Commentary: Personal Narratives, Egos and the Weirdness of the World

The world is a very strange place. One of the strange things I found myself thinking about this afternoon is the way it seems like "consensus reality" has become a somewhat flexible concept.

We all have our points of view about a variety of things, and when you piece it all together you end up with something we call our "Personal Narratives." It's the stuff we believe to be true, given what we know of the world, and from our personal experiences.

The "problem" seems to arise when people get so attached to their own narrative that they become unable to entertain even the possibility of something different. And, what's more, they can typically rationalize what they are invested in.

The thing is, people can almost always find "A" narrative that supports the version of reality they have carefully constructed inside their heads, and then they will take that narrative and insist that it is "THE" narrative, when — in fact — it is no such thing.

As the old Tears for Fears song goes "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."

In this case, it translates into "I know what reality is, and if you contradict that you're clearly insane or in denial!" Underlying that tends to be a personality for whom "being right" is actually more important than the underlying information they are right (or wrong) about.

Big egos getting in the way of common sense. Or, as the case might be, insecurity about their own knowledge, requiring a forceful assertion onto others.

I suppose that might seem somewhat obvious when applied to those who have narcissistic tendencies, but even those of us who desperately don't want to "rule" anything, and actually just want to be left the eff alone desire that narrative to be "THE" narrative that guides existence.

Our personal narratives can become extremely important... and can often stand in the way of our ability to truly learn and adapt, when we're just too attached to having our own way... "because we believe it HAS to be so."

A lot if this first came to mind when I was having a conversation with a friend of ours who spent many years as a "field investigator" looking into "reported" UFO sightings. Granted, that's a pretty ambiguous area to work with, but his point was that people would have their own carefully crafted personal narratives that broadly ignored consensus reality evidence right in front of their faces.

I suppose that's how religious and political fanaticism comes about! And how we end up with a bunch of the many "conspiracy theories" going around.

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Do you ever come across people who are living a "reality" that has little to do with what is front of their eyes? And they insist YOU are the nutcase for not believing as they do? What do you think is going on, there? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210514 23:43 PDT
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