and Adam Show. About two-thirds of the way through, they editorialized and reacted to a discussion between Dave Smith, a prominent libertarian, and Andrew Wilson, a prominent Christian Populist. During the course of the debate, Wilson kept chiding Dave Smith over his, according to Wilson, inability to describe what self ownership means. Wilson further went on to in bad faith talk down, and gish gallop the Smith’s attempt to describe self ownership as (paraphrasing) “merely a social construct”. As if a social construct has no weight or meaning in reality. Finally, Wilson responds to Smith’s definition of what right and wrong are (which the discussion expanded into) as (paraphrasing) “What God told me to do”. This is not the first time I’ve heard someone talk down about social constructs, and generally those who talk down about them seemingly do not understand what they are, or why they are important.
Typically, those who follow in Wilson’s thought process believe that if something is a social construct, that it has no weight in reality, or to other people, and that it is ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Wilson attempts to have it both ways by wrapping his moral beliefs in deism, assuming that there is a deity, and anything that deity says must be unquestioningly true. I do not want to turn this musing into a discussion about religion or theology, however, this is a rather weak argument, and is further weakened by his previous chiding of Smith’s social constructionist view of what self ownership, and morality is.
It is foolish to weight a social construct as weightless. Arguably, everything humans perceive is a construct within their heads, and the only objective reality is what people agree is or is not there. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a perfect example of this: The prisoners in question believe they are seeing reality, and although it isn’t the full experience of reality, the shadows on the cave wall are essentially their reality. This is not to say there is not a greater reality that exists beyond the confines of human skin. My point however is that unless demonstrated otherwise, people will remain convinced of what they think, and how they feel.
The social construct is likely one of the basis of humanity’s evolutionary tactics. Humans are a pack animal, like dogs or chimps, and pack animals will develop specific calls, grunts, mannerisms, that other animals in the pack will take cue on to approach the situation. Even today, you can tell if someone is stressed based on whether their face is flushed, their stance is tense, or the sound of their voice. You can tell if a dog is agitated or happy to see you, based on how its tail is wagging, or whether it is bearing its teeth. These are simple, physiological constructs compared to the social construct. The social construct takes these simple observations to the next level. Social constructs, such as hierarchies, allow humans to organize themselves more efficiently, dividing the labor up into manageable jobs where those with greater strength to accomplish those tasks can do so more efficiently. Social constructs allow certain people, or groups of people to focus on solving abstract issues in abstract ways, or creating novel ideas that lead to a greater chance of survival and propagation. I’m being rather brief with my description, but I would argue that civilization could not exist if people did not mutually hold together that there was anything like a civilization to believe in. Everything, from laws, to the rules in sports, to philosophy, to ghost stories, all are social constructs meant to bring individuals together into a group.
Never forget that both humanity’s greatest accomplishments, and horrific atrocities, were committed by individuals who believed that there was a greater, cohesive group accomplishing a shared goal.