The Narrative

[kokopelle]

I am listening to “I Sniper” by Stephen Hunter. There is a wonderful rant by a character that ends with “And the narrative is the bedrock of their culture, the keystone of their faith, the altar of their church. They don’t even know they’re true believers, because in theory they despise the true believer in anything. But they will absolutely de-frackin-stroy anybody who makes them question all that. …” (The full text of the rant is here (http://frontpagemag.com/2010/davidforsmark/politically-incorrect-fiction/). This rant focused on the media. I believe its wisdom applies to more groups. Also this afternoon I saw a pic on facebook with a quote attributed to Jeff Foxworthy: “If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one. If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Democrats demand that those they don’t like be shut down”.

Sigh… quite a narrative. I searched the internet to see if Foxworthy said this, and found that the words are defined a “truth” and are seen as a test of which side of the political fence one is on. Here is the rub. I dislike guns for my own very personal reasons, but I don’t want them banned. I find some talk show hosts to be dangerous idiots, but I’ve never tried to shut them down. I am a Democrat. What gives? Why don’t I live up to the “TRUTH” of Foxworthy’s narrative? The narrative also implies that Republicans are live and let live, letting others live their lives as they see fit. Really?

It is my life’s narrative that this is far from the common reality. In personal paranoid narrative the complete and perfect Republican political state would be a cross between Iran (a theocratic state) and the movie “V for Vendetta”. I was in fear of Bush because of brands of neo-conservative white-washing that reached out to society. Anyway, everyone has a narrative, and the I Sniper quote points out that a true believer of any narrative will protect that narrative at all costs. We have met the enemy and he is us (Pogo). It is the nature of the beast.

Comments

[pacific-rain.livejournal.com]

meh - I like Jeff Foxworthy - I don't want him to be crazy. Maybe it's just that in a country and culture where it's normal to have a million varieties of "Christian" "Jew" "Muslim" etc. it's normal to think that people can identify themselves with the aspects of a party that they believe in and ignore the others? Maybe he is talking about "his" Republican Party which is the core of the way it used to be before the 80's when the Moral Majority became synonymous with GOP. As their influence grew the platform did very clearly change. Because philosophically a pre-Moral Majority - REAL Republican is what he was describing.

I'm basically Independent because I believe in and wish implemented and protected things both parties currently despise and both parties currently support. (i.e. point me in the direction of the gun-toting, pot smoking, equal rights for everybody, Constitution worshiping, States-Rights respecting, abortion aint fun but its reality so suck it up, free higher education because we aren't doing it now and we need to compete as a nation in the world economy, free health care for REAL because reality looks like this country will be stronger if people are treated early and focus on preventative care, federal law should protect consumers from false & misleading labels on food THAT ARE STILL IN USE NOW, and get the poison out of food Party. OH and regulation good - deregulation baaaad Party.)

The narrative mentioned above sounds a lot like Belief Systems. Especially in the self proving and inspiration of psychotic loyalty.

Just a Joke?

[greensh.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this and realized that Jeff probably said this as part of a joke. It is funny(ish) in that light. The sad thing is how people latched onto this in a non-humorless, fully narrative way. Well, I did! LOL...

Re: Just a Joke?

[pacific-rain.livejournal.com]

yah, I hope so. I should try to find the video. Maybe it'd be clear that way. And even if he did say it, I can't believe Dennis Leary believed everything he said in his famous Rant Routine. Maybe it was just written in a whim that seemed funny.