August 27th, 2009 by lindsay
The stories we tell.
We humans are a narrative-driven species. We tell stories as a way of making sense of the vast chaos unfolding around us. Stories are particularly prevalent is in political advertising—a field that Underground knows a thing or two about.
Yesterday, Heath showed the office a compelling presentation he created called “Telling American Stories.” It’s a tool to help progressives improve their communication on issues they care about, and it demonstrates the ways that we can use stories to our advantage—to captivate an audience, to highlight shared values, and forge a sense of community.
I left the presentation wondering about the relationship between stories and truth. As a communications firm, I think we know more than anyone that we’re not looking for the truest story, but for the most effective one. All stories, by their very nature, are riffs on reality, not reality itself. Stories are subjective—they can’t be true.
The untruth of stories doesn’t make them immoral or wrong; quite the opposite. When we’re using them to further a cause that we care about, they can be powerful tools to do good, despite their un-truth.
For example. This video uses a story to convince people that it’s important to take care of the environment. It says: for the panda to be happy, the tree must be happy, and for the tree to be happy, the sky must be happy—we’re all connected.
But is it a true story?
Consider: The trees don’t care about the polar bears, the sky doesn’t care about the trees, and nature is utterly indifferent to all. Humans care about all these things selfishly, because they ensure our survival, and that’s why we’re the only ones out there making videos about it.
This second story about human self-interest strikes me as a little closer to reality than the panda video, but it probably wouldn’t be as strong a motivator for taking care of the environment.
The stories we’re telling may not be true, but that’s no reason to stop telling them.
