Discussion: Narratives' Power

25 min

Maureen and Pierre wander a bit off the road of spiritual mind body health by discussing “narratives.”  

Pierre’s been wondering about the term “narrative.” He is a little hesitant to express himself, lest Learning Conversation lands in the quagmire of politics.  His insight to the word  narrative - stories with a moral, a teaching moment - considers moral stories previously emanating from trusted sources, like parents, grandparents, teachers - and they tended to shape lives for the better.  Now narratives are employed ubiquitously in the press, social media, and other life shaping institutions, operating to tell people how life is. Seems a bit scary.  Are new narratives from trusted sources?  What happened to reporting? Why all the narratives? Is culture shifting so rapidly new narratives are needed? Is power at the root of it all?

Maureen steers the conversation back to mind body spirit by recounting how humans developed conversation and stories with meaning around campfires.  Conversing and convening to develop cultural and social meaning is what humans do. We’ve done it since the beginning of time.

This Learning Conversation evolves to consider the perils of new forms of communication, which power can manipulate faster than humans evolve to adapt. Hence, from new technologies in communication comes revolutionary change - the printing press, Bible, radio and new 20th century empire building.  

Pierre closes off the conversation with Martin Gilbert’s History of the 20th Century on facism’s use of radio technology to consolidate power, and then tells a funny story, factoid really, about Eisenhower’s time at West Point.  Fun fact - as Maureen says.

Enjoy.