Turn on any news channel, listen to the radio, or browse any\nmainstream news website, and you will encounter stories. Attend school or college, and you will\nencounter a worldview: a narrative of\nhistory and an interpretation of the present moment. Most of these stories are based on\ntruth. Most of the opinions are coherent\nand well thought out. Most of the people\nare well-meaning. And at the same time, nearly\nall of these stories will support Power. \nThis is true not because the people telling the stories are evil or part\nof some giant conspiracy, but simply because they almost universally are\nbeneficiaries of Power, and those who benefit from Power will not question\nPower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The narrative matrix is a collection of stories and worldviews\nthat have been carefully sanitized of any effective opposition to Power. It is based in reality, but twisted and\nincomplete. And the more that the\neffects of Power become obvious in our everyday lives, the more stories which\nmust be carefully avoided, the more the narrative matrix must distort truth and\ngenerate distraction to avoid confronting Power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When there is a conflict \u2013 and there seem to be many these\ndays \u2013 the narrative matrix ensures that neither opposing viewpoint is a threat\nto Power. If the debate is about\nhealthcare, the two acceptable positions are that we should either continue the\nstatus quo of unaffordable and ever-increasing insurance premiums, or we should\ntransfer the bill to the government as Medicare for All. The question of exactly why we spend more\nthan twice as much as other similar nations for comparable care is not allowed\nto be asked or addressed. To address\nthat would be to confront Power, to say that some humans are shamelessly\nextracting wealth in exchange for providing an essential public good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Inside the narrative matrix it is only criminal and newsworthy when a company raises the price of a lifesaving medication <\/a>by a factor of 50<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is criminal and newsworthy\nwhenever any institution or corporation with a mission of providing care and\nsaving lives prioritizes profit over providing care and saving lives. Outside the narrative matrix it should not be\npossible to amass a fortune by providing essential care or medicine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we embrace identity politics, in\npursuit of a more equal society, or else we rebel against them in pursuit of\n\u201ctraditional values.\u201d We focus on\npersistent bias that remains from the time when Power utilized race and gender\nas important distinctions, and on the identity-based inequalities that are\nstill with us. We note with chagrin that\nfor every dollar a woman makes on average, a man makes $1.23. For every dollar a Black person takes home, a\nwhite person takes home $1.43. We seek\nto stomp out remaining racist attitudes and to provide preferential\nopportunities to marginalized populations to reduce these inequalities, and we\nnote with some pride that we have been making progress in terms of reducing\ninequalities along these lines over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix this is still important, but it\ntoo often serves as a distraction from the inequalities that are rapidly expanding<\/em> in our current\nmoment. For every dollar a grocery store\ncashier makes, an accountant makes $3, a doctor makes $8, a typical CEO makes\n$32, and Jeff Bezos sees his wealth increase by 2.5<\/em> million dollars. <\/em>So long as we need cashiers, shelf\nstockers, meat packers, apple pickers, and janitors for a functioning society,\nthe people performing these roles deserve to be paid enough to survive and\nthrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix any attempt to address this\nexcessive and ever-growing income inequality is met with howls of SOCIALISM!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is immediately apparent that\nin 1950, working class jobs paid a living wage and a factory worker could\neasily afford to buy a home and see a doctor, and the US was most definitely\nnot a socialist county in 1950. We could\ntake steps to return to that more reasonable level of wealth inequality while\npreserving a market economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we are told that racism is our\nnation\u2019s original sin, that we must all acknowledge our biases, and that by\nstomping out racism and other forms of oppression we will achieve a better\nworld for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is immediately apparent that a world in which billionaires are proportionally Black, Latino, and LGBTQ while half of Americans \u2013 with all identities proportionally represented – still barely scrape by is not the victory we are seeking<\/a>.\u00a0 It is equally apparent that preferentially offering winning lottery tickets (e.g. scholarships, college admissions, hiring decisions) to impoverished people of marginalized identities is a great way to stoke anger among impoverished people who do not have marginalized identities, and that fueling this anger is a great way to prevent confrontation with Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix the best way to help marginalized\npeople is to fight discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix the best way to help\nmarginalized people is to eliminate poverty. \nThat\u2019s not to say fighting discrimination isn\u2019t important, but it is\nsmall solace to hear fewer racial slurs if you still can\u2019t afford rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix it is very important to believe\nthat race and other identities are the primary basis of human oppression. To suggest otherwise is to fail to \u201ccenter\u201d\nmarginalized identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is becoming clear that Power\nno longer depends on racism or other identity-based oppressions. Neoliberal economics alone now ensures that\nthe rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and those who have Power would\nmuch rather throw down some ladders for a select few marginalized people to\nclimb than face the collapse of their towers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix neoliberal economics is\ncarefully defined as natural law, like gravity or magnetism. A free market determines prices and wages,\nand those prices and wages are by definition fair and good, and any attempt to\nmanipulate those prices and wages is TERRIBLE SOCIALISM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is eminently clear that neoliberal economics is entirely a product of human decisions and that the humans making those decisions are the ones with Power.\u00a0 It is equally clear that making different decisions could greatly improve quality of life for a majority of people.\u00a0 And making different decisions does not require embracing socialism or communism with their associated failings.