Fact and fiction
Around 70,000 years ago humans began to use language. This enabled them to communicate more than just the fact that danger was there in the form of a lion or snake, but to specify exactly where and how to avoid it.
Homo Sapiens were social animals and preferred to form groups in order to hunt, settle in villages or fight. However, they quickly found that although in small numbers, each could know, recognise and learn the particular quirks of the others, as the number increases, the social order destabilises, eventually leading to a rupture and the formation of new groups.
In humans, this number is about 150; few people have more than this number of friends and acquaintances. Separate groups seldom cooperate, tending to compete for territory and food. So how did Homo Sapiens cross this dividing line to form larger communities which could survive without much conflict?
It was found, early on that if the group could agree to a mutual concept, then all those believers had something in common and could relate to each other. That concept could be a person (chief, king, war-lord) or a myth (gods, religion, history). Once that hurdle had been surpassed larger villages, towns and cities could be maintained. Even countries could be formed.
If a myth could be created in which people could believe, then they could be cajoled into mutual cooperation. Any large human corporation, be it state, church or tribe is rooted in common myths which exist only in our collective imaginations.
Two Catholics who have never met can be made to agree to go on a crusade or pool funds to build a hospital; two Serbs can risk their lives to save each other even though they are strangers because they believe in the Serbian nation; two lawyers can combine to save a complete stranger because they believe in a judicial system, yet none of these institutions exist outside of our minds.
In what sense does the Ford company exist? If all Ford cars were suddenly scrapped the company would not disappear; if a virus killed off all its employees, it would still exist. The whole existence of Ford lies in the US legal system and a few papers signed by lawyers.
It does not exist as an entity – it can be sued, rack up debts, issue bonuses but cannot be jailed or transported to Australia (which only exists on paper anyway – if the Chinese attack it might be called New Taiwan). It is a myth like the Greek, Roman and Scandinavian gods.
Alan Stevenson spent four years in the Royal Australian Navy; four years at a seminary in Brisbane and the rest of his life in computers as an operator, programmer and systems analyst. His interests include popular science, travel, philosophy and writing for Open Forum.
