A new normal
“Collective belief” — an exciting topic indeed, in fact one the most important case for us today. You may question my belief in believing this since there are many words like — “pandemic” “world economy” that can easily be ranked as the most important topics right now. In my quest to change your opinion, I write this article to challenge your belief, if not transforming it completely.
“Pandemic,” A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν, pan, “all” and δῆμος, demos, “local people” the ‘crowd’) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance, multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of people. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. — Now that’s what Wikipedia says, but now try to remember the definition that strikes you, when you read this word. COVID-19, deaths, infection, depression, lockdown, mental health, isolation, and the list go on. Today we all fear this word- ‘Pandemic,’ but it was not so back in 2017 or 2018. “Pandemic” was a simple word for us, with a simple definition. But now, we have attached a lot of emotions and feelings to it, though mainly negative. Is this belief collective? Quite evident — Yes. Can you guess the following best example where collective belief gives a whole new dimension of definition to something? Stock Market, maybe. A company’s valuation is nothing but a collective belief of people putting money into it. All this may sound obvious to you, but it becomes frightening when you start questioning the existence of things around you with this perspective. Why we follow certain customs and traditions? A collective belief? — What is right and what is wrong? A collective belief? — Who am I? A student, A writer, or A collective belief of people who know me. So you see, the words — “Collective belief” have some mystery hidden in them. However, I am astonished by how the meaning and application of these words apply in the present context and to what degree.
Most of you must have heard the news about the NFTs and the madness around them. A tweet sells for millions of dollars, someone is buying a digital photo of a cat for an eye-shattering amount, and again, the list is endless. For those reading this and don’t know what NFTs are, let me try to explain you in the simplest of manner. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are essentially assets, digital assets to be precise (photos, gifs, drawings, posters, tweets, posts etc.) that can be purchased on the Internet. Non-fungibility applies uniqueness. I cannot buy Mark Zuckerberg’s first tweet with, let’s say, Bill Gates’s first tweet on Twitter. Both have different perceived values and are unique. A simple photo-explainer shown below-
NFT is crazy stuff; you can buy a photo, gif or tweet, and even digital property. Believe me or not, but someone paid millions of dollars for a digital land that seems to hold some strategic advantage in a blockchain game. Why buy a virtual land when you can buy one real one with that, Crazy? Isn’t it? But that being said- Even a real land is essential and expensive because people regard it as important, again a classical case of “Collective Belief. What if in the future this belief is challenged? What if people start believing in digital lands for real? Anything can be important if the majority agrees — literally anything (Dogecoins, GameStop, tesla, and again, the list is endless). The crazy stock market, economy, and businesses have created an inextricable dependency on sentiments, which is undoubtedly a 21st-century phenomenon. The Internet has been the primary culprit. Today –in a democratic setup- NEWS, tweets, and emotions control the market, businesses, and government, and essentially everything. A simple video song goes hit overnight; a company increases its valuation in no time. Collective Beliefs don’t have to be right or wrong; it’s always right because it is collective. We are all riding this wave of collective belief, and we don’t know where it’s going. Madness is the new normal.
