We do “as if”. A lot of our culture consists of “as-if-constructions”. Institutions, states, nations, cultures, groups, soccer and other games…
For example, we pretend as if gold is valuable. Actually, it is rather useless; most of what we dig out of the ground is soon buried again in some save, because nobody actually needs the stuff. There are some technical applications, but there is by far more of it than anybody needs. It is a mineral, a shiny form of dirt. Now, everybody thinks it is valuable because everybody thinks it is valuable. It is a shared as-if-construction.
Now, try to develop your As-if-o-scope: you formulate statements that you normally think are true (like “Gold is valuable”). Now you add “We pretend as if ” in front of those statements. Look at the result. Think of the possibility that the statement is an as-if-construction. Now try to step out of it. Try to view gold as a form of dirt, for example. It is valuable because we declare it to be so.
You can think of these as-if-constructions as some kind of bubble. You enter it, and inside there are things that don’t exists outside. Now leave it – plop – the world looks different.
There is nothing wrong about living inside such bubbles – it is inevitable – but you should know what they are.
What would happen if we step out of all our as-if-constructions? Is that even possible?