https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=mW0GrrJApws
Hello and welcome back. What I’d like to talk about today is narrative capture. Now we’ve talked about enchantment and this is gonna sort of lead into enchantment. There’s a way in which we’re enchanted by narratives. I’ve got two videos on enchantment, right? One’s a long form DLogos with a manual post. And then I did that to explore the topic. And then I did this by way of example, this explanation video on enchantment that’s much shorter, although maybe too long for some. And the reason why I did that was I couldn’t do the second one without doing the first one first. And I wanted to show you the difference between exploration and explanation. And in enchantment, we talk about a little bit about narrative enchantment. But what I wanna do is explain the significance of narrative enchantment, how and where we see it today in the world. And what it is that we have to do or not do about it. [“Pomp and Circumstance”] This idea of narrative capture and narrative enchantment is important because it points to this whole concept around our limited cognition, right? So we have a limited amount of brain power. I’m not gonna say how much we have. I think it’s kind of silly to even try to measure it. And we need to do something to allocate that power. It takes a lot of energy to think. So we wanna reduce thinking as much as possible to some extent, right? Because it just, the brain uses more energy in the body than any other organ, right? Only about up to 30%, I think. But roughly speaking, it’s expensive to think from an evolutionary perspective. And it’s also tiring. You’ll notice it if you do things that are really, you read a really deep novel or you engage in a really deep intellectual pursuit, you might notice you get tired. That certainly happens to me. And conversely, when I’m tired, I can’t think well. So hopefully I’m not too tired today. So narrative is a way of helping us to not have to think so much, right? So the narrative is the thing that gives us the template for how to act. And if you need to know more about this, I have a video on story narrative and archetype, which is a hierarchy of things we talk about for the framework, for the models of how the world works, basically. And narrative is the template. And it points it, say the archetype, the ideal way to act. And the acting out of a narrative is the story. And so the reason why we get captured by narrative is because we need to, right? So it’s not an optional thing. You can’t say I’m gonna do away with all narrative, right? That’s very postmodern. I’ll do a video on the postmoderns for sure and ripping them apart. Narrative capture is required, cannot get around it. We need to be using narratives so that we’re not having to think about every little detail in the moment because that’s not good. And when we don’t have to think about every little detail in the moment, conversely, or maybe surprisingly, what that does is allow us to pay attention to every little detail in the moment because we’re not trying to anticipate it, right? The narrative pattern means less prediction for us, for our brain. It’s like, okay, so I capture myself in this narrative about doing the dishes. All of a sudden, I kinda know what to expect. And then because I know what to expect, that sets up a baseline for contrast, which is required to see, cannot see without contrast. So we have that baseline. Now we actually sort of paradoxically notice, oh, this is out of pattern. Like, oh, this dish is broken. We weren’t expecting the dish to fall apart in our hands, which happened to me the other day. You know, we weren’t expecting to see a chip on this dish that also happened to me the other day. And so the narrative helps us to notice when things are wrong, right? When things, it gives us a framework in the moment, and possibly not just in the moment, but certainly in the moment, so that when we’re doing things, we can notice changes and notice contrast and notice problems. And it brings the detail out, conversely, right? Or paradoxically. It’s like, wait a minute, why would that happen? Because now you have a baseline to judge against, right? So another way in which we might engage in narrative capture is we can tell ourselves a story. Like, the most important thing is that elections go smoothly and a smooth transition of power. Now, if that’s the most important thing and everything goes smoothly, that’s a good capture to be in. But the bad side of narrative capture is sometimes the narrative is broken, right? Sometimes things are bad and we’re not sort of saying, oh my goodness, the narrative that I usually use to engage in this is not good. So another narrative that you might catch yourself in is, well, the political parties have power, like they represent power, and once they get elected, they can enact that power or use that power to cause things to happen. And so if these politicians tell me that they’re gonna do something, they’re gonna do it, and that makes me feel happy and safe. And so when my party gets in power, right, gets elected, they can use their power and make all the things happen that I want to happen, like make all my dreams come true, roughly speaking. That’s narrative capture. The problem with that narrative is that politicians aren’t necessarily telling you what you think you’re hearing. That’s problem number one. We often hear things as part of other narratives, like, oh, people are good. So if you’re stuck in the all people are good and only enact good narrative, which is something I very much disagree with and can prove is not true, roughly speaking, and maybe I’ll do that in another video, then you’re going to believe that the things these people are doing are gonna accomplish the ends, and those ends are good, and those are the ends that you want. And then you can get fooled into thinking that when somebody does something really bad, that somehow that’s part