STORIES

Stories are the means by which we navigate the world.
They allow us to interpret its complex and contradictory signals.
When we want to make sense of something, the sense we seek is not scientific sense but narrative fidelity.

Does what we are hearing, reflect the way that we expect humans and the world to behave?
Does it hang together?
Does it progress as a story should progress?

Now, we are creatures of narrative, and a string of facts and figures, however important facts and figures are – and, you know, I'm an empiricist,
I believe in facts and figures –
but those facts and figures have no power to displace a persuasive story.

The only thing that can replace a story is a story.
You cannot take away someone's story without giving them a new one.

And it's not just stories in general that we are attuned to, but particular narrative structures.
There are a number of basic plots that we use again and again, and in politics there is one basic plot which turns out to be tremendously powerful, and I call this "the restoration story."

It goes as follows.

Disorder afflicts the land, caused by powerful and nefarious forces working against the interests of humanity.
But the hero will revolt against this disorder, fight those powerful forces, against the odds overthrow them and restore harmony to the land.

You've heard this story before.

It's the"Robin Hood" story
It's the "Harry Potter" story.
It's the "Lord of the Rings" story.
It's the "Narnia" story
It's the Bible story.
But it's also the story that has accompanied almost every political and religious transformation going back millennia.
In fact, we could go as far as to say that without a powerful new restoration story, a political and religious transformation might not be able to happen.

It's that important.