What Is Our Narrative?

[Guest guest]

What Is Our Narrative?

by Zoltan Abraham

February 13, 2005

 

George Lakoff, the influential cognitive scientist, has written extensively

about why the Republicans are able to dominate political discourse in the United

States. Republican ideas are in the ascendancy because the right has mastered

the art of framing. They are able to present the issues and conduct the debates

on their terms. Progressives have not done well in this regard. Instead of

creating their own frames, progressives, says Lakoff, tend simply to argue

against conservatives within the context of the right-wing frames, which only

serves to reinforce the conservative ideas.

 

But I would contend that progressive thought flounders on an even more

fundamental level. More important even than frames is one’s narrative – the

story that helps to define the identity of a group of people, giving them a

sense of place in history, a sense of belonging in the present, a sense of hope

for the future.

 

What is our story as progressives? What is our narrative?

 

Conservatives have a narrative. In fact, their narrative is the commonly

accepted story of the American people. European settles came to this land, says

this narrative, to escape tyranny and to build a society of freedom, equality,

and prosperity. Throughout the centuries, America has been a shining beacon of

democracy and economic prosperity – a model for the whole world, indeed. The

United States has labored tirelessly and unselfishly around the world to fight

tyranny and to support democracy. We have waged wars to defend freedom. We have

stood up to evil empires. We have shed our own blood so that others may have

liberty and life. We have given aid more generously than any other country in

the world. We are the greatest democracy on earth. We are the greatest country

on earth.

 

Conservatives proclaim this narrative proudly. And most of the American people

accept it uncritically. To love America, to be patriotic, means to live by this

narrative.

 

But progressives tend to have a different view. Progressives love America too.

Progressives also uphold the principles of freedom, equality, prosperity, and of

supporting the liberation of others around the world. But progressives tend not

to agree that the United States has always embodied these values. After all,

says the progressive critique, the European settlers who first came to these

shores soon mounted a campaign of genocide against the natives. The settlers may

have sought to build a new society of freedom, but first they needed to kill all

the people who lived on the land they wanted. The war against the natives has

never let up even to our own day.

 

The white settlers also soon fell into the same patterns of economic

exploitation that they had left behind. A few wealthy families came to control

the lives of all. This system of a socio-economic domination by a few has not

changed substantially since the days of the first colonies. Prosperity, economic

opportunity may be a core part of the American dream – but for millions of

Americans, they remain just that, a dream.

 

Then there was slavery. Freedom, equality, opportunity – all these fine values

had to wait while a substantial portion of the United States built fabulous

wealth through the coerced labor of an entire race of people. Today, almost a

century and a half after slavery was abolished, our economy relies heavily on

the cruel exploitation of illegal immigrants and on the virtual slave labor of

third world workers throughout the world.

 

But what about the foreign aid? Are we not the most generous country in the

world? We give a lot of money, true, but in proportion to our wealth, we give

much less than many other Western nations. To make things worse, most of the aid

we give arrives with strings attached, forcing the recipient countries to open

their doors to Western corporations, giving them the freedom to loot, pillage,

and plunder.

 

As for defending democracy around the world, is that really true? In World War

II, the United States saved the planet from Nazism, which was perhaps the most

noble act of our country on the world stage. In the course of the Cold War, the

US defied and ultimately defeated the Soviet Union, another laudable

accomplishment. But the US victory in World War II was quickly exploited to

establish an imperial posture in the world. The threat of Communism was cleverly

manipulated by the Reagan administration to aggrandize the military industrial

complex and to distract the public at home from massive cuts in domestic social

programs. And what of the many tyrants and repressive regimes that the US has

supported in Latin America, in the Middle East, and in Africa merely to gain

geopolitical advantage? Let’s face it, our record is far from pristine on the

question of democracy abroad.

 

Nor it is spotless at home. Our bizarre electoral system serves to minimize the

impact of individual voters. Our two-party system, funded largely by the same

corporations on both sides, makes for very little actual choice at the polling

booth. Voting while black is largely frowned upon in many parts of our great

land of freedom and equality. In Florida and Ohio, ingenious methods have been

developed to keep black people from the polls. More and more, electronic voting

machines, owned by Republican-friendly corporations, count our votes, leaving no

paper trail of their tallies. Both the 2000 and the 2004 presidential elections

were stolen through systematic fraud. The greatest democracy? We no longer have

a democracy, in any meaningful sense of that word.

 

The greatest country? Hardly. Not while 45 million Americans must go without

health care coverage. Not while one out of every six children in America lives

in poverty…

 

Progressives reject the Republican narrative on every point. And yet, major

Democratic candidates invariably campaign within that framework. They must,

because the popularly accepted story of America is the narrative of the

Republican Party.

 

However, by using the right-wing narrative, the candidates of the left

immediately find themselves at a disadvantage. Republican ideology makes far

more sense than progressive thinking within the context of the right-wing

narrative. In fact, progressive ideology even seems jarring within the narrative

of the right, and, therefore, seems jarring for the millions of Americans,

Republicans and Democrats alike, who unquestioningly accept the right-wing story

of the United States. For progressive ideology to gain ascendancy once more, the

left must not only challenge the right-wing framing of the political debate, but

must articulate a new narrative, a new story for the United States.

 

What could that new story be? That is what the left must work on in the near

future. I offer here one suggestion.

 

Many of us have ancestors who had come to this land in search of freedom and

economic prosperity. However, a great many of these settlers encountered

oppression and exploitation in their new home. At the same time, many of them

failed morally in their interactions with the natives, preferring violence to

coexistence. Some of us have ancestors who were brought to this country as

slaves. They were forced to give their life-labor for the enrichment of others.

Even after slavery was ended, black people have continued to be oppressed and

exploited. The quest for true liberty continues. Some of us have come to this

land as children or adults in search of a better life. Some have indeed been

able to construct a better existence. But for many, the story is quite

different.

 

For millions, both newcomers and those born here, the American dream is still

elusive. Freedoms are eroding. Prosperity is out of reach. Opportunities are

being closed off. The wealthy have their way with the infrastructure, resources,

and electoral mechanisms of our country. Wars of greed are being waged in our

name.

 

Today, we join together to work for true freedom, true equality, true prosperity

for all, both in the United States and throughout the world. We work toward the

true realization of the American dream.

 

 

 

 

 

Zoltan Abraham | zsazle (no spam) @

Personal Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~zastar/index.html

Progressive discussion: progressive/

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Kill your television!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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