just wait and see

The De Beers company had a stranglehold on the diamond industry in the early to mid 1900’s. They had a monopoly on all diamond mines but their product had no demand, diamonds by themselves have no value (You can’t eat a diamond).

So they set out on a huge marketing campaign to make diamonds a symbol of love and commitment. And it was largely successful.

Today society demands that an engagement requires the exchange of a diamond engagement ring. The bigger the diamond, the more he loves her. Why is this? Because society says so. Why does society say so? Because De Beers once had a huge stockpile of diamonds that they needed to sell.

It is an example of something that is important because it is important.

Hallmark holidays, scoring a century in cricket*, getting a good job etc are all example of things that are socially created. When something is socially created you can become a theoretical “outcast” by not taking part (Being shunned by your social group, the fear of what your neighbours will say), but there are rarely benefits for partaking (unless you count social validation).

Caution has to be taken with socially created stuff because they are often stressful and expensive. You can easily run yourself into the ground by being involved in too many things that are unimportant the second they are over. However completely avoiding these things does lead to one to isolation, which is never a good thing. The trick is in understanding what you actually gain so you can find a balance between the two extremes.

*****

In the game of cricket, once a player scores 100 runs he has achieved a landmark score and takes a bow to the crowd. However the difference between someone who scores 100 and someone who scores 99 is negligible.