The Story

We tell ourselves stories ithat make it possible to live together.

Zoe Heller in The New Yorker (July 12, 2021) had some interesting things to say about the Trump story. She got me thinking. 

Maybe the greatest influences on how people perceive themselves and the world are the narratives they learned growing up. They learned to accept on faith explanatory tales that defy evidence and logic. They might believe in a God who lives on top of a mountain or in an intellectual who drew maps that will certainly lead to a just society. 

Humans learn to discount facts that call stories into question. They might tell you, for example, that enslaved people enjoyed their servitude. 

We all believe, Subcommander Bob says, in narratives that exist without proof.  From the moment we are born, we are taught to believe in powerful but unproved and improbable tales. We are told to love our country and that it loves us, which is absurd. 

 It may be that these narratives are what make it possible for huge numbers of people to unite. 

Stories become internalized. To contradict my basic narratives is to attack my core self. 

Consider the strength of Trump's narrative. What a tale! Bad people stole the election from good people. You can spot bad people--they're a different color! That is Trump's narrative. His voters, who have been trained from birth to believe almost anything, believe that Hillary Clinton drinks the blood of babies. Democrats are pedophiles! And the cultists understand that Trump and his people are always right, because Trumpers have inside information. Hillary drinks blood! The anti-Trump people are, in the eyes of Trumpers, either evil or ignorant. Nothing they say matters. They are pathetic fools. And the pandemic is a hoax.