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Building a Narrative?

Updated on September 9, 2015

A Call To Arms?

Wages of Rebellion
Wages of Rebellion
". . . Chris Hedges—who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class—investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. . . . "
 

Losing The Crowd?

"Win the crowd and you win the fight," or was it "Win the audience and you win the fight"? Either way, that line from the movie Gladiator may extend into other, literal, arenas.

One of those other arenas can be the court of public opinion, especially when one is dealing with a group or idea that seems committed to making a radical change in society. The powers that be will often resort to media manipulation to turn people that may be potential allies for change against those agents; the union organizers of the late 19th and early 20th century, the civil rights activists of the 1950s and 1960s, the anti-war movements of the late 1960s and 2000s, and now perhaps the Black Lives Matter movement.

There seems to be a narrative being built, beginning on the far-right media, that Black Lives Matter is "anti-police"; FOX News has gone so far as to brand Black Lives Matter a "Hate Group". But even National Public Radio may have made a contribution. In an interview with the Milwaukee, Wisconsin police chief, the chief seems to give the impression that those opposed to police brutality may be making it harder for the police to do their job.

I don't think that is the case at all. One can be opposed to police brutality and overreach, and still support the police. But why mght this narrative be constructed?

Modern Chains?

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
"Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book."
 

Below The Surface

Part of the narrative may be the dreaded "FOX Effect", this is where because the right-leaning FOX News channel picks up and creates a narrative, that the other media outlets feel they have to follow along, or be accused of being the "Liberal Media".

But another component may be that Black LIves Matter may start looking at other, deeper, issues. Many of these issues, the militarization of police, the privatization of the prison system, the "War on [certain] Drugs", were covered in the book The New Jim Crow.

Of course, there are deeper issues that may have spawned this; gentrification, suburban sprawl and income inequality.

It is the last one that those in power may not want Americans to take a look at. They managed to get the Occupy movement to fizzle out, they may see Black Lives Matter as having longer legs though.


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