Narrativist Framework Narrative Convergence

Narrative Convergence: When Narrativists perceive a threat (which is often), their first instinct is to strike at the jugular with overwhelming force. It does not matter how insignificant the threat really is, or how wide the gap in power between them and their target; they want to hit a vital spot with every ounce of force they can muster. (An instinct which the Bypass of Maximum Force specifically exploits) Their goal is to establish dominance, first by destroying any trace of the threat, second by having witnesses so that other potential threats learn their place. Narrativists are always looking for a big dramatic battle. They are looking for every conflict to go down like the final battle of a Lord of the Rings movie. Fierce, fast, big; that is how a Narrativist wants to fight every battle be it a swordfight or a debate.

With this in mind, Narrativists have been absolutely nonplussed with their steady losses in the culture wars. Despite their attempts to fight cartoonish caricatures, they have found no real solid target to aim their aggression at. While the internal groupthink is certainly strong enough that they all now agree that these devilish liberal strawmen exist, every time they try and go out looking for them they find very little.

Distinctly aware that they are losing the culture wars but unable to find the big battle they crave, the long term stress has lead many Narrativists to do something unusual: seek allies.

Usually, minor differences between their Outer narratives are enough for Narrativist groups/individuals to reject associating with each other beyond the minimum necessary. (Obligatory Emo Phillips bit here.) However, the pressure of losing the culture wars has forced many Narrativists to become more willing to compromise on elements of the Outer narrative, so long as the Grand Narrative remains intact. If Narrative dysphoria is experienced by a group of Narrativists then they will engage in Outer narrative Tailoring, if Outer Narrative Tailoring is occurring simultaneously in multiple Narrativist Clusters then Narrative Convergence will occur. That is to say, in seeking to find common ground with each other (like any other group of people), Narrativist groups have started to become more closely knit than before, united by the commonalities in their personal narratives that result from the structure of the Grand narrative. These Narrativists signal to each other through their various Outer narratives, and as they find common ground through their collective Outer Narrative Tailoring then Narrative Convergence is the result. In other words whatever differences in Outer narrative that exist are slowly being discarded by Narrativists across multiple Clusters so long as the over-arching themes of the Grand Narrative are preserved. The Compaction cycle also plays a role here, as Narrativists that have been members of other groups often serve as bridges between various factions.


Narrative Convergence only occurs when a Narrativist individual or group perceives an unusually severe threat in conjunction with Narrative dysphoria that they either cannot defeat or cannot attack directly. If there is no severe threat, there is no Outer narrative Tailoring and no resultant Narrative Convergence.



Continue on to "Rapid Narrative Convergence Event".


Full Glossary of terms.