We Need a New Story -- and Fast!

The ones that are circulating now don't take us anywhere

Let’s face it: the western world isn’t doing well right now.

Housing and food are unaffordable for many, our social safety nets are in tatters, our governments are supporting a genocide and senseless wars, we’re reaching dangerous environmental tipping points, and most of us are stressed and depressed.

When so many have been disenfranchised by western society, what kinds of stories are people telling themselves? What do you tell yourself?

When our governments continue to funnel money up to the very wealthy and the war machine at the expense of everyone and everything else, how do we rationalize this?

And what do the people orchestrating all this want us to think? My bet is that they want people who are feeling betrayed and angry to blame anyone else except them. “No, it’s not us, it’s immigrants, women, Arabs, trans people, fill in the blank.” Whatever you do, don’t blame us, the ones who are getting all the money that should be bettering society at large. Listen to the people who are blaming everyone else. They’ll tell you what’s really going on.

And when you’re struggling for survival, who are you going to believe? Do you have time to make sure you’re getting your facts straight? If people are expressing their anger, mirroring your feelings, you might be convinced when they say it’s the fault of some identifiable group that is worse off than you.

This kind of thinking leads to fascism, the tool of the small group of people who are orchestrating these disastrous economic, societal and geopolitical disasters. If you’re moving to the right, you’re exactly where they want you to be. If we’re all fighting each other, the small group at the top can keep on raking it in.

How do we tell this truth so that others aren’t sucked in by their false narrative? How do we expose what’s going on in a way that people can actually hear?

In many ways, what’s being done is the oldest trick in the book, yet we still fall for it.

Solidarity is what will save us, but how do we achieve it? How do we cut through the BS, and expose what needs to be seen by everyone?

The stakes are high. To Canada’s south, Trump was just elected. And it looks like Pierre Poilievre may win a majority. He talks like he stands up for ordinary folks, while his funders are the ultra rich. Whose interests do you think he’ll champion? He knows what to say to get elected. In the link I shared about him earlier, he’s blaming the housing crisis on immigrants, and not on the people making big bucks by turning what was once considered a human right into an investment opportunity. Is he really a man of the people? Here’s some of his history. Judge for yourself.

How can we change the narrative? And, more importantly, how do we validate the disenfranchised among us? What can we do to include people who are the victims of a rotten system?

How do we welcome marginalized people into our movements? How do we meet them where they are, and hear what they’ve learned? Are there systems we can support that will help people meet their material needs in a way that retains everyone’s dignity? Something like the Local Exchange Trading System (LETS)? This is just one idea of many, but I hope we can find ways to help each other materially with the soaring cost of living and all the other problems we’re facing.

Stories about having to eat bugs, fifteen minute cities, and the climate change hoax are disempowering. They put us in a place of paranoia. How can we help people to become less afraid and more solutions focused?

When we find out that mainstream media isn’t allowed to use terms like ‘genocide’, and ‘occupied territories’, and tells us that people are anti-semitic who protest an ongoing genocide, the details of which we see before our eyes on social media, what are we to make of it?

How do we convince people to stop paying attention to news sources that spout this stuff, and instead tuning into some media that many have found to be accurate over the years? Here are some news sources I consider credible: For geopolitical stuff, my favourite is Consortium News, but there’s also the Electronic Intifada and the Grayzone. Al Jazeera and Telesur both offer great coverage of their regions. For Canadian political commentary, I highly recommend Breach Media, and for Canadian environmental news, the Narwhal is excellent, as is the David Suzuki Foundation.

How do we make the truth sexy? How do we help all of society to become rigorous about the information it’s willing to believe? If I find a source has been lying, I won’t visit it anymore. It’s lost its credibility.

There’s so much information we have access to, and it’s our duty to make sure that what we’re reading is accurate. And that can be hard. There are subtle ways of framing the news that emphasize certain things while minimizing other things. If we’re being misled, we need to reject the news sources that are doing this, or have a meaningful conversation with the people who are telling us things that we consider to be false.

In this confusing news environment, maybe we have it wrong. We need to be open to being corrected when we’ve been misinformed. What is actually going on should be paramount. How do we solve the complex problems of our times if we don’t have our facts straight?

What can we do to support each other through this terrifying time? How can we see our fates as inextricably linked, and work together for the betterment of all?

What’s the new story that needs to be burn like wildfire throughout our societies, to inspire right relationship and right action?

Here are some ideas.

Maybe it has to do with all of us coming together for our own benefit, and for the benefit of our one and only life support system, Mother Earth, and for future generations.

Maybe it means we come together for peace and dignity for all.

Maybe we decide that we need a system that’s truly democratic, that doesn’t allow money to influence it, and that is based on caring. Proportional representation would help us to hear almost everyone’s voice, and would encourage co-operation among politicians. It would also lead to better policies and more stable governments. It could be a good starting point.

Maybe we realize together that war is obsolete. Killing innocent people for the benefit of power mongers isn’t working for the rest of us. We’re fed up with witnessing genocide and the devastation caused by war. We’re living on a planet that’s on life support, the fossil fuels that our countries fight over are becoming stranded assets, and we have to stop wasting our tax dollars on war when we need to ensure that our societies are places where we all can thrive.

How do we nurture the capacity in all of us to choose love over fear? When we see the world through the eyes of love, war and environmental devastation don’t make any sense.

What story would you find compelling? As writers, it’s our duty to motivate people to do the right thing, even when we’re in such a desperate place.

As Toni Cade Bambara said, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

This is our sacred duty.

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I love the BDS campaign and the effect it’s having on Israel’s economy.

Here's an excellent list of products from Israel: https://boycott.thewitness.news/browse/1

Here's a way to help others not in your bubble to boycott Israel: https://www.cjpme.org/stickies_2024_en

And here's where you can support Palestine by buying a keffiyeh: https://www.hirbawi.ps/