{"id":5129,"date":"2016-06-22T21:52:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T01:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2016-06-22T21:57:24","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T01:57:24","slug":"the-difference-between-a-narrative-and-an-argument-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/badcatholic\/2016\/06\/the-difference-between-a-narrative-and-an-argument-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between a Narrative and an Argument Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Warning: This post is Part 2 of this post<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

ISIS have busied themselves with new and creative ways to get Christians to reject their moral and religious beliefs. They cut off limbs, dip families in acid, crucify, behead, and generally live out the best practices the perverse marriage of apocalyptic Islam<\/a> and Grand Theft Auto can birth. They\u2019ve had limited success. In the interest of efficiency, I\u2019d invite them all to take a few notes from the West. Here we understand that, while the fear of pain and death is powerful stuff, the greatest fear of men today is seeming impolite. To change a man\u2019s moral convictions, one need not <\/span>attack<\/span><\/i> them. One need not even argue. Simply make his convictions off-color, offensive, and unfit for the neighborhood barbeque, and <\/span>voila<\/span><\/i>, he\u2019ll drop them of his own accord.<\/span><\/p>\n

For we are not as frightened by God, community, personal consistency, or the moral law as we are by the petty norms of polite society. Let the rough, uneducated Christians renounce their beliefs when their lives are threatened; <\/span>we<\/span><\/i> renounce our beliefs when they threaten the \u201creal life\u201d narrative featured on this or that podcast. This is the brilliance of presenting narrative rather than argument. I may think Scientology is an atrocious money-making scheme born out of the inevitable collision between scientism, pop-psychology, and liberal-capitalism, but heck, I don\u2019t want to say that to <\/span>Cindy<\/span><\/i>, what with her real-life story on The Church of Scientology\u2019s website. Cindy owns a small piano-tuning business she inherited from her Father. Cindy likes lemon drops. Cindy first ran into Scientology after going through a dark time, and it has since helped her see the goodness in every person. My vague idea of true and false doctrine never reckoned on being placed in the socially suspect position of the guy ragging on Cindy<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Narrative doesn\u2019t <\/span>debate<\/span><\/i>, it simply uses our fear of being rude to silence us for a moment. Having been cowed into silence, we will do one of two things: rank the value of righteousness over the value of politeness and dare to use our trembling voice, or justify our silence by dropping our now-rude belief. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, the greatest rudeness is to deem the rest of humanity incapable of moral discourse. It\u2019s a perverse pride that whimpers at the sight of some bourgeois narrative, and politely resigns itself to let our family and friends continue in apparent falsehood without interruption. Dammit, this is <\/span>Cindy<\/span><\/i> we\u2019re talking about. Is she not a human person, free to shirk off old habits, denounce old ways, and run into some new and strange light? Does she not have something of the radiance of a god about her, a being unfettered by her narrative up to this point, poised, even now, to leap into greater heights or ranker shallows? No, Cindy \u2014 and this is the dark, flabby, underside that wiggles under our culture of weaponized narrative \u2014 Cindy is to be consigned to her personal life story. She is<\/em>\u00a0her life-story \u2014 neat, fixed, bow-tied, and only a horrible bigot would question the content of her narrative. Transcendence, by which we reach beyond our immediate, narrow-minded world to some greater truth \u2014 transcendence ain\u2019t for Cindy. Ecstasy, by which we stand outside of ourselves and radically alter the easy course of our lives \u2014 ecstasy ain\u2019t for Cindy. Cindy is to be accepted for who she is. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is, however, something exciting about the cultural turn to narrative. Generally speaking, we are far better at holding vague moral positions and general rules than believing that these moral insights should determine how we, our children, and our neighbors should act. We are shocked with the possibility of our moral position having actual consequence. We are put off by the whole thing the moment we feel the responsibility to speak against an injustice. Imagine, taking our vague idea that \u201cgreed is wrong\u201d and actually <\/span>applying<\/span><\/i> it to a happy, helpful employee who denies his workers a just wage. <\/span><\/p>\n

Narrative, simply by showing an actual person held in judgment by our moral beliefs, brings up the whole difficulty of applying our principles to the real world. The fact that we are thrown off by this simply shows that we have forgotten (or never learned) the distinction between holding correct ethical principles and being a good person. The former only requires that you know. The latter requires that you <\/span>act<\/span><\/i>, engage the real world, denounce injustice, decry evil, and practice virtue. Since living a righteous life, as opposed to thinking right thoughts, is arduous, it\u2019s usually easier to drop the moral beliefs the moment any narrative makes them <\/span>real<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Narrative, considered in this sense, is a sort of dare, or a game of moral chicken. \u201cYou have this moral belief.\u201d it says. \u201cWell then, tough guy, let\u2019s see whether you really believe it. I will tell you a story. Within this story, your moral belief makes you the bad guy. If your belief was applied to the protagonist of this story it would hurt and confuse him. Your belief, then, is a spike. The hero is tied to the grill of the truck. The narrative will drive him towards you, and you will have to decide whether to change your moral belief for fear of its real-life consequences, or to retain it and be the impaler.\u201d Usually, we change. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

If you liked this, or hated it and want more to be mad about, I\u2019m playing a game I like to call <\/em>Bribe Me: The Online Musical. If I get any donation<\/a>, no matter how small, I will regard it as a challenge, and post again within the next 33 hours. Follow my\u00a0Facebook page<\/a> to see if someone has already challenged me to post.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: This post is Part 2 of this post. ISIS have busied themselves with new and creative ways to get Christians to reject their moral and religious beliefs. They cut off limbs, dip families in acid, crucify, behead, and generally live out the best practices the perverse marriage of apocalyptic Islam and Grand Theft Auto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exiting-the-culture-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Difference Between a Narrative and an Argument Part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Warning: This post is Part 2 of this post. 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