What you say about the "make believe 'value'" of gold is actually true for most all monies, and especially true for current fiat money.  

Gold is actually the cornerstone of money, because it most perfectly fulfills the properties of money.  While recent fiat money is not gold backed, gold derives most of its value as a from of money.  Gold is immune from uncontrolled issuance (has constant rarity), very difficult to fake, extremely durable, totally devisable, perfectly fungible.  and has a vey long and stable history of use of money throughout the world.  Better than any other form of money, gold meets the basic functions of money.  This has been known and written about since ancient times.