Single-narrative thinking and Covid
POOR COMMUNICATION
The other day I received two emails from two colleagues. I'd expressed my concern about the high level of people who've died after receiving a mRNA vaccine, and that the side effects and deaths aren't being acknowledged or accurately reported in the media.
The response from my colleagues crunched some numbers for me and expressed how the number of deaths is a small fraction compared with how many people have died from Covid and how many vaccines have been administered, making the fraction of vaccine-related deaths acceptable.
They were missing my point.
No other vaccine would have remained on the market with that many deaths. They also missed that my concern focused on how there is a risk, (higher for men in my age range), and how it's ignored by the media. I was not comparing Covid deaths counts at all.
Their responses were rhetoric, rote, and ignorant (in terms of ignoring). What they were both engaging in is what I call “Single narrative thinking”.
This thinking views the world in terms of a very confined, narrow narrative. It operates off of narrow definitions. For instance, “Science” seems to mean something specific and yet something vague at the same time, but the idea of multiple sciences having different ideas on something because impossible to consider.
Sadly, highly intelligent, educated, professional people get trapped by this way of thinking. My colleagues who messaged me are incredibly bright people who are very good in their field.
In fact, highly verbal people may fall victim to this way of thinking even more than less verbal people. This is because language has a way of acting like a... well, like a virus. Language reproduces and mutates and clings.
Media and advertisers know this and can harness this. Inherently, therapists have sway over many of their clients, merely by the set-up of the dynamic. Therapists vow (and I've held to my vow) to be aware of our ability to influence others and to do everything we can to do no harm. Part of what allows therapists to do this is that our tools for our work are often words. We try to utilize language to increase awareness, insight, and to help people broaden their choices in behavior. Tools can be weaponized.
LANGUAGE CAN TRAP US
For instances, if someone under certain conditioning relates “selfless acts” with certain types specific behavior, or directed towards a certain situation, then the mind automatically begins to develop a narrative for “selfish” acts, even if that wasn't necessarily part of the conditioning.
In other words, as a network around “selfless” develops, a network of “selfish” simultaneously develops.
Under “selfish” will come actions that, no matter how considerate of others' wellbeing- if it does not fit nicely into the behaviors associated with that situation- then even things that are intentionally for the benefit of others, will be considered “selfish.” As a thought experiment around this, is it selfish for a single father to not get his son any Christmas gifts because he needs the money for buying a phone for himself because that's his only device to apply for jobs?
Sometimes we gain enough broadening experiences that this natural tendency to close around language and language-based actions stay flexible. Many people who “do a good job” remaining neutral are likely able to flexibly move their languaging around.
Many people might know or have known a toddler, who, learning language, conflates “I” with “you.” They might point to their mother and giddily shout, “I! I!” This is because language floats a little until it obtains definition, and therefore some rigidity. Eventually, most children learn when and how to use “I” and “you”.
Yoga- perhaps one of the best ancient sciences that utilizes language into its understanding of wellbeing- talks about this through the skandhas, daughters of the mind that attempt to abduct a person into narrow thinking.
One of the original intentions for a liberal arts education was to provide a broad set of topics, ways of learning, and opinions. If you'll notice, liberal arts education has been receiving increasing rates of criticism. I now hear teenagers say, “I don't want to go to a school with a bunch of White people complaining.” Certainly, my alma mater was replete with White people complaining (I was one of them). But it also allowed me to study dance, creative writing, Buddhism, artificial intelligence, and sexual psychology. Liberal Arts learning is a risk to promoting a dominant narrative.
Creative thinking counters the pursuit of capitalism, in that people who study enough and broadly enough begin to see how events and sciences interact. Life gets more complicated, but it comes with more options.
SINGLE NARRATIVE THINKING AND COVID
One thing to notice in people who fall into categories such as “pro-vaccine” or “liberal” right now is that they're paying attention only to the pandemic- only to Covid and the narratives around Covid. People I trust for information, conversely, aren't talking about Covid! They're talking about manipulation through media, psychology, ethics, epidemiology, biology, herbalism, political science, social justice... The list goes on.
At this point, anyone who spouts a hip term like “antivaxxer” or who says, “masks protect me and you” get discredited. And not even by the content of what they're saying. I would argue there is some evidence behind masks- but how they're being used now counters what many, many studies have shown us. So they become discredited because it means their source of information is limited to those that reinforce the narrative they've been conditioned into following.
They're trapped and they keep trapping themselves by only consuming information that supports the narrative. One term for this is confirmation bias. This is a natural tendency, but with the pandemic it's really causing a lot of problems.
Also, moderate thinking gets squeezed out because that requires holding more than one narrative at the same time. If you say, “Trump was actually right about some things, but he overall messed up,” people will force your statement into pro-Trump or anti-Trump. If you say, “vaccine side effects are real,” then the narrative says, “so you don't care if people die.”
