Reflections of Belief: The Enigma of Imagined Orders

My beige-toned bookshelf houses many peeling books, but the most influential being Yuval Noah Harari’s masterpiece: Sapiens. Screaming that human rights and justice exists solely in our conscience (my life is a lie), the idea that nuked me was the imagined order, the concept that authority is determined by stories regardless of blood. Even today, after millennials of use, we still use the imagined order to determine our daily actions. Nonetheless, its origins, meaning, and importance are cryptic without scrutinisation.

The story of imagined orders begins 70, 000 years ago, when Homo Sapiens (us) were pitted in a dog fight with other human species. The outcome is obvious: we won, otherwise this writing wouldn’t exist. However, how was it we won against stronger, bigger, and badder species? At that precise moment, Homo Sapiens evolved a unique ability to believe in things that aren’t true: imagined orders. This motivates us to fight for that cause: Homo Neanderthalis was a species of humans far superior in strength, but lacked the ability to cooperate. Homo Sapiens were weaklings in comparison but excelled at working together, eventually banding together and destroying Neanderthals in droves. Since imagined orders make people believe in one ideal, this encourages meeting with other strangers, unprecedented in animal history. Without it, work would virtually be a meatnest, continuous keyboard noises damaging your nerves.

We owe imagined orders a great many things for saving our necks, but the clear definition of imagined orders is still in the box. An imagined order is a ‘mythical cause’ under which people unite to work together towards that goal. This encourages trust in another person even if they are a stranger, increasing the likelihood of making a friend. Nonetheless, imagined orders exist in many variations, including money, rights, and religion. Money usually consists of metal coins and paper: this is a social construct as we are convinced that it is valuable. Rights are similar in their own right. The American Declaration of Independence states that every man has their own equal right to enjoy liberty, happiness, and prosperity. However, nature says nothing of the sort: there is nothing in our blood that proves it, except in our mind. A slightly more alarming ‘myth’ is religion, as science cannot support religious ideas. Yet, our brain learnt to accept these ‘opinions’, whether it is true or not: the power of the two-faced imagined orders.

Imagined orders help people cooperate, ensuring a safe and comfortable society, but they have a dark side, one of them being consumerism. Consumerism tells people that they will be happier if they buy certain things from digital currency to cars. A counterpart of consumerism is romanticism, which tells us that we must experience a variety of things to fulfil our potential. The marriage of these twins gave birth to an infinite market of experiences: consumerism-romanticism. A grand suite wasn’t the highlight of my family’s cruise getaway. It was for the precious memorable moments promised aboard, the consumption which is supposed to make us feel better and widen our horizon. Undoubtedly, experiences themselves have a high price, but maybe too much to question the indispensability of imagined orders.

Imagined orders allegedly ‘benefit’ people greatly, but history has too many revolutions and wars based on failed imagined orders to give a nod on this. If imagined orders are not that efficient as we were all promised, how about replacing them? This isn’t just a matter of cheese and bread. To get people to follow the new system, 8 billion people would have to side with you. Additionally, even with these checks, humans must learn to adapt to these conditions, possibly requiring another evolution in humankind. But by that time, people would want to return to their old lives and revolt. After all, humans did evolve for the sole purpose of imagined orders.

Imagined orders are irreplaceable: there is no other word for that. They are fundamental to our growing history and identity, shaping cooperation and conflict alike. As we evaluate their impact, we must consider whether they still meet our needs or if new narratives are needed. Simultaneously, it is our thinking that is needed if imagined orders are used for the greater good, as we are constantly a step away from Animal Farm. The future of imagined orders is up to us to determine the reflections of our beliefs and their power on the world.