I’ve been thinking about the different ways narratives affect things… I think about this sort of a lot – not just with sexual assault and abuse..
I thought about this before any of that happened… I maybe even have talked about it on this blog before?
If I haven’t, I’ve definitely drafted some things and I’ve talked about it in real-life to people. I think about the various times we’ve seen our heroes fail… And I’ve thought about what really marks a failure?
Even if we think about one of my favorites, Cory Booker… I feel like we could point to a bunch of various failures. He lost his first run for Mayor… But then, that documentary was nominated for an Oscar… But it did lose… But then he did become the Mayor next time, and even a Senator later…
He had some kind of fundraising page for a charity (I think for his birthday?) that didn’t hit the monetary goal… But he still raised a bunch of money for a good cause. He tried to make “waywire” a thing…and it did not become one. But. He did get a lot of people more interested and invested in politics (and maybe even technology and/or social media/sharing) along the way.
I would call Cory Booker a giant success. I adore him. I think he makes a net positive on the world (without making any negatives that would be so terrible, they’d outweigh the overall “net”). I think he’s inspiring. I think he succeeds more than he fails. I think he learns from failures. And I think most of the time when he does fail, it’s because he’s really trying something. He’s taking a giant swing at something.
And, as I’ve also said here before, I had a brilliant improv teacher once who said get As and Fs. Don’t get Cs. Take giant swings. Fail or succeed, but don’t just waste time hanging out in mediocrity.
But all this to say, I think that a potentially different narrative can be made no matter what the story. I think if you hated Cory Booker, you could put all the focus on times he’s failed. I think if you adore Donald Trump, you could try to paint him as this inspiring figure who became President against all odds, instead of an abusive awful grifter (which is still even some of the kindest wording you can use for such a terrible person).
And I think some objective truths sort of make the “correct” narrative a little more obvious for most people. But I do think the same base facts can be spun in different ways…
If we’re gonna be really nice and understanding to me, I’m a story of redemption! Had all that time in the hospital, but came out and accomplished a lot. Was abused by someone at my dream school, but came back and am somewhat killing the game.
And this is where I’ll pick up tomorrow!