I have been hearing the word narrative thrown around a lot in the news and in counter-news articles.
umm, reality isn’t a storybook – so what does this even mean?
Note: I did a quick search about narrative first and found only [one relevant eli5](https://redd.it/b8utov), but I don’t understand it… so if we’re actually talking about the same thing then I need an ELI5 on their ELI5
In: Culture
Everything is framing.
Understanding reality in a complete and holistic manner is literally impossible. If it weren’t, we’d be able to predict the future. There are too many variables and strands.
So framings are used that lend weight to certain movements to explain the “why” of an event.
Even if you think an objective reality exists, your understanding of it is necessarily and subconsciously given coloration by your own life and experience. You will pay attention to the events that most impact you and mostly ignore the rest.
Look at how historical events seem to change in ‘meaning’ when reframed. The American Civil War, for example, can go from “a righteous fight by the North to end slavery” to “a fight to protect the South from the North” to “a really complicated quagmire but the South was definitely the most wrong”. That’s all narrative difference.
Now postmodernism seeks to reject grand narratives, which you seem to at least consciously do. Metanarratives state that the entirety of the world is governed by a narrative; that there is an essential struggle or human nature towards an end.
Narratives are also linked to societal legitimacy. “The rich are rich because they deserve it because they work hard” is a narrative. Another is “the rich are rich because they exploit the working class.”
There’s still a lot to explain past that but hopefully that’s not a bad primer.
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