of the plan or it’s integrated into the narrative, or you’ll ignore it. You’ll go, well, it’s not part of my narrative. Like, I know this person’s a good person. I’m starting from that axiom. And so I’m captured by the idea, like they sold me on hope and change and betterment and kindness and whatever, or compassion, right, or empathy, whatever they sold me on. And so I believe in that. And so the narrative would be disturbed if that weren’t true. So I’m not going to engage with that information. Now, a lot of people might refer to this as cognitive dissonance, and it is, if the narrative doesn’t match the reality or when the narrative doesn’t match the reality. For all instances where narrative doesn’t match reality. Now, some of those instances are okay. Like if I have a chipped plate, probably not the end of the world, don’t need to stop doing dishes. Like the washing the dish narrative doesn’t end because a plate is chipped. The washing dish narrative does get disrupted by broken glass in my hand, right? So just because there’s a detail or a contrast or a thing that’s not matching the narrative doesn’t mean it can’t be integrated. Like some narratives integrate chipped plate, okay. Cracked plate, not okay, right? Have to stop doing dishes, throw out a bunch of parts, right? Because they’re no longer functioning as they should. And so there’s a discernment within this. But if you never engage outside your narrative, if you never consider, oh, the narrative might not be going the way it’s supposed to, then you’re going to have cognitive dissonance because your idea about the narrative is not gonna match up with what’s happening. And if you stay captured in the narrative, if you remain captured, that’s bad. So that’s a form of enchantment. And again, we enchant ourselves. So we’ve enchanted ourselves with the narrative to reduce our cognitive load and also allow us to see things that otherwise aren’t available in that frame. And we have multiple frames. So we might have a frame where we’re thinking globally or at least about a country or a state that may stray into the political, although all political framing is bad. I’ll definitely go over that in a video. I mean, I think I’ve mentioned it before. All political framing is bad. There’s a better frame for everything than politics, everything. So don’t get captured by political narratives, no good. And politics is new narratives all the time to capture you, right? They’ll tell you a story about, kids in cages and we could make their lives better if we just let them in without masks or shots or vaccines, or if they can bring tuberculosis into the country for us. Oh, that’s not part of their narrative. Yeah, they left that part out. How interesting. So you can see a way in which they spin a narrative. And if you’re not careful about, well, what is this narrative not telling me, right? That’s part of critical thinking. What’s missing? What’s missing out of the narrative, right? What does this narrative imply that they’re not saying, right? So I have a video on that. So if you don’t engage with that, you’re gonna run into a problem, right? You’re gonna, oh, what is the narrative being sold here? When does it match? What about it doesn’t match? What are the things you’re telling me that are true but incomplete? Because everything’s incomplete. So you can’t get too caught up and say, oh, that’s incomplete and therefore, right? You have to say, all right, well, what’s incomplete about it and is that important? Because sometimes it’s not. Like again, the plate being chipped is not important. The glass being broken is important, right? In the narrative of doing the dishes or in the narrative of having a kitchen or in the narrative of eating my food, right? There’s three different narratives. That same information chipped or broken has different discernment within those narratives. And we don’t wanna get captured in the narrative such that we’re ignoring the fact the glass is broken and washing it anyway, because people do that, by the way. Maybe not in that particular example, but people all the time act out narratives even when they’re not working. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing because you gotta have narratives to act out, but it’s important. And then there’s another way in which narratives enchant us, not just by us sort of believing them or buying in and not being critical enough, but also in the way in which somebody removes the narrative entirely and allows you to insert your own. Now, I’ve talked about Brene Brown before. She does this. She uses a bunch of adverbs, throws them together. Bang, you’re enchanted. And you’re enchanted because if I say, we need to manifest peace on earth by meeting each other with love and compassion, that’s all true, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t tell you how. I didn’t tell you if it was possible, right? Just because somebody tells you something doesn’t mean it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s part of reality or could be part of reality. You know, it could be purely potential, unmanifestable potential or uncreatable potential. And so your brain will put that in your imaginal, in your imagination, in your head and create a world where that builds a narrative about what peace means to you, what compassion means to you, what empathy means to you. And you’ll gin up instances from your memory or projections in the future about how that could work. So you’ve created a narrative in your head that you’re now enchanted by and probably captured by. And then you see this great vision. And the thing is, the vision that every person sees who hears those words is totally different. The idea of peace is different. The idea of compassion is different. All of it’s different. And so they’re captured by this narrative, it’s a very powerful narrative. Maybe they all heard it at the same time from the same person, the same place, right? That’s part of