The Personal Narrative

I have fairly strong opinions which is not much of a surprise to those who know me. Most of my friends can testify to the intensity with which I hold onto specific points of view. But despite that characteristic, I do my best to remain open to having my perspective changed when someone presents a fact-based, rational argument that refutes my notions. Even so, there are also opinions I want to believe and the emotional quality surrounding that desire means that when I read an article, I am usually searching for information that can corroborate my current thinking. This is how we all support our personal inner narrative.

Unfortunately the personal inner narrative is always skewed because it is strained through our subjective senses. We cannot help but view the world through the filters we have built up over the years, which is something I’ve discussed in several previous posts including Subjectivity, Mindfulness, and Conspiracy Theories. I keep coming back to these subjects because they are of enormous importance to our survival and are constantly impacting how we interact with the world at large, our immediate environment, our friends, and even ourselves.

We can take any subject that requires an aspect of belief (not rooted in empirical data), be it politics, religion, conspiracies, history, cults, philosophy, etc., that encompasses opinion and build on that relatively unconscious process by seeking corroborating evidence. In today’s culture, the confirmation we seek to back up our personal narratives is found from many sources including the internet, books, magazine articles, on TV news programs, and on and on, and all of this media input acts as reinforcement to cement a specific belief. This is a natural way of perceiving our environment since almost everyone wants to believe their view of the world is the correct view. It just feels safe. Life would be very odd if we all went around questioning every move we make because we might be incorrect.

To illustrate I’ll use an obvious and rather over the top example: the prevalence in some sectors of this nation’s population to embrace QAnon. QAnon is centered around, “The core belief that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters, in league with the deep state, is operating a global child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump is secretly leading the fight against them,” as noted in Wikipedia. In questioning these beliefs with a QAnon adherent, the suggestion they most often make is to “Do the Research!” as if one could search the internet and find irrefutable verification of all of the QAnon theories.

By compiling information offered as “fact” from dozens of websites it’s possible to see where an individual could find corroborative evidence to support all of the various theories purported by adherents of QAnon. In going to websites such as One Channel, Truth Social, Breitbart, Daily Stormer, plus reading the comments section of extremist Facebook groups, it might appear there is a substantiated basis for all of the beliefs. But on closer inspection, almost every bit of “factual” information comes from one source; the person referred to as “Q”, creating an echo chamber of self-fulfilling belief. In searching for the actual underlying facts to support these allegations, there is zero evidence that any of this information is based in reality.

As someone who is extremely concerned about the environment plus humanity’s role in climate change and the myriad offshoots of this problem, I am more likely to believe the news I hear with regard to the increased distribution of pollutants and the impact of fossil fuels. I am extremely skeptical of press releasees about the concerns and potential solutions offered by the oil and gas industry. I view their motives as based specifically on increasing their own financial gains and the information they offer is spin as compared to factual information. Within that context I understand that I want to view huge corporations as sociopathic giants bent on gathering wealth over the health of the planet, and so when I read data based on my own biases, I am more likely to believe that information rather than what was offered by the corporations themselves. That is my personal inner narrative.

Because of my bias I have to remain vigilant of my own interpretation of any information I take in, making certain that what I read is based on fact and not what I want it to mean. There are many people I consider friends who are in line with my own political perspective and yet, time and again, I see them pass along incorrect material simply because they want to believe it.

We humans are deep into the age of misinformation fueled by easy access to false claims, doctored photographs, and a desire to be “in” on the secrets of how society functions (or doesn’t function). Most people want to feel special and be able to connect with others of like-minded opinions, so we have a propensity to ignore the data that might refute those connections and expose the false claims as just that. Because of the unprecedented proliferation of misinformation, I would like to recommend Lee McIntrye’s book titled Post-Truth, a short but very informative read.

As I’ve stated many times, being Mindful is the key to remaining, as best we can, above the Sirens’ Song calling us to believe the false narratives bombarding us at an ever increasing pace. We are surrounded by it, coming at us from the right, the left, and from the center. When faced with a statement that seems a bit off, even if it fits with your person leanings, research it prior to being drawn into its message or even worse, passing it along to others. As Harry Truman so famously said, “The Buck Stops Here!”

[Side Note – Feral Cat Update: A number of months ago I wrote about a neighborhood Feral Cat we named Morris. Morris was caught and taken to a vet where he was declared terminally ill with his skin disease and euthanized. We had purchased an outside heated shelter where he could be safe during the coming winter, but he will no longer frequent our back porch. Morris will be missed.]

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