Scamageddon 35 (The War of Narratives: Reality, the Future, and Everything)

The people who control the narratives control absolutely everything.

Photo by Robyn Budlender on Unsplash

nar·​ra·​tive, noun. A way of presenting or understanding a situation or series of events that reflects and promotes a particular point of view or set of values.

- Merriam-Webster

The only reason the Predators have not already won is that some of us remember the narratives about how important democracy is, and how important the fight for democracy is. “Love thy neighbor.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” “We the People,” “…with Liberty and Justice for All.” None of these narratives say only wealthy, white, Christian males need apply.

Predators are trying to erase these and many more narratives and return us to the prehistoric narratives that the world is solely governed by the Law of the Jungle. Kill or be killed. Steal or be stolen from. Be an aggressor or be the victim. Might makes right.

This battle of narratives is the battle for the hearts and minds of the human species and how we will see ourselves for the foreseeable future. What our basic expectations should be about the quality of our lives and opportunities. Will it be for the benefit of the few, or for the many?

Reality, the Future, and Everything

There are many thousands of narratives. Narratives are stories that communicate information and beliefs — mental constructs — that we started learning soon after we were born. Narratives are stories that we internalize that help us understand the world and how it works. They give the world meaning.

Everything is defined by narratives. Narratives establish relations between everything and assign qualities to everything.

Who we are. How we should behave. How we fit in. What we like and believe in. How and when to be happy. What it means to be successful. How to celebrate. Expectations about others. What our purpose is. What makes life better and worse. What rules make sense. What is fair and unfair. What is justice. What we owe our community. When domination is permissible. When aggression is permissible. When compassion is permissible.

Some narratives are shared by many people. Some are shared by just a few.

Narratives are often engineered to provide a backstory for entertainment (e.g., we all know how time travel works because of narratives we have consumed about this fictitious artifice). Backstories can also give advantage to a brand, a person, or to a demographic.

Powerful narratives that describe how one demographic is superior to another have always been with us. There are many that support the right of the ruling class to rule, their right to a higher quality lifestyle, and their inherent cultural, political, spiritual, intellectual, and economic supremacy. These narratives have been used by warlords, military commanders, religions, nation-states, the aristocracy, races, genders, and the wealthy.

Our focus here is how narratives are used to keep Predators in power and how we can change these narratives.

For example, Predatory economic narratives are created and continuously repeated to keep Predators in power — to keep the rest of us from objecting to their domination of our society.

Examples are: “The poor are poor because they are lazy.” “No matter how the wealthy got wealthy, they are wealthy because they are smarter and better than us and deserve our utmost respect.” “The reason our quality of life is so low is because either we aren’t trying hard enough or because ‘others’ are stealing opportunities and money from us” (the ‘others’ being most commonly other nations, immigrants, people of different colors, genders, or nationalities).

Narratives like these are why the economy is the way it is, and why we have so much economic inequity today. For as long as we believe these narratives, the economy will never change.

Predatory economic narratives are responsible for why it feels like there is nothing we can really do about our economic woes — nothing but work harder for the Predators and hope they reward us for our hard work.

Narratives are constantly changing, impacted by memes, major events, and new technologies.

When narratives are believed by enough people, they begin to influence people’s behaviors. If they are believed by even larger numbers of people, they become a defining reality. If they are believed by a large majority of people, they become reality.

The people who control the narratives control everything.

Those who control the narrative about the economy control the economy. Those who control the narrative about politics control the government.

Wealthy people are major influencers of narratives. They have this power because of narratives that make us believe that wealthy people are more worthy and smarter than the rest of us. Who created that narrative, do you think? They use this bully pulpit to create and support new narratives and stifle ones they don’t like.

But narratives are just stories. Beliefs.

Harmful beliefs don’t require billions of dollars in modern weaponry for us to overcome. Just one idea will do it. The right idea. Just two friends discussing the idea. A third person posting the idea. And tomorrow the world will be different. Better. And ready for another good idea.

Scams can both create the narrative and reinforce the narrative.

An example will help. Let’s look at the Reagan-era epithet “tax-and-spend liberals.” If Reagan had to explain what this meant, using charts, graphs and statistics, it would become clear that the history of his Republican party with respect to taxing and spending was as bad or worse than the Democrats, depending how the data was sliced and diced.

“If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” [1]

So, it wasn’t explained. It was only used as an attack, as part of a Bamboozle Scam, which created a negative narrative about the Democratic party. The scam created this narrative, this story, that people treated like a historical event, even though the event never occurred. Our brain fills in the gaps, adds actors and scenes and emotions of how Democrats would always be raising taxes and taxing people beyond their ability to pay and then spending the taxes collected on frivolous things.

In the end, “tax-and-spend” became a trope, a short phrase that refers to this made-up story, a narrative, about Democrats — a derogatory story that many people now believe to be real — even though taxing and spending is a normal, major responsibility of all politicians, of both parties.

Narratives can also be chained together, using “legitimizing narratives.” [2] By tying a Predatory narrative, like excessive medical costs, to another well-established narrative, like “market efficiency” or “freedom of consumer choice,” or even myths like “the U.S. has the best medical care in the world,” [3] the support of such Predations can seem like a legitimate political position.

[1] Commonly attributed to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan

[2] James K. Galbraith, “The Predator State”. (Free Press, Simon & Shuster, 2008), 133

[3] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-healthcare-in-the-world