Narratives are a powerful thing in shaping a culture or a political movement. Narratives are patterns of explanation that turn a series of events into a story. They ascribe a consistent purpose to actions and show one event leading to another. Sometimes narratives stray from the facts, but they don’t have to. What makes a narrative is an underlying direction and a causal chain.
They’re often more powerful than facts for influencing people. Convince people of a narrative’s validity, and they’ll ignore or reject what doesn’t fit it. They’ll accept even implausible conclusions that fit with it. They’ll admire people who promote it and dislike ones who contradict it. To persuade large numbers of people, it isn’t enough to muster facts; it’s necessary to assemble them into a story.
This description suggests that the dishonest can make good use of narratives, but so can the honest. Persuading people requires reaching them on the emotional level, not just presenting valid facts and arguments. This doesn’t imply deceptiveness, only the recognition that motivation is important.
America has its traditional narratives. Colonies fought for freedom from a foreign power. Inspired by this ideal, it grew in land area and strength. It became prosperous through free enterprise and came to lead the world. Nothing in that description is false, but it emphasizes certain things and is silent about others. More recently, we’ve often heard a different narrative: People came here and expelled and killed native inhabitants. Americans brought in slaves from across the ocean. Even after it ended slavery, the US often gave the slaves’ descendants a bad deal. Those statements are also true, but they present an entirely different story.
The symbols that go with a story are as important as its real or invented facts. The Star-Spangled Banner and the Gadsden Flag are important parts of the American story. The Trump gang has been adept at appropriating them while twisting the narrative into a different one: a nation with a great leader, built upon the Christian religion and determined to exclude everything that is foreign. Trump’s success rests on his ability to manipulate the American narrative, playing up its nationalistic elements while using words like “freedom” to stand for their opposite.
He’s been able to do this because of lack of opposition. A narrative that despises a country is never going to catch on with the people who live there. People with any self-respect don’t take kindly to made-up accusations of “racism” or to being told that their denying the accusation proves they’re guilty. The narrative of freedom does require the acknowledgement that some things were badly wrong in the past and have needed a long process of correction and that some still need serious improvement today. Often that’s been forgotten in a story which is too shiny and ideal to stand scrutiny. But today support for either the traditional or improved narrative of liberty is hard to find. The Republicans used to support economic freedom, though with many inconsistencies. The Democrats used to be solidly in support of freedom of expression, even if they were terrible on economic issues. Today the Republican Party has turned to economic authoritarianism and open cronyism, and the Democrats have retreated from their solid support for the First Amendment.
Both sides build their narrative on the glorification of centralized power and the playing of segments of the population against each other. A free America can survive only if it’s possible to bring new life to the narrative of a free society. It needs to stress the accomplishments of those who built a foundation of freedom and those who built on it. People like Paine, Jefferson, Garrison, and Douglass. It needs to include the correction of faults such as slavery and censorship. It needs to show that everyone can have a part in it. It shouldn’t be overcomplicated, but it has to be honest.
The methods of presentation aren’t limited to factual articles and books. Stories, video presentations, pictures, and songs are all ways to reach people’s minds.
I don’t know how the American narrative can be revitalized. I do what I can but know it has little effect. If a lot of people do the same, maybe some of them will find the words that will reach a large audience and reverse today’s precipitous decline.
If not, at least I haven’t given up.