Narrativist Framework Narrativist

Narrativist: An individual who filters their experience of reality through a story-like internal structure (the inner narrative) which they shield from criticism using badfaith arguments (the outer narrative, these can also double as "dog-whistles" to signal other Narrativists) and who further engages in compaction cycles (ritualized scapegoating). Narrativists often select their leadership based entirely upon whom they perceive as presenting the most credible threat to "The Enemy". Everything that doesn't compose to their delusion that their chosen leader is going to lead them into smashing The Enemy is simply discarded, resulting in them ignoring large chunks of reality. In a sense, they are playing chess while half the pieces are invisible to them. No matter what game plan they ultimately concoct in order to achieve their goals, it will really only make sense to them. To anyone who can see the entire game board as it is set out, what they are doing looks irrational and random, if not outright self-defeating. If however you could perceive the game board the way they do, (that is only seeing the pieces that they want to see), then i would argue that their strategy would make more sense.

So it isn't so much that Narrativists are inherently irrational so much as they are arriving at irrational conclusions as a result of how they are filtering reality. Understanding how Narrativists filter reality enables one to understand the Narrativists themselves. (Ultimately they are just humans trying to meet the same needs as everyone else.) It is my contention that once an individual understands how Narrativists are filtering reality then the pattern behind much of the odd behavior on display in the present political situation makes a great deal of rational sense.




Continue on to "Narrative". 


Full Glossary of terms.