We inhabit two very different worlds simultaneously: the world of physical matter and the narrative world of myths and mental chatter. Science does not fully understand the physical world; our knowledge of it is still elementary. But the narrative world is almost a total mystery - related to the physical world tangentially, even then we experience it mostly in terms of dissociated commentary.
In the narrative world we exist as discrete individuals with specific names and elaborate life stories. A veritable mountain of adjectives stick to us, some consciously adopted, others credited subconsciously. You’re this, you’re that. You’re shy. You’re smug. You’re smart. You’re lazy. You’re lovable. Whatever. Words. Just words.
In the physical world what you think of as ‘you’ exists as an organism, breathing and digesting and pulsing and moving in the appearance of time. No thoughts or words need to occur for this organism to exist; it just is whatever it happens to be.
In the narrative world, your surroundings are dynamic and ephemeral – an endless forming and reforming of emotions, thoughts and interactions: friends and foes, good and bad, right and wrong, threatening and non-threatening. A churning, babble of stories about what's happening, shaped by an assortment of rules and sentiments, pervade our encounter withthe narrative world. Those people over there are evil and should be punished; those people over there are the good people and should be rewarded. That man is untrustworthy. That place is dangerous. That woman is this or that. Again, just words. But they are easily weaponised.
In the physical world, your surroundings are experienced as raw sensory data: sensory impressions arising in each point in space-time. Breath going in, breath going out. The feeling of feet on the ground. Sound of a bird call. Sight of a passing car. It's all just happening as it is, as whatever it is. Concrete. Simple. Present.
In the narrative world, things can shift under your feet like quicksand. Dramatically and fast. If you live in one echo chamber it can change for the better, if you live in another it can change for the worse. Dates can be especially significant in the narrative world when they mark memorable events. You probably remember where you were and what you were doing on 09/11 for example, or the day Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris.
The physical world is actually more predictable; things move in pretty much the same way now as they did on those unforgettable days. Money moves seamlessly across borders at more or less the same rates and with similar impacts. Routine transactions occur as before. Troops and their weapons manoeuvre in essentially the same patterns. Resources behave in essentially the same way. There are still roughly the same numbers of aircraft in the air at any one time. People are doing pretty much the same things as they have always done. The actual, physical dynamics remain mostlyunchanged. The sun rises and sets...
The physical and the narrative worlds are both ‘real’ in our experience of them and yet they could not be more dissimilar. Skilled manipulators understand that and exploit these differences for their benefit like foreign exchange traders exploit shifts in world currency values. A spiritual guru can get you to hand over your physical currency of cash in exchange for the promise of eternal salvation or purification. A sexual predator can manipulate you into trading the carnal currency of sex for the comforting story of "I think I love you". A politician can persuade you into trading the symbolic currency of votes for the narrative currency of whatever pledges they concoct on the campaign trail.
It's very hard to control or influence people in the physical world by just using the means that are readily available in that world. If you're bigger and stronger than someone you can get them to hand over their wallet by hitting them. If you have a blunt instrument you can use that to threaten them. But if your goal is to exert control over large numbers of people you generally have to seize more than the military. You need to seize control of the narrative world, including the media.
It's easier to control people through the narrative world than the physical world because the narrative world and its relationships with the physical world are too complicated for most people to comprehend. The material world, on the other hand, is relatively straightforward and opaque. For this reason, a huge amount of effort has to go into controlling the dominant narrative, the story that people broadcast and tell each other to explain what's going on in the world.
Convince people to accept the narrative that a government's leader is an evil dictator in need of regime change, and you can trade that narrative for material control over a crucial geostrategic region. Convince people to accept that the status quo is working fine and that any attempt to change it is insane, and you guarantee that people will never rise up and take charge over your physical world. Convince people that anyone questioning your narrative is foolish, a conspiracy theorist, or a propagandist, and you ensure ongoing hegemony over your narrative world.
The most powerful manipulators are those who know how to exert control over both worlds: they pursue dual agendas with equal emphasis. Today the most formidable and proficient of state manipulators is the US. Populations in the material world, especially those in the global south, who demand their national, resource, financial, economic or military liberty are subject to physical attacks by missiles, sanctions, and covert operations. Entities in the narrative world thatthreaten in any way, shape, or form, the imperial narrative of the US are attacked, smeared, marginalized and censored.Such is the situation today with the Arab world in the Middle East.
That's all we are seeing with the increasingly shrill mainstream panic about disinformation, conspiracy theories, foreign propaganda and domestic extremism. Rulers and their media lackeys across the global north are not compassionately protecting us from deception, they are just ensuring they remain the only ones authorized to administer such deceits; the only ones allowed to deceive us are our government, our news anchors, our teachers and our priests.
As China and its allies increasingly threaten the physical world hegemony of the US-NATO empire, and its secondary allies, operations in the narrative world are getting increasingly heated and intense. Continued demonization of Russia, and anti-China propaganda, is going to get noisier and more hysterical. Narrative control will result in people beingherded into partisan echo chambers, with thicker, stronger walls. Why? Because dividing the citizenry up in this mannermakes it much easier to administer the propaganda.
The narrative world is getting more and more frenzied while the physical world is headed toward disaster due to the military and ecological pressures created by the business-as-usual activities of geopolitics and industrial economism. There are only a few ways this can possibly break. The most obvious of these are a global climate disaster or nuclear Armageddon.
There is also a chance the human species will opt for a wiser alternative: the path of regeneration and adaptation, and of collaboration and peace. Living organisms always end up hitting a juncture when they adapt to a new situation or go extinct, and humans are fast approaching that critical juncture.
Throughout recorded history, all around the world, ingenious groups of humans have demonstrated that it’s possible to overcome and transcend our conditioning and come to a lucid perception of the narrative world and material reality.Many names have been given to this revelation. The one that caught on most widely in the modern era wasenlightenment. Today it is the promise of ecority – the ethical stewardship of all life - that drives us.
We all have the potential for embracing ecority within us, possibly even the most aggressive psychopaths. It has been gestating in us for millennia. Glimpses of it can be seen in many indigenous communities. As we approach our adaptation-or-extinction juncture, we are very close indeed to learning if the potential for ecority will awaken in us or not.
If it does, a healthy and harmonious world will shift from being an unimaginable pipe dream to something eminentlyachievable. No longer confused by the relationship between our physical and narrative worlds, we will be able to perceive the truth of the human condition more lucidly, unfiltered by manipulation. At that moment we will start collaborating to build a civilisation evolving from love and compassion.
Once we move out of our narrative-material schizophrenia, consigning our manipulation-driven model of economic growth, competitive angst, and an urge to dominate others to history, we will be able to move into a lucidity-driven model of cooperation with each other and the biosphere. An enduring amity will open up to us all.
At that stage we will have forgotten about escape and embraced ecority – the urge to conserve all that is beneficial about life on Earth will consume our passions and our interactions. At that stage we will accept and acknowledge our shared duty for stewarding all life on the planet, which is our only home.