The Power to Make Belief

The objects in this section ask you to think about the relationship between power and truth. On the one hand, people and institutions with power have an extraordinary ability to narrate the truth however they see fit. On the other hand, by making new arguments with new evidence, people have been able to fight against unjust and oppressive power. Our trust in institutions and symbolic systems is one of the ways that we learn what to believe in the world, and what we believe shapes how we think and act.