Why Do We Fall For Narratives?
Hacking Propaganda
During the Covid crisis, you may have seen that many cities worldwide faced a severe need for medical care. Likewise, Bangalore faced a severe shortage of hospital beds and oxygen cylinders during the second wave. Hence, there was panic among people. As a result, the city administration (BBMP) has set up a helpline for COVID patients to help them find a hospital bed. At its peak, several hundred were dying each day.
During such chaos and fear, a politician named Tejasvi Surya took advantage of the crisis and made a press release alleging that he uncovered a cash-for-bed scam. So he accused 17 individuals (all Muslims) of the helpline staff. Fortunately, his ploy got exposed as it lacked evidence.
Why did he do that? He wanted to gain accolades by contributing to existing political propaganda.
Though he applied story tactics to present himself as a saviour by scapegoating Muslims as the ones who created the chaos, he failed. The COVID crisis lacked established mimetic conflict to develop successful Propaganda.
Josef Goebbels, the chief propagandist of the Nazi party, said, “The moment one becomes aware of propaganda, it loses its effectiveness.” So let us see how propagandists use mimetic conflicts and storytelling tactics to mislead people to serve their interests.
The current Indian political narrative framed Muslims and other religious minorities as a threat to the country. In the past, the Nazis developed similar propaganda to blame the Jews, just as the whites did against the blacks. Likewise, today, Western liberal propaganda frames white men as a threat to society, and environmentalists blame corporations for all ecological crises.
Historian David Welch defined propaganda as “the dissemination of ideas intended to convince people to think and act in a particular way and for a particular persuasive purpose.” However, in this article, I want to take it pejoratively, synonymous with bias, deceit and corruption.
Propaganda is mimetic
We fall for narratives because of our human nature. French thinker Rene Girard brilliantly explains this in his Mimetic theory. Mimesis, in simple terms, means the imitation of behaviour. His fundamental concept is ‘mimetic desire’. According to this theory, human beings desire what others desire.
That means we make many of our choices according to the desires of others — our models. Models could be people or groups that help us know what is worth wanting. For example, if a child happily plays with a toy, another child in the same room wants the same toy despite the many different toys around.
Mimetic desires develop in mimetic systems. Luke Burgis, the author of the book Wanting, says, “We can’t want something outside the system of desire we occupy. So we pursue the goals on offer in our system of desire. The goals are often chosen for us, by models.” For example, Hindu Nationalism, the Indian higher education system, religion, family etc., are mimetic systems. These systems lead to conflicts.
Propaganda magnify scapegoats
According to Girard, imitation eventually erases our differences; we desire the same things, leading to rivalries. When mimetic rivalries accumulate, tensions grow and reach a frenzy. When violence is at the point of threatening the community’s existence, a bizarre psychosocial mechanism frequently arises: communal violence is suddenly projected upon a single individual or a group — a scapegoat.
Luke Burgis says, “A scapegoat is someone, or some group used to achieve a specific purpose. A person or a society can transfer the blame onto them, expel or eliminate them, and imagine that the cause of all of their problems is gone. We do it because it produces a sense of catharsis, relief, or healing. It helps strengthen group identity and unity.”
In Propaganda, propagandists choose existing societal conflicts of active mimetic systems to develop a narrative of half-truths. Mimetic desires and scapegoating help overlook all kinds of atrocities and unite the group. Unfortunately, since we are not as clear-sighted and rational as we’d like to think we are, we easily fall for their narratives. Even Plato, in The Republic, points out the need for Noble lies to bring political unity.
Political scientist Lilliana Mason points out, “Primal psychological influences such as motivated reasoning and social identity are capable of shifting and sometimes entirely determining the policies that citizens support.”
So, how is this activated? Storytelling can give us a clue on how this all plays together.
Propaganda applies storytelling
Steve Jobs, the great business storyteller, said, “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” For example, in any political campaign today, a good storyteller is more likely to win an election than a great administrator because stories are practical tools to win people.
If I am a propagandist, I pick an audience I want to persuade and identify their conflicts and mimetic systems they occupy. Then draw their attention by flattering their egos, affirming their superiority. Next, I present an imminent threat to their identity, religion, culture, survival, etc., and blame it on a scapegoat they already hate.
In a story, a problem provides a hook to draw us into it. But this crisis helps me construct a problem with half-truths as a propagandist. Then, to justify the threat and affirm the scapegoat, I present them as facts or history.
I will even go to the extent of perpetrating violence in the name of the scapegoat as evidence until the polarisation intensifies. In India, we have observed many events of terror before the elections to re-establish the threat of the scapegoat. Then I will take control of storytelling platforms like mass media and social media to strengthen my narrative.
Additionally, studies show that on social media, information on violence or hate spreads faster than positive news. Why so? It is because humans instinctively pay more attention to danger and disgust-related stimuli. Psychologists call it the behavioural immune system. Propagandists not only portray the scapegoats as a threat but also as an object of disgust by calling them cockroaches or termites.
In the case of Hindutva, scapegoats are religious minorities, the opposition parties, colonial rulers or a neighbouring country that supposedly reject their superiority.
Scapegoats are not always entirely innocent. But, whether they are innocent or not, scapegoating feels good because it preserves our sense of self-esteem.
After successfully passing the blame on the scapegoat, I will position myself or my party as the only capable guide or messiah to rescue them. I require them to surrender their responsibility to save themselves and make me their saviour. Then I will become their model in the Girardian theory. My plan for success — a utopian future (they will never see), will be their hope that saves them from impending disaster.
Hindutva’s leaders successfully positioned themselves as the messiah of India and its culture and promised a utopian “Hindu Rastra.”
A story inspires us deeply; however, unlike in a novel, the character does not experience any transformation through propaganda because he is never free to act voluntarily; instead, he becomes more self-indulgent and trapped in deep mimetic grooves.
Anti-Mimetic — To hack propaganda
Luke Burgis says, “Envy is the engine of destructive mimetic desire.” Unfortunately, humans naturally gravitate towards Propaganda and gossip because we hold on to mimetic conflicts. Indian caste and religious discriminations lead to envy, spite and scapegoating. Propagandists love this crisis. To hack Propaganda, we need to disrupt such mimetic systems.
Map your system of desire: To disrupt toxic mimetic systems, you first need to map the mimetic systems you occupy.
Have you observed that you have become overly concerned with your desires, demands, or interests? Are you envious and constantly feel you unfairly lack something good and blame a scapegoat for that? Do you think you are superior to those you scapegoat? You can be sure enough we are in a toxic memetic system.
Stop scapegoating: You need to stop making scapegoats and instead resolve conflicts with humility, empathy, honesty, reconciliation, and love with the attitude “do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Disrupt in truth and love: Our unwillingness to acknowledge our selfish appetites and envy towards our neighbours make us reject the truth and pursue lies. From the Nazis to Hindutva to ads marketing cosmetics, we have repeatedly shown a propensity to believe lies due to motivated reasoning. Such toxic mimetic systems will lead to tyranny.
To transcend them, you must look for other models who pursue truth and choose to be empathetic, humble, forgiving and kind to people even if they are not agreeable.
It is necessary to model what Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” It is the only way for human and ecological flourishing.
George Orwell rightly said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Disrupting in truth and love is not only a revolutionary act but a supernatural one we must desire.
For further reading…
Article: Mimetic Theory — Rene Girard
Book: Deceit, Desire & Novel — Rene Girard
Article: Mimetic desires — Luke Burgis
Book: Wanting — Luke Burgis
Article: The propagandizing of propaganda
