“I don’t agree.”
Some folks disagreed with my instant assessment of the Syrian strike. My assessment: Trump’s surprise military attack will shift four narratives in Trump’s favor:
** Trump is Hitler: dead ** Trump is a Russian agent: dead ** Trump is incompetent: dying ** Trump is a lightweight among world leaders: dead
In other words, it took 59 cruise missiles to blow up the left’s anti-Trump narratives.
But my friends disagree. That’s okay. I don’t hang around with “yes” people.
Still, I figured I should at least explain what I mean by “narrative.”
Narrative, in this context, is the story we tell ourselves. It’s not the stories we are told. And the narratives develop from information that reaches the brain, often without awareness. (See the video below to learn just open you are to suggestion.)
Check this out first.
Right now, I am sitting in a cafe. One end of this cafe is huge atrium with glass on three sides and above your head. Looking out through the glass I see blooming trees. Those budding leaves are laboring to blot out the bright blue sky beyond. Those leaves want all that sunlight to themselves.
That’s the narrative in my head about what I see outside. Thirty or so other people can see the same world beyond that atrium. But I am pretty confident no one else sees the leaves conspiring to block my view of the sky (what color is the sky?). Each person has a slightly different narrative about those leaves.
If I were to stand up and announce my narrative, some people would adopt it as-is.
But most of those people would, instead, become aware of the view beyond the atrium. Their minds would conjure up a story about that they see. Their stories would be influenced by my bizarre outburst. They would not simply adopt my narrative. They would form their own narratives under my influence. And their narratives would influence everything they see through the atrium’s glass.
Until something else happensāsome new influenceāalters that narrative.
Now, back to the Syrian air strike.
Here you are reading my blog. You pay more attention to politics than most people do. You are more informed than many people, don’t you agree?
So think about the people who pay only slight attention to politics and world events. How do they fill their days? How do their brains craft narratives about the world?
Those people’s narratives form just like the people in the cafe looking out the atrium. Their brains pick up bits and pieces of someone else’s narrative to form their own.
CNN is on everywhere. In airports, restaurants, doctors offices, and even in this cafe where I’m writing. For months, those people have picked up narratives about “Hitler,” “Russia,” “clown,” and “isolationist.” Even without people knowing it, they’d formed a narrative in their own minds about President Trump. However they voted, if they voted at all, those narratives were influenced by CNN’s words. That’s simply how the brain works.
And those narratives got stronger and stronger every day. Until something caused people to re-evaluate their won private narratives. Something big enough, emotional enough, to make people pay attention for a moment.
Dying babiesābabies!āgets their attention. Now, they’re listening.
And this is what they’re hearing:
“No child of God should ever suffer such horrors.”
“When you kill innocent children, innocent babies – babies! – little babies, … that crosses many, many lines. Beyond a red line, many, many lines.”
“Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike . . . "
These are the words of President Trump. Trump’s biggest enemiesāthe people who have helped shape those scary narrativesārepeat these words. They repeat Trump’s humanitarian, decisive words again and again. That’s high information density combined with high emotional intensity. The recipe for narrative change.
Imagine sitting in this atrium with your narrative about the trees. You’re not aware of that narrative. It’s deep inside your brain. You only recall it when you need it for some reason. As you sip your coffee, you don’t need your narrative. Then . . .
CRASH! A tree branch the length of a telephone pole crashes through the atrium.
The danger alerts your attention. Your brain pulls that old narrative out of cold storage. Then your brain updates that narrative. The shattering glass is new information. Whatever your old narrative might have been, it’s different now, guaranteed. It’s a different narrative now.
When President Trump crashed Assad’s slaughter party with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles, he shattered a lot of atriums. Today, people are writing new narratives. And most of those new narratives involve a bold and decisive leader who can’t stand seeing babies slaughtered.
Everything has changed.
Now for that video I promised.