TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
TOP・UPDATES・FOUR PILLARS・CINEMA/TV・GAMES・MANGA/ANIME・MUSIC・WRITINGS・FAQ・LINKS
The word "social construct" has become quite trendy as a buzzword. It entered mainstream consciousness in the US with renewed debates about whether gender or race are social constructs or not. Putting my opinion and knowledge about those particular questions to the side for a moment, I think we need to get clear about social constructs themselves and what that phrase really means. Because there is a lot of confusion about it.
There's a weird idea in recent decades in the western world that the idea of things being a "social construct" is a leftist idea inspired by post-modernism and that conservatism is based on what is "real." "Facts don't care about your feelings" and all that. This is very weird to me. If something is genuinely not socially constructed, then we wouldn't need to "conserve" it at all, would we? If you're arguing against something being a social construct, why are you so passionate about "defending" and "conserving" it? If it isn't constructed by us, then it can continue existing without us. It doesn't need us to care about it one way or the other.
Anything we can "conserve" is a social construct. And of course, there are many, many, many social constructs that must be preserved. Almost everything we care about is. Everything that holds a society together and makes it worth living in is socially constructed. Every tradition, every value, every law, every unspoken trust, everything we consider sacred and beautiful and excellent is a social construct. Even something like hygiene is a social construct. Not every social construct is inviolable. But a lot of them are things we care about. And a lot of them are ones we barely understand the value of until they are lost forever.
Conservatives in the east understand this. In a country like Japan, there is an extreme obsession with preservation and maintenance of tradition. And yet, this is a society which has believed in the Buddhist idea of emptiness and transcience of all phenomena for over 1000 years. And look at how much more they have preserved than any western country by recognizing that everything they hold dear is empty of substance, i.e. a "social construct." Just like every other thing we encounter in the world. Constructing is what we do. So let's realize that the most valuable things are the most fragile. Because many important social constructs need to be re-scaffolded these days.