1. The Market Rule: Demand Creates Value
In the marketplace, there is a common rule: when the demand for an item increases, its value also increases. This does not always mean that the item is better in quality. Often, people want something because many others want it, or because it is strongly promoted.
An item can become expensive or valuable simply because it is popular, not because it is the best.
This market rule does not apply only to products. It also applies to ideas, beliefs, and theories.
2. Ideas Compete Like Products
Just like products in a market, ideas exist in competition with one another. When many ideas exist about the same subject, they do not all get equal attention. Some ideas are spoken about everywhere, taught repeatedly, and supported by powerful institutions. Others remain unheard.
Over time, the idea that is most visible and most discussed begins to appear more valuable. People assume that if everyone believes it, it must be true or superior.
But visibility is not the same as truth.
3. Advertisement Shapes Belief
The popularity of a product often depends not on its real quality, but on how well it is advertised. The same is true for beliefs. A belief that is constantly promoted—through books, media, education systems, religious institutions, or influential leaders—gains acceptance.
Repetition creates familiarity. Familiarity creates trust. And trust creates demand.
Thus, an idea gains value not because it works better, but because it is better advertised.
4. Education as an Example
Let us imagine that there are ten different theories about education today. After fifty years, only one or two of them may still be widely known or practiced.
We like to believe that the most effective theory will survive. But in reality, the theory that survives is often the one with:
more funding,
stronger institutions,
wider communication,
and greater social support.
Other theories may disappear, not because they failed, but because they were never promoted enough.
5. Survival Does Not Prove Superiority
Once a theory survives for a long time, it gains authority. People trust it because “this is how it has always been.” Slowly, survival itself is mistaken for proof of value.
This creates an illusion: the surviving idea looks superior simply because alternatives have vanished from memory.
But disappearance does not mean inferiority. It often means lack of demand.
6. Looking Beyond Popularity
Just as market value does not always reflect real value, popularity does not always reflect truth or effectiveness. To understand ideas clearly, we must look beyond demand and promotion.
We must ask deeper questions:
Does this idea actually work?
Does it help people?
Is it supported by experience, reason, and results?
Only then can we separate true value from market value in the marketplace of ideas.
