Back in late 2018, I wrote a blog post entitled ‘On writing a new story’. As my writing venture on Medium goes so far, it was one of the most liked at the time by a long margin and has yet to be topped (this, bearing in mind that I received a stellar 200 plus claps, all nevertheless gratefully received).
The story contained my usual list of suspects, social pundits like Yuval Noah Harari, who framed the present world narrative of the liberal Story of 2016 as near dead, and the highly prescient man of letters, Marshall McLuhan who predicted 58 long years before Harari that we would succumb to ‘panic terrors’, an internalized Big Brother and ‘a small world of tribal drums’.
As we soon cross over into 2024, the promise of that liberal story – a sunny upland for humankind marching towards a global society of free markets and democratic politics has evaporated. Globalization is in its death throes, economic blocs are circling the wagons, novel alliances are being struck by anti-democratic forces, war rules supreme in two theatres and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are saddled up and ready to ride.
The post Trump (too late to prevent that one), post truth, post Covid world is increasingly impossible to navigate – in truth, we can no longer trust our senses five, or fall back on the comforting lies created by consumerism or other world religions. Even things that we have thus far taken for granted as part of ‘normal life’, careers, even traditional jobs, are disappearing fast and being replaced by simulacra – machines which are so close to the real thing as to call into question our own hold on reality.
Added to this, the terrorism of the news cycle and the R18 strength virus of new puritanism is muting important conversations we need to have with ourselves as we are engendered to practice self-censorship for fear of causing offence.
We think of news as a great good but if the underlying narrative is fear, it serves another master. Have you noticed, for example, that most world news is preceded by the trigger warning ‘Some viewers may find the following images disturbing’ or ‘viewer discretion advised’. Isn’t that a direct invitation to lift the curtain and view all the horrors they have promised? It’s human nature to peek but don’t fall for it. You are being primed for panic terrors.
Stories need to be consistent for them to work and they need to be repeated ad nauseum to reinforce the narrative but we must learn to distinguish that we have a choice to accept the narrative in the form that it is given in the first place. We are not passive observers, but neither are we active participants until of course, we put our oar in the waters of social media, itself a product of algorithms and conditioning. Fear engenders violence. By abstaining from dialogues that are fashioned to inflame and divide, we deprive the narrative of the fuel it needs to survive – we are literally fuel for the fire someone else has started.
Don’t give them that privilege.
Turn off the news if it disturbs you. Don’t watch it. Doom scrolling is a modern obsession that only leads to one thing, neurosis. This is not a call to bury your head in the sand either – sure enough, there is enough horror in the world for everyone, if you allow it. It has always been so – the only difference between this time and earlier times is the all pervasive power of the media to shape our thinking as well as that annoying self censorship software that has been installed in everyone’s operating systems on top of the overarching right by anyone to be offended in social media spaces.
At the time I was writing, I concluded with a message of hope, that a new story was possible, but that it was a personal one, a journey or self-reflection and transformation. I still hold to that belief but there are key steps we all need to take to get there.
First, this is an internal journey. Nothing you can do or say can change the narrative of the external world. This is being controlled by forces beyond our control. This is not a conspiracy of a one world government, the protocols of the elders of Zion or a call to Jihad. If you choose to stand in a crowd, don’t expect your voice to be heard if you disagree. This is your journey and the only power you have is over yourself.
Salman Rushdie wrote an excellent article recently in the Guardian reflecting on the transcendent power of storytelling and the importance of free speech in a world increasingly dominated by the forces of unfreedom. Here’s a quote from that, which speaks to both his bravery after a horrific attack that reminded the early days of violent censorship imposed upon him as a 1989 fatwa decreed by Ayatollah Khomeini following the publication of his work, The Satanic Verses.
He wrote: ‘What do we do about free speech when it is so widely abused? We should still do, with renewed vigour, what we have always needed to do: to answer bad speech with better speech, to counter false narratives with better narratives, to answer hate with love, and to believe that the truth can still succeed even in an age of lies. We must defend it fiercely and define it broadly. We should of course defend speech that offends us, otherwise we are not defending free expression at all.’
False narratives collapse when critical thinking is your guide rope. Form your own opinions but do so with the common sense that has steered you successfully through life to this point. We cannot and should not insulate ourselves from inhumanity, but we can insulate ourselves from unfounded fear. The only antidote to fear is to be present to the moment we live in, for that is all we have. In the sutra “Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone,” the Buddha said clearly, “Don’t get caught in the past, because the past is gone. Don’t get upset about the future because the future is not yet here. There is only one moment for you to be alive, and that is the present moment. Go back to the present moment and live this moment deeply, and you’ll be free.”
Social media by its very nature is fractured, easily misinterpreted, taken out of context, and distracting – the very conditions that entrap attention and make us forget our own minds. McLuhan talked about the kaleidoscope world which was evolving in his time, and the fractured lens through which we see the world has only become more refracted and polarized.
Second, question your beliefs – are they your own, or have they been implanted in you before you developed the ability to understand all the facts at your disposal? This is not a call to nihilism, to reject everything but rather to question your reality. And if you doubt your reality, talk to a friend – someone you trust for their common sense, pragmatism and take no prisoners attitude to life – these people are gold in our lives – seek them out. Get some perspective and be bold enough to think outside of the ideas you have enshrined as the truth – you may be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised. Either way, it’s a win win, even if the lesson is a hard one.
Third, light a candle against the darkness. By that I mean, in these somber times, everyone is feeling the dread of gathering gloom. Your confidence, your truth as you see it, will illuminate the path for others. And this is not a false message of hope; it really works. Small acts of kindness in everyday interactions are all incremental steps to a better world. A conscious act of kindness may be the only thing that turns a hopeless day into a better one for the recipient of your kindness. You give, you get and as the world polarizes, your humanity, your empathy, and your generosity of spirit are powerful and readily available antidotes to the collective sense of powerlessness that we feel in the face of despair.
We are being asked to take sides but don’t fall for it – by all means, go on a march if it gives you a sense of solidarity against what you perceive as injustice but don’t expect it to effect the change you are seeking. Crowds are easily manipulated, but our minds remain our own, given the right safeguards.
The new story we all need is developing slowly, but it requires your presence and participation. Destruction comes with violence, but creation, like the planting of a seed happens in silence.
Bigotry, hatred, and the instinct for war are primitive but enduring aspects of human nature but they can be overcome. They are not an inevitability. I asked myself, how much pain and suffering must the world endure before it is transformed.? It’s a valid question we may all have to weigh in 2024 but remind yourself that the power of people exists in every one of us to tell a new story – one of redemption, a return to sanity and above all, hope.
