[PREV - SUNRA_REACHES]    [TOP]

THE_STORY_OF_STORIES

                                             March 25, 2018

The narrative narrative.

It's become a familiar tale:
we are not creatures of fact,              RELUCTANT_STORYTELLER
but of fiction, and to win out
over a fiction you need another                    NARRATIVE_DRIVE
to compete with it.
                                                             GOLDLEAF_FRAME

   George Monbiot, "Out of the Wreckage":
                                                    [link]
   "You can not take away someone's story
   without giving them a new one."


   And further:

   "Facts and figures do
   not displace a story."


I have reservations about this for
quite some time: are they
arguing that truth is irrelvant?          Julia Galef engages with the
                                          psychology literature on the
What kind of person is comfortable        notion of the virtues of
with that, really?                        optimistic delusions
                                          ("positive thinking"?) and
                                          finds it wanting.

                                                                  GALEF


                                          The "backfire effect" is well-known
                                          at this point-- facts don't persuade
                                          they just make people dig-in--
                                          what's less well-known is the
                                          original discoverers have backed
                                          off from this, and found some
                                          evidence that stating the facts is
                                          a decent persuasive technique.

                                                          DOUBLE_BACKFIRE

                                          Could it be that people *like*
                                          the story that stories matter,
                                          and don't want to hear the contrary?

--------
[NEXT - DOUBLE_BACKFIRE]