The Power of Narratives


Stories have been created and shared as soon as humans developed a language. They’re a way for us to examine ourselves and/or our world and better understand it. It makes sense why adapting history into narratives would be a good way of understanding it, however, that pathos in which historical narratives are made with can cloud our more logical thinking. My best example would be one that many people go back to time and time again; the Nazis. After WWI, Germany was in devastation. People were poor, and feeling lost and hopeless. Hitler rose to power, and became chancellor through exciting people over a narrative of a great country with strong people, and how it was torn down. He fed the people a narrative in which the people of Germany could see themselves as the protagonists, who had been wrongfully deprived by these greedy Jew who had taken from them. Through this grand interpretation of how and why things had played out, Hitler scape-goated the Jews and was able to rally a great following behind him. The people were seduced into this account of Jews causing all this poverty because it’s easier to pin things on a villain who’s clearly to blame rather than an array of different faceless uncontrollable factors working together. It was showing a connect the dot story. This pathos of wanting someone to blame put a shade over the peoples’ eyes, so that they didn’t bother looking for any other reason. This bigotry, combined with the nationalist narrative was the driving force behind the Nazi Party and what spurred the war. When someone can view history with a story, their feelings can slant the information so that it is processed through a biased filter, and they only take away from it what they want to.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Education Gap

Read an article on a racial issue in America from the last five years, whether it is from an American newspaper or a foreign paper looking at American issues.  Briefly summarize the article information and then respond with what your evaluation as to what is going on, how it is being treated by the press, or anything else that you would like to say about it. The Education Gap Between Whites and African Americans In the United States:  Although we have changed our laws in the years since lawful segregation, the legacy that segregation has left lives on in the present day United States. This is particularly evident in the way we regard education, and even after integration there is still a large gap that lives between the way we education white children and the way we educate African American children. Many of the differences in this lie in the qualification and quality of teachers and curriculum and the contrasts in funding that resides in our school systems. It...
Read more

Where voting matters - El Salvador

Ashwin Dev Mr. Roddy IHSS 24 October 2018 Where Voting Matters - El Salvador The Salvadoran presidential elections are going to be held on February 4, 2019 with a second round in March if no candidate wins an outright majority. El Salvador has a limit for a single 5-year term which means that the current president,  Sánchez Cerén  will not be able to run for this election. This election is different from most in the past due to the new political parties law, which says that a single candidate from each party must be chosen before the date of the election. The two parties at the moment are apart of El Salvador's multi-party system which include the National Republic Alliance (ARENA, right wing) and the Farabundo Mart í National Liberation Front (FMLN, left wing) as well as 2 other new parties.  Arena has been out of power since 2009 however they have chosen a man named Carlos Calleja to represent them. Calleja is a 42 year old businessman who owns a chain of sup...
Read more

Sharing Economy- Luke

Luke Kirchner       After much thinking, I have realized that sharing economies can be created from almost anything. I decided to make create something about sharing home decor. This would include things like paintings, ornaments and other small things to decorate your house. One challenging thing that would need to be sorted out, would be the value of the objects. Art is very subjective and can be valued very differently by other people. The market would have to establish it self to truly assign a price to different pieces. This would be a great way to make some money off of pieces of art that usually aren't seen and this would allow the renter to spruce up their house.       An app would be used to connect people and would ask for necessary information. This would probably be more localized, so people could drive over and pick up, or vice-versa. Some sort of insurance/waiver would also have to be part of the process, to ensure the rente...
Read more