Not that long ago, I thought it was trivial when people said that they said the world is driven by stories, and that truth is determined by power.
I'm starting to really grok it now. Now it seems like one of the most important things but also really hard to explain why.
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The history in text books are written by the winners of wars. That was and still is the best example of this
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I dunno, I think yes and no.
There are domains where this sorta holds true, usually ones with extremely poor empirical understanding and distorted/low/unpredictable stakes.
But you can't narrative your way out of a pandemic, or even a buggy server choking on SystemD
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Humans definitely operate in narratives. But I think truth is truth. Co-opted by power, sure. I don't know about determination.
Imagine a coin toss with a coin that can be manipulated (including to rest on edge) by a trained adversary while being still largely coin-toss random when used on a compliant subject and/or a rando
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BJ Fogg talks about the power of stories in terms of forming habits. The idea is that we tend to be more likely to continue with a new habit if there is a story attached to it because stories transmit cause and effect relationships
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A powerful story can change a person’s mind, allegiances and what they care about. A story can remind them of a former version of themselves, of lost love or ambitions. A story can make someone fall in love, with a person, an ideal or vision. Stories are how we connect to others
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I think Albert Camus does the best explanation of that in The Myth of Sisyphus.