Clinton: “love trumps hate”
After last week’s stunning speeches at the DNC, indulge me, please, with one more post on the US election. I’ve had people ask me a few times to say how I think Clinton crafts her narrative and how she answers the “worldview questions”. (If you need context on this, read the original post on narrative […]
Donald Trump’s “it’s midnight in America” narrative
I sat stunned watching Donald Trump’s acceptance speech on Friday. A rambling, unstructured, but terrifyingly dark view of America. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it – as Nate Silver says, it will be the reason he loses by 15 points or goes on to win. The unrelenting bleakness and anger made me […]
Kitty Genovese and the 38 silent witnesses – the power of a narrative to incorrectly shape half a century of research
Last week Winston Moseley, convicted of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, died in prison at the age of 81. In the words of Kitty Genovese’s brother, Moseley’s death marks “maybe, the final chapter in the tragic story of the events of the early morning of Friday, March 13, 1964”. If you’ve done any study in […]
Understand the stories you inhabit
We make sense of our lives by understanding them as narratives. We tell ourselves and our family and friends stories about what we did, what we have become, and why. Human beings seem wired to make sense of the world through story. I suspect that one of the best ways we can think more clearly […]