\u00a0 This \u201cslippery slope\u201d argument is a complete logical fallacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix COVID-19 is a plague of\nunprecedented severity which must dominate the news cycle, disrupt society, and\ninflame preexisting fault lines to the greatest possible degree for an\nindefinite and ever-extending period of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix COVID-19 is a pandemic with an\nexpected severity recurrence interval of 50-ish years that has the potential to\nkill one to perhaps three out of every thousand people. A healthy society would choose to either\nsuppress it effectively if possible (a la New Zealand) or else allow it to\nspread with protections for the most vulnerable (a la Sweden). The US response has combined the worst of\nsocietal disruptions with very little effective control of disease spread,\nthereby generating a double-whammy that generates continual fear and suffering\nand distracts people from confronting Power. \nIt\u2019s worth noting that a much worse pandemic in 1918 was officially\nignored (never mentioned by then-President Wilson) at a time when the Power\nnarrative was focused on proving the US as a world power in WWI and the virus\nwas an unwelcome distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we debate how to handle illegal\nimmigration. One side prefers compassion\nand amnesty while the other fears job competition and cultural change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it seems strange that these\nhuman beings only become worthy of our attention or compassion when they\nsucceed against harrowing odds in crossing our border. It becomes equally clear that US foreign\npolicy and imperialism are in many ways responsible for grinding poverty and\npolitical instability across the global south, and that perhaps the best\nsolution is to confront that Power and invest our resources in helping these\nnations to thrive, so that their citizens do not arrive penniless at our\nborders begging for menial work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we support drone strikes and geostrategic\npre-emptive wars in the name of \u201cnational security\u201d and the \u201cwar on terror,\u201d\nand we praise the politicians and pundits who promote them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix the reality of these wars\nentails around 30,000 bombs dropped every year, leading to thousands upon\nthousands of civilian deaths and lifelong injuries, and thousands of\nnewly-aggrieved families lending support and donations to terrorist\norganizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix Yemen is never mentioned and\nmight as well be on another planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix Yemen is probably the single worst humanitarian disaster on Earth at the moment<\/a>, with 24 million people facing starvation or a lack of basic needs, and the US has the power to end it by confronting our \u201cally\u201d Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 But we don\u2019t because allying with Saudi Arabia serves Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix Tulsi Gabbard is a discredited and\nforgotten also-ran who is friendly with brutal dictators, has made homophobic\nremarks, embraces a strange cult-like\nreligion, and might even have been groomed by Russian agents to run as a third\nparty spoiler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix Tulsi Gabbard was a rising star\nin the Democratic Party until she dared to confront Power, returning from her\nmilitary tours with a dubious assessment of our eternal \u201cregime change wars\u201d\nand promising \u201ca government of, for, and by the people, not a government of,\nfor, and by the rich and powerful.\u201d \nRather than giving airtime to her views on government and foreign\npolicy, the narrative matrix published a series of distortions and hit pieces\nand effectively silenced her. This is\nhow Power eliminates dissent, and no one is immune to these sorts of\nhalf-truth, out-of-context, discrediting attacks that sidestep the important\nissues to render the messenger persona\nnon grata<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we are in the midst of a fight\nfor the soul of our nation between \u201cliberal\u201d Democrats and \u201cconservative\u201d\nRepublicans. We are divided so bitterly\nalong these ideological lines that we can no longer feel empathy for the other\nside, and we dread sullen Thanksgiving dinners with not-quite-disowned family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix it is apparent that both\nDemocrats and Republicans serve Power and that the policies offered by both\nsides have been carefully scrubbed of any real threat to Power. At the same time, it is oppression by Power\n\u2013corporatizing, offshoring, union-busting, labor devaluing, money-grabbing,\nrent raising, debt creating Power\u2013 that is directly generating the suffering\nand anger which must be funneled into the culture wars \u2013 wars that can have no\nvictor because the blame is misplaced and the suffering will continue no matter\nwhich party wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we just had a Very Important\nElection, and depending on your perspective we either rejected racism and\nfascism while evicting a narcissistic bully or else sold out Main Street and\nrural America to government bureaucracy and morally bankrupt urban values. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix we just had an election between\ntwo Agent Smiths. One represented\ncomfort, status quo, stability, pretense that everything will be OK if we just\nmake a few minor tweaks. The other was a\ntalented narrative manipulator who reached out to those harmed by Power and\noffered them not actual empowerment but association with an image of wealth and\na myth of national greatness; who offered his supporters a collection of\nscapegoats, of disempowered people somehow responsible for their misery. The latter might be more dangerous to the\nfabric of society, but neither will confront Power and both will bluster about\nimproving quality of life while supporting policies that actively decrease\nquality of life for a majority of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Inside the narrative matrix we fear the Other Party,\nCOVID-19, and those few rogue nations which have not capitulated to the\nUS-centered world order: Russia, China,\nIran, North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the narrative matrix those concerns appear small\nalongside the specters of nuclear war, resource limits, climate change, mass\nextinction, US-sponsored military violence, ignored humanitarian crises, and\nthe ongoing immoral extraction of wealth from the vast majority of humanity in\nservice of Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the narrative matrix. The reality we are offered. The lenses we are given to interpret that\nreality. The stories we are told and not\ntold. The statistics that are gathered\nand not gathered, cited and not cited. \nThe ways in which we are sold a world where most of us see the fruits of\nour labor accrue to others, to Power, and yet remain indifferent. The changes we believe are possible and the\nchanges we do not even consider. The\nideas we are taught about what it means to succeed, to be a good person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The narrative matrix serves Power. It does not serve us. It does not serve humanity. It most certainly does not serve the\nbiosphere or planet Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is time to step out of these stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is time to escape from the narrative matrix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Part III: What Is the (Narrative) Matrix? Turn on any news channel, listen to the radio, or browse any mainstream news website, and you will encounter stories. Attend school or college, and you will encounter a worldview: a narrative of … Continue reading