Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
update links |
Goo Monster (talk | contribs) →Real Life: This is less in play with representative money. And it is even less in play than that with commodity money. |
||
Line 367:
* The stock market. Expectations of the future are one of the most powerful forces, as evidenced by how stocks consistently rise/fall after optimistic/dour speeches, reports and addresses. So if the market tanks, it will come back to life if everyone just believes in it.
** Bank runs, where people believe that their bank is failing and rush to take their money out of it, which causes more people to believe that the bank is failing, which causes more people to take their money out of it, which eventually causes the bank to actually fail, even if the original reason for thinking that that the bank was failing was completely false.
** Really, ''money itself'', at least the kind most of us see in our daily lives (fiat money) depends on this trope. Money gains or loses its worth only based upon widespread belief in it. Currency that could be used to buy quite a lot one day can be next to worthless the next, in the right circumstances. The money itself hasn't changed, the little squiggly world leader imprinted on it hasn't changed; its value derives entirely from how widely it is believed to have value.
* This is how hypnotism works. You have to ''believe'' that you can be hypnotized in order for it to work, and it is impossible to be hypnotized against your will. The fact that the word "hypnotism" is applied to a half-dozen or so completely unrelated ideas, some well-understood and some utterly absurd, doesn't help.
** In addition, even if you believe you can be hypnotized, you cannot be commanded to do things you are unwilling to do consciously. A man might be able to be hypnotized into thinking an orange is a apple, but if he believes stealing is wrong, there is no way you can force him to take money out of a wallet without permission.
| |||