This is essentially nonsensical though. You can internally reject social consensus or even objective measurement, but you cannot choose the frame in which you are evaluated by others.
> I can't think of any social construct that does not require buy-in from the affected parties.
"Prisoner", "slave", and "taxpayer" spring to mind (but I repeat myself). These are artifacts of social consensus, enforced by people with stronger-than-usual opinions about the correctness of their evaluations.
Viktor Frankl, Nat Turner, and Warren Buffett, as exceptions, do not disprove the larger point.
I think I see where the misunderstanding comes from!
I did not mean to say that you, as an individual, can disappear the grocery store by ceasing to believe in it, any less than you can wish away a recession by choosing not to believe in it.
These social constructions (recession, manager, grocery store) are the product of the belief of a majority of the relevant people. One person believing this way or that way changes nothing. Only when most people stop believing do we see change.
Slavery is a great example of a type of social relationship that ends when people stop believing in it.
This goes for the recession just as well as the other examples I gave.
> I can't think of any social construct that does not require buy-in from the affected parties.
"Prisoner", "slave", and "taxpayer" spring to mind (but I repeat myself). These are artifacts of social consensus, enforced by people with stronger-than-usual opinions about the correctness of their evaluations.
Viktor Frankl, Nat Turner, and Warren Buffett, as exceptions, do not disprove the larger point.