Social Norm Breaking: Gay Marriage Edition

[ThoseWhoStayUofM]

I'm in a political philosophy class at the University of Michigan.  My prophesor scheduled our class to read Cass Sunstein's book, "Free Markets and Social Justice" but just the segment titled, "Social Norms and Social Roles" (link below).

Cass Sunstein, “Social Norms and Social Roles,” in Free Markets and Social Justice

Even more importantly, she had us read "Bruno Frey, “A Constitution for Knaves Crowds Out Civic Virtues.” The Economic Journal 107 (1997): 1043–53." and Dawes, Robyn, Alphonse van de Kragt, and John Orbell. 1990. “Cooperation for the Benefit of Us--Not Me, or My Conscience,” ed. Jane Mansbridge. In Beyond Self-Interest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Now I know most of you haven't just stopped everything and taken the time to read those big giant walls of text, f*** that.  Hopefully what I'm about to explain will entise you to go and read those texts for yourself though... anyway... 

Today, March 26, 2013, advocates of gay marriage posted large "=" images as their profile pictures.  As they did this, people began to see all of their friends slowly change their picture to this red "=".  As they saw their social group divide into "real faces" and "big honking red "equals sign" images on their screen, they realized they had to make a decision.  They actually have to step out in front of everybody and say what they think about Gay Marriage [bold][double bold]... [triple bold that s**t].  And suddenly, they switched.  I'm writing this at 4:43 so I have no idea what the result of this will be.

If you still don't want to read giant wall monster of text at least read the first two paragraphs of this wikipedia article about how this worked to overthrow a government.  That might get the attention of anarchist libertarians: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Revolution 

[Guest darkskyabove]

I tried the links which require a login to a governmental computer system.

I did read a synopsis of Sunstein's book:

"The newest
work from one of the most preeminent voices writing in the
legal/political arena today, this important book presents a new
conception of the relationship between free markets and social justice.
The work begins with foundations—the appropriate role of existing
"preferences," the importance of social norms, the question whether
human goods are commensurable, and issues of distributional equity.
Continuing with rights, the work shows that markets have only a partial
but instrumental role in the protection of rights. The book concludes
with a discussion on regulation, developing approaches that would
promote both economic and democratic goals, especially in the context of
risks to life and health.

Free Markets and Social Justice
develops seven basic themes during its discussion: the myth of
laissez-faire; preference formation and social norms; the contextual
character of choice; the importance of fair distribution; the diversity
of human goods; how law can shape preferences; and the puzzles of human
rationality. As the latest word from an internationally-renowned writer,
this work will raise a number of important questions about economic
analysis of law in its conventional form." (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/free-markets-and-social-justice-cass-r-sunstein/1100481134?ean=9780195102734&itm=1&usri=9780195102734)

I would hardly read this if it was free.

"The new relationship between free markets and social justice": WHAT free markets?

"The myth of laissez-faire": When has a true laissez-faire society existed?

"The importance of fair distribution": Distribution of what? Fair to whom?

Appears to be pure socialist drivel.

Are you implying that your professor is a Statist? What did you expect, they work for the State.

[ThoseWhoStayUofM]

My professor does not work for the state.  My professor works for the University of Michigan, which receives about 6% of its funding from the state.  The state has absolutely zero influence on the academic affairs of the university, since the University of Michigan lobbied to have the ban of state intervention explicitly written into the state of Michigan's constitution.  The university itself is completely autonomous.

It is obvious that Cass Sunstein is a statist and socialist.  He is one of Barack Obama's top advisors.  The reason why the book is important is not because of the truth it tells us about the world, but rather the truth it tells us about the beliefs and motivations of those who happen to be in power.  It's unfortunate that you have to be logged in to simply read the documents.  My apologies.

The reason why I'm telling you this is because, when large social movements or big stories consume the media's attention, the powerful elite always seem to use it for their own self-interested gains.  The gay marriage movement is trying to change the social norm of disavowing homosexuality by exposing how well-received gay marriage is to the traditional marriage advocates who only claim opposition to gay marriage because they think it's the socially acceptable position.

Here's the true theory about how to break social norms.  There exists 3 types of people; true traditional marriage believers, true gay marriage believers, and the large majority group of people who assume the position of what they think almost everyone truly believes.  The idea is that everyone thinks that everybody else is a true believer when, in fact, almost everybody is not.  At the present time, many scholars think that the topic of gay marriage fits that description.  If that's the case, in order to break the social norm of rejecting gay marriage, all you have to do is expose the non-true believers to the fact that there exists just as many true gay marriage believers as there are true traditional marriage believers.

This would be accomplished via facebook, and the switching of profile pics to indicate who is a true believer.  When everybody is switching their pictures on a specific day, it shows up in the news feed... you can't miss it.  You get a giant wall of updates about a bunch of your friends declaring that they support gay marriage.  What you don't see is a giant wall of updates about a bunch of your friends who don't support gay marriage... because the "not support" option dictates that you do nothing.  This creates the illusion that there are far more true believers of gay marriage than that of traditional marriage.  This is called social engineering.

Know thine enemy.

[Guest darkskyabove]

Well said. Thanks.

Social engineering does seem to have gained significant ground over force/fear as a tool to manipulate the herd.

This brings up a potentially serious problem for advocates of reason. Will they be forced to resort to the same disingenuous techniques to compete in the marketplace of ideas? When even proclaimed anarchists can't always agree on "What is anarchy?", how can they insert such a radical concept into the public dialogue relying only on the merits of their position?

I would suggest that there exists a fourth group: people who view the marriage question as an either-or fallacy between religious dogma on one horn, and Statist legal fiction/tax break on the other. Split the horns of the dilemma: if two people wish to spend their lives together, why do they need someone else's approval? Not to say that this solves the problem as people do need to live within our current system. But it does illustrate the possible flaw in socially engineered claims. People might break from the herd mentality if they are provided other options than either-or.

P.S.: Does the 6% include Federal and State financial aid money? Not to start a debate, just something to think about.

[MrCapitalism]

This brings up a potentially serious problem for advocates of reason. Will they be forced to resort to the same disingenuous techniques to compete in the marketplace of ideas?

Oh, absolutely. That's the social system we advocate.

That's the beauty of it. If peer pressure is what really rules the world, then anarcho-capitalists advocate that peer pressure should run the world. We just make it sound more coherent through important sounding acronums such as DRO and PDA (Personal Defense Agency).

 

 

[Guest darkskyabove]

I actually once had the idea to create a clothing and accessory line called "Peer Pressure". Slogan: "All your friends are wearing it." I gave up on it, so anyone is free to try it out. It might work.

MrCapitalism, if you were being sarcastic, I get it. And if not, I still get it.