Our Culture is Becoming Defined by Depression, Avoidance and Anger.
Maybe some of those old cultural narratives weren't that bad after all.
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Culture is a great cruise ship that travels silently at night. The buffers and stabilizers cut the waves; if a small movement of an unattended rudder goes unnoticed, the change extends out and leaves us miles off course.
If we wake from our night slumber, the breeze is familiar. We come on deck only to say this ocean is no different from the others, perhaps just deeper water, and we return to sleep.
“It’s all ocean, we are fine, clear destinations are so old school, we have a beautiful ship, the rooms are comfortable, they have Netflix and Prime for free, and no end of activities to fill our time and distract us from ever thinking that direction matters,” the passengers say.
Why does the rudder matter? The oceans cover all the earth, don’t they? Do icebergs, rocks, shorelines, and killer storms exist, or are they just a matter of perspective? Can’t we just post-modern them away?
Broad culture creates cultural narratives. These narratives are, as author Andy A. West identifies, emotive, and their primary function is to drive emotion. They are stories, hopes, and shared dreams; they have implicit meaning and float through the culture.
Such narratives form our cultural DNA, driven by subconscious beliefs. They are neither inherently good nor bad; they exist. All cultures have them, and they are always false. They are false in the way that a fairy tale is false; they must be false to exist. If they were factual, they would be broken apart by facts.
They work by bypassing our rationality.
While all cultural narratives are not fairy tales, the metaphor is apt. For example, Cinderella goes back hundreds of years, and it is not history; it is not true; if anyone started picking it apart as false based on history, they would be thought foolish. How does it work as a narrative? It works emotionally.
"Cinderella" is a narrative framework for teaching moral and social lessons.
The story emphasizes virtues such as kindness, resilience, and integrity, often rewarded by a higher power—the fairy godmother or fate—leading to social elevation and ultimate justice. It reflects that virtue is recognized and rewarded regardless of social position.
Cultural narratives in America include the American Dream, the Melting Pot, the Frontier, Manifest Destiny, gratitude for democracy, the opportunity to move from rags to riches, the Land of the Free, the Civil Rights Movement, and American Exceptionalism. These narratives significantly shape how Americans perceive themselves and their society. They are taught through education, celebrated in holidays and ceremonies, and reflected in media and popular culture, contributing to the national ethos and debates about American identity and values.
In Canada, our narratives are more viscous and less well-formed; we natter on about our superiority to Americans, and we love our medical system like a beaten wife loves her abusive husband. We are thankful that our national hockey team still chases gold. But Canada is one of the first countries in the world that seems proud to stand for almost nothing while at times standing for everyone; we are a weak, feminized land, more a hotel with a mix of short and long-term renters.
How are those cultural narratives changing? What is happening to the traditional American and Canadian cultural narratives? What are they being replaced with? What is filling the vacuum left by declining religion?
Can cultural narratives be replaced with self-indictments? With critiques? Can you build on negativity?
Here are some new, hipper cultural narratives, except they are dreary, angry, and bitter.
Our history is shameful. We should bow our heads and wish it never was.
All culture is relative; nothing is better or worse
Masculinity is toxic and without value.
Reason is a corrupt value; we must focus on power distribution, and whatever “truth” is emitted from power structures is relative.
Our identities leave us powerless; we are victims of them
Our environment is worse than ever; our deliverers must rescue us.
A lack of equality shows only failure;
Good intentions are a worthy road; beyond the horizon must be more road, but it's better not to think of it.
To be oppressed is noble; it is the most comfortable throne.
The tenor of these narratives is negative and not aspirational; they are critiques and warnings. They are depressing. Does feeling oppressed make one happy? Does happiness not have to have some component of hope? Do we meet many people who say, I’m hopeless, but I’m happy?
While purporting to be intellectual, their base ingredient is hubris: telling us what is new and different is better. They feed on discontentment and leave us exhausted. They are well-marketed, appealing to the uninformed and those who want to find a reason for their discontentment.
Almost half of those under 45 in America say anything has to be better than this melancholic fog they walk through; what the hell - maybe socialism is the answer. Of course, they don’t bother to look at the 100 million graves it filled in the 20th century.
It’s sexy, rebellious, badass, and not boring; it is different. Most of their arguments are not arguments but assertions. They are predatory and bleat indignantly when approached by reason.
Can negative cultural narratives be foundational?
No, such narratives are duplicitous, claiming virtue but seeking to escape reason and clarity while forcing the world to agree. They are predacious. They inculcate, not convince. They are surprised when any of their underlying assumptions are questioned. They speak of science, but somehow, imagine that by saying something is scientific or a matter is settled, their words are an incantation; the words themselves have power.
Consider the phrasing, “I believe such a pursuit of liberty and truth is noble,” versus, “We should not let liberty be extended to the point where harm may be created.”
The first narrative is positive and emotive. The second is negative, dark and suspicious and is naturally constrained by the user’s perception of what is harmful.
And Social Media Makes It All Worse
Social media is a tool constructed with one motive: to monetize attention. It is a runaway train; its entire construction and operations are subordinate to monetization. It creates tribalism, offers a cheap, tawdry imitation of real relationships, encourages comparison culture, discourages critical thinking, and offers nutritionally void emotional and intellectual candy—bright and shiny stuff that we know will be our ruin but that somehow we cannot get enough of.
Censorship schemes cannot mitigate all social media's negative externalities; they add a new form of corruption, the power of bias.
A market economy also appeals to negative emotions - selfishness and greed. Still, it is necessary, as it is better than a central wise body allocating resources by pretending it can do a better job than a billion market signals and the arrogant false wisdom of a chosen few.
However, a market economy separates the product or service from the consumer. Social media knows we are the product and our attention beckons. It thinks we will be contented if it throws enough glitter our way.
Social media distracts us from its opportunity cost, taking us away from meaningful activity. And how can it not be addictive?
It can continually measure and self-adjust to our weaknesses. It crawls through our minds, continually looking for vulnerabilities, and it will open up the narrowest cracks and burrow inside. Our returns on it are small. We sell our attention for cheap.
Cultural narratives are formed, and if we are passive, the squeaky wheels will get most of the time at the microphone. However, negative cultural narratives cannot be reasoned away; they are fairy tales nobody likes. Imagine the Three Little Pigs story in which the wolf is the harbinger of racial oppression, and each pig dies, trapped in the limits of their identity politics. Perhaps one pig is trans, the other is Palestinian, and the last is the hopeless black youth, unable to escape his oppressive chains. The wolf is all that has gone before, and he burns the house down. The three pigs never had a chance. This story would struggle to become part of a cultural narrative.
In Conclusion
Only positive cultural narratives offer hope and a future; any cultural stories dripping in malaise and defeatism cannot work as narratives.
Our narratives must imply that we still have a hand on the rudder, that the world is not just endless oceans, that the waves do not extend forever, that we must watch for rocks and dangerous shores, and, most importantly, that we can move to bright and cheery lands.
