Learning about useful models helps people escape anthropomorphizing human society or the economy or government. The latter is particularly salient. I think most people slip up occasionally in assuming that say something like the United States government can be successfully modelled as a single agent to explain most of its “actions”.
As an interesting (to me, at least) aside, Gene Sharp’s research on nonviolent resistance indicates that successful nonviolent resistance invariably involves taking to heart this little idea—that governments are not single agents but systems of many agents pursuing their own ends—and exploiting it to the max.
And of course this doesn’t just apply to governments, but to any organisation. Corporations, religious organisations, and even charities are all (to varying extents) vulnerable to this approach.
Sure. Any time you hear a claim like “The Catholic Church believes this …” or “Microsoft wants thus-and-so …”, you’re hearing someone anthropomorphize an organization.
As an interesting (to me, at least) aside, Gene Sharp’s research on nonviolent resistance indicates that successful nonviolent resistance invariably involves taking to heart this little idea—that governments are not single agents but systems of many agents pursuing their own ends—and exploiting it to the max.
And of course this doesn’t just apply to governments, but to any organisation. Corporations, religious organisations, and even charities are all (to varying extents) vulnerable to this approach.
Sure. Any time you hear a claim like “The Catholic Church believes this …” or “Microsoft wants thus-and-so …”, you’re hearing someone anthropomorphize an organization.