The radical idea that the most powerful forces in society—Money, Individual rights, and Nation-States—are collective hallucinations we all agree to believe in. A dollar bill is just paper; a border is just a line; your "freedom" is just a story. Jiang's theory states that power is the ability to control these shared fictions and make them feel real and immutable. The most successful elites are the master world-builders who can create a new "imaginary" (like cryptocurrency or a new national identity) and get millions to buy into it.
Example: "Imaginary Control Theory explains Bitcoin: it's a new shared fiction of value, created from nothing, that competes with the old fiction of the U.S. dollar. The 'truth' is just whichever story more people believe and enforce. It's all a meta-game of make-believe with tanks and bank accounts."
by Abzugal January 24, 2026
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