Let’s talk about something all of us are indulged in our daily lives: False narratives! We find ourselves in the same situation as the fish in the famous story by David Foster Wallace that had no idea what water was: we are living in these stories and beliefs without realizing it, and they silently guide us in terms of how we conduct ourselves, how we think, and how we treat each other.
False narratives, in the era of the digital jungle, are no longer given as a gossip but they are transmitted, propagated and affirmed over and over again. Due to the sheer influence of social media, both fake news and prejudiced views can travel fast and be implanted in our minds without us realizing it.
But what is a false narrative? It is mere assumption or notion about reality- something created and re-created so many times that it is perceived as the real thing, although it may not be grounded on any firm evidence and might be somewhat distorted. Why do we succumb to them?
There are times when it is simply more convenient to point an accusing finger rather than reflect on unpleasant reality about us.
Why We Blindly Follow?
It is in the nature of our minds to learn from imitation. As we mature particularly in our teens and adulthood stage we begin to derive our meanings and value of things according to what society dictates to us, usually subconsciously. These social narratives are very strong, and when everyone is on it it becomes hard to fight against it.
The result? We impose our own rules, patterns, and norms and build pseudo-narratives, which subconsciously define us and others. And in our digital age, they get turbo-charged: algorithms feed us posts that agree with our worldviews, allowing us to remain confortably insulated against inconvenient facts.
Common Areas of False Narratives
The strongest types of false narratives are those that relate to beauty, money, and self-worth. As an example, it is often thought that to be successful it is only enough to pursue money, power, and fame, all at the expense of more enduring qualities such as loving, learning, and playing.
This is the very example of conflating means (such as money) with ends (fulfillment) engendering what analysts describe as Means and Ends Inversion (MEI).
Another classic example is individualism. Most western societies embrace the notion of the self-made man and drive the rhetoric that there is an added competition to life. However, as science and cross-cultural insights (consider Desmond Tutu and his Ubuntu) demonstrate, we all are immensely interconnected. Rugged individualism is not always true or healthy as it is presented.
Alternatively, capitalism may turn into such a helpful tool that it becomes a religion of the time. The story here is that the free market will resolve everything – when capitalism is used as a means, and not as an end, it can increase social divisions and inequality.
How to Recognize and Counter Them?
So how do we know, when we are in a false narrative? These narratives tend to be comfortable to deal with–they support our ideologies and ignore the inconvenient truths. The existence of the internet complicates the matter further, as it puts us into echo chambers and filtered information that allows untruths to remain viable and flourishing.
To fight them, we should first challenge ourselves: by actively questioning beliefs accepted as true, by seeking other opinions, and most importantly, realizing how connected all humans are. It is crucial that, as individuals and as a society, we flourish through uprooting these hidden narratives and switching to truth and empathy instead.
With so much digital noise in our lives, it is easy to sleepwalk through our lives with false scripts given to us by the culture, and propagated by technology. UEF (Universal Enlightenment and Flourishing) reminds us that the task, and the hope, is to wake up, to open our eyes to the fiction that frames us, to make another decision. And that is how we begin to blossom together.
