From Didion’s Prophetic Eye on America, by Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, December 24, 2021:
In fact, one of the recurrent themes in all Didion’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, is Americans’ penchant for reinventing themselves, their belief in fresh starts and second acts — a faith, on the one hand, that helped settle this country and fueled the American dream, and yet, on the other, has resulted in rootlessness and anomie, the discarding of personal and public history. Narratives, Didion suggests, can provide order, but that order can also be an illusion — or, worse, in the case of political spin masters, a disingenuous connecting of the dots meant to sell false gods and shoddy goods.
In other words: Narrative can capture both good and bad, truth and lies. Which isn’t exactly news, right?
Then again, one reason we have difficulty distinguishing a false god from a true one is that we don’t have a reliable, shared standard to evaluate them. Good? Bad? True? False? Who’s to say?
We’re also inundated with narratives, but each one stands alone, without any apparent connection between them. And while families and friends once might have gathered around a TV to watch a show or movie together, now we pop in earbuds, select some content on our phones, and retreat into our own parallel universes. Four people could be in the same room - yet be galaxies apart. (Yes, I know I sound like a cranky old man, but you gotta admit this is often true.)
Or consider Twitter and its endless sea of voices, each one with a story to tell. Scroll too long and it's easy to get seasick.
We’re nauseated and atomized partly because we’ve discarded a shared “public history.” We have no communal narrative anymore. (Fair counterpoint: Did we ever? ) We seem constitutionally incapable of looking back where we might find a usable past.
Earlier today on Twitter, I read a thread about a focus group of moderate voters, which included this:
To which I added:
It’s a catchy tune, but it’s bad advice.
I don’t believe we’ll ever find a sustainable, life-affirming future together unless we rediscover a usable past.