enchantment. And then we’re captured by it. And so we try to act it out. Now, if the narrative can’t be acted out, it doesn’t work. So if you lived in a world, and I’m not saying that we do, but if you lived in a world where there was a difference between male and female, and you tried to act out a bunch of narrative patterns where that difference wasn’t important or didn’t exist, eventually that would catch up to you and bad things would happen. So this is why we have to be aware of narrative capture. And again, it’s unavoidable. We have a limited cognitive capability. We’re going to get captured by narratives and capturing by narrative allows us to see the world more clearly, to focus on the right layer of detail in the moment. So at some point, I’ll have to do a video on how to pick good narratives, right? Or good framing or good perspectives or something, because they aren’t the same thing, but they’re close enough, right? And so I’ll have to differentiate narrative framing and perspective for you. And I’ll try to do that. In the meantime, just be aware, we can’t get around narrative. We are captured by our narratives. This is a good thing. It allows us to see a bunch of detail. And if we’re captured by the right narrative in the right moment, we can see a bunch of detail. And if we’re open to, oh, there might be a problem with our narrative such that it needs to be rewritten or we need to act differently, or we suddenly need to start thinking about this really, really hard, right? Compared to how you think about it when you’re captured in the narrative. And no one wants to do that. People are lazy, right? Like laziness is just the expression that we don’t want to spend extra energy where we don’t need to, roughly speaking. The problem is we never know when we need to. So we never know when we’re being lazy, or not never, but we often don’t know. So this narrative capture is important to understand and think about and have a framing for in your life so that you can watch out for whether or not you’re being open with your narratives. What are your narratives in the moment? Like, what are they working? Like, are they true? Are there adverse effects from these narratives, right? When I get a piece of detail that’s sufficient, like, oh, this is really bad. Do I have a bad emotional response and just move on? Or do I have a bad emotional response and deal with it? Or do I have no response? Or is my response anger at the thing that highlighted the problem or a person that highlighted the problem? All right, so if you’re trying to make men and women totally equal in all physical aspects, and I’m not saying you are or that anybody is, but if you were trying to do that and you happen to run into a situation where maybe only men could win women’s sporting events and therefore no women could be at the top of a sporting event because they were competing, being outcompeted by men, and you got upset at that, that might be an indication that the narrative you’re using is bad or raw or inappropriate and that you’ve been captured by something that is not good for you, that is not a way you can live. So narrative capture, when it doesn’t allow you to participate correctly in the world, might make you angry and resentful. And I know I’ve talked about this before in many videos. We’re trying to avoid anger and resentment because that’s a disease that spreads throughout the culture, throughout the people that you’re around because you signal that out, that signal makes everything worse. It’s better to signal smiling and happiness because that signal spreads out and makes everything better. And you have a lot of power to make things better. And you know, see my video on power, if we’re confused about the definition of power, which is roughly time, energy, and attention, you have a lot of power to make things better if you keep it small. And if you exemplify what you want from the world, then you’ll just spread that out, right? That signal will spread out. I have a video on signals, right? It’s another important video. That will spread out and make things the way you want, roughly speaking, or help to influence them and push them in that direction slowly. And it’s gonna be slowly. And it’s not gonna be this sort of instant control, down from the top effect that everybody wants, but we can’t do that, but we can do good signaling. And so that’s what I wanna talk about with narrative capture. There’s an element of it where there’s signals within the narrative that tell you roughly whether or not the narrative is good or bad or what to do about exceptions. There’s a discernment there. And if we apply discernment, and maybe that’ll be a good topic for video discernment, if we can apply discernment, that can help us to avoid being captured by narratives that aren’t healthy or aren’t helping us. And to some extent, when you engage in videos, you’re engaging in narrative capture, right? I’m spinning you a narrative, or at least a semblance of a narrative, to give you a model to understand the world. And of course, by engaging the videos, giving me your time and attention, which are the two most valuable things that you can give, right? And I really appreciate that. And I hope that you’ll be able to consider critically, critically, in a critical thinking fashion, what narratives you’re captured by, and which narratives are serving you, on which or not, and serving you in participation, not making you feel better in your head. That’s important too, but they can only make you feel better in your head. They have to be things that you can act out, because if you can’t act them out, eventually they’ll get to the anger and resentment phase. So I just wanna thank you for watching, and please leave comments so that I know what things you understand and which things I’m not making clear enough. And I hope you all spread the happiness and the joy of the world, rather than the anger and resentment of which we are all capable.