Meandering Musing: The Power of the Narrative

I believe we all implicitly view the world as a massive story being told.

We are the heroes of our own stories. Sometimes we are the villains of others’ stories. We all have our own set of personal challenges to overcome, personal demons to contend with, and special talents to help us in our struggle. We meet people who then become side characters in our story, and us in theirs, sometimes sharing our story so thoroughly that they may as well be the co-main character. Our stories also always have a beginning… and an end.

Every good story has conflict, and our lives are no different. From the poorest person to the wealthiest billionaire, everyone has problems they must deal with in the way that they see fit. We work together, we compete against each other, and sometimes we act like other people aren’t even there. Some of get taken advantage other, and some are the ones who take advantage of others.

When I was in college, I was vaguely aware of this way of thinking, but I never understood how pervasive the Narrative worldview was until I learned more about politics and the news in general. Once one understands the power of the Narrative, you can use it to push various agendas. You don’t just report the facts, you must always frame them within a context. You set up one party as a set of victims and another party as a set of perpetrators. This can be wealthy vs. poor, black vs. white, right vs. left… it doesn’t matter. The point is that rather than pure facts being distributed, it is always a part of a story. Part of a context. Part of the larger Narrative.

People also do this in their personal lives. How many times have you watched someone weave a story right in front of you, based on something that happened to them in the past? They ignore irrelevant details, things like the color of the shoes they were wearing or the number of cars they saw, while focusing on what they believe are the most important aspects. They may even leave out details that aren’t particularly flattering, and they may emphasize the parts that make them look good. But above all, it’s always framed as a story where characters are established around which the events unfold.

This is a fundamental ability of people, and your ability to tell your story can strongly affect your success in life. It’s necessary in interviews for jobs, and when giving a speech. Selling a customer a product, or getting an investor to hand over his money for you to pursue your business idea. Or even just getting people to notice your name and likeness in a crowd of people all vying for attention.

What is the significance of this? Well, to put it plainly, don’t fall for a story just because it’s a narrative. When things are framed this way, they frequently earn an implicit believability. That’s actually one sign of a liar; they will give more details than necessary, as they try to set up their narrative. Of course, don’t disbelieve something just because it’s part of a narrative, either. Narratives can have a root in reality, and even most lies will have a nugget of truth buried underneath the deception. But above all, and this is probably most useful to the average person reading this… try to develop your ability to frame a narrative. It can make the truth more palatable, and your skillset more marketable. Notwithstanding all of that, it can simply make you more popular at social gatherings.

At least, that is what I think. Feel free to disagree, I promise I won’t frame you as a villain over such a harmless difference in opinion.

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