It's hard for many people to know what to do with people who wanted the vaccine, got them, and also believe you shouldn't be mandated to get one. Those are some of my favorite people right now because they make it difficult to force the world into a singular narrative.
This is what's brilliant about the manipulation tactics. They often leverage truth. Sometimes they're flat out lies, but often they've taken something of minimal truth and woven it into the narrative.
This is a psychological tendency. Both the partner who is a physical aggressor and the partner who is remaining in the relationship even though they get beaten are engaging in this natural tendency. They continue to shape their worlds into only that of this way of being, and seeing a life of safety and temperament becomes harder to do.
I might hear one say, “She deserves it” and the other say, “I have nowhere to go.” And these statements will force their world to act in accordance with those beliefs.
Proper therapy for both people in this couple would include no shaming or blaming, but would rather help them both learn more, gain insight, and take perspective. In other words, expanding beyond the slim narrative. Once people see alternatives and are willing to begin neglecting the unworkable ones, people can start to change their lives.
When I argue with people lately, it's entrenched in this paradigm. The mRNA “vaccines” were at first meant to stop the spread of Covid. Then, when they didn't, instead of changing behavior to fit the experience (maybe by halting vaccine advertising and mandates), the use of the shots needed to change. They then became helpful in making symptoms less severe.
Meanwhile, health freedom fighters are trying to point out the blatant and abrupt changes in messaging from the government, as well as pointing out that millions of people have been seriously injured, traumatized, or have died from the vaccines. There's more to the story, or, rather, more stories. And yet people seek out a more coherent singular narrative.
HOW TO MOVE FORWARD
But notice that in order to accept this information someone would need to psychologically step back from beliefs that carry a lot of pull. Words like “safety”, “caring”, “health”, and “protection” are being said often right now. If someone has a compelling story about what safety is, then when they get injured they tend to try to make the situation fit the narrative... Instead of trying to not get injured.
In other words, someone would need to admit that staying inside, wearing a mask everywhere, getting painful shots (three of them!!!), working from home, dealing with kids being at home- all their stress, worry, lack of sleep, increased drinking and drug use, all the fun events they gave up--- they would need to admit that these weren't actually as helpful as the narrative promised.
So instead, research has to become “misinformation”, health freedom needs to become “antivaxxer”, not wanting to take an experimental, sometimes deadly (new kind of) vaccine becomes wanting “grandma to die.” What? Seriously?
Well, that's the dark side of language and schema.
Have you noticed that entertaining the idea that there are nefarious and intersecting plots developed by the world's richest narcissists is being called “conspiracy theories”? That's another example of how to make the incoherent truth fit the incoherent lie. Conspiracy theories are automatically discredited, so make truth a conspiracy and it no longer matters that it's fact.
And all of those affronts fit nicely into the schema. It allows a coherent understanding of why I stayed inside for months while others went to the beach and the bar. The reason is because I am noble and they are villains.
Otherwise, I'd need to build a broader, less coherent (although more accurate) psychology around what's going on- which is complex. We have government, education, media, healthcare, racism, classism, and economics all rolled up into this disaster. That's a BIG schema to begin to step away from.
We have to be willing to accept some chaos, not just in the world, but in our own minds. We have to be willing to have challenging ideas coexist for a while. We have to allow seemingly competing values rest openly in our psychologies, if we want to move forward effectively. This is true whether you're into western science, philosophy, yoga, Christianity, or anarchy. All of these point out that we are illogical people with logical minds. And the world is illogical. Don't let your mind try to make it too logical. Because we too frequently allow such a thing, we're marching beyond ecological sustainability, we have a bulging military creating wars so they have something to do, a defunct education system, and skyrocketing psychological distress (yes, skyrocketing).
So whenever you're talking to someone and they begin to spit out rote responses, taglines presented by the media- just walk away. Don't argue. The truth does not meet the narrative. Save your energy.
They will likely need to contact the reality more firsthand. As vaccines continue to fail, as governments continue to lie, as basic human rights continue to be stolen, as people continue to die from vaccines- they might be forced into assessing beyond the limited scope of what I'm calling “Covid-only narrative thinking.”'
They don't see how emergency rooms have been “overrun” for decades, just not being headlines until it helped panic brew. They don't see that hospitals are scrambling because half of their staff left because of idiotic mandates. That is beyond a Covid narrative. It would mean looking at all the facets of the operation.
Our best approach is to continue to live lives that model the alternative. To never have received an mRNA vaccine and to not get Covid or get mild Covid, models that. To gather in groups and have interesting conversations because you're all reading a broad range of topics that put all this mayhem into perspective- that's a win. To not engage in the narrative in any way. To continue to read the science, not the headlines. To turn off the news. Donate to freedom fighting movements and independent journalists who you trust. Go outside and breathe!
Follow my favorite saying: Be the change you wish to see in the world.















