JUNGLE DRUM: Is this the year of the narrative break or the year narratives break us?
Lawrence Mason column
Back in my day we wrote stories at school.
Later there were assignments which took various forms but I don't remember hearing the word “narrative”.
These days it is everywhere, and not just in schools.
Oxford says that a narrative is “a spoken or written account of connected events; a story”.
Well and good, but a narrative can lead to so much more if repeated continually.
My daughter was taught about sizzling starts, and how to structure a narrative, by Qld Ed, and much of what I read today online and in the media follows that same simple process.
How often have you read things like "scientists say New York could be underwater by 2050". Or, closer to home, words to the effect: “Two ferries may ruin the Daintree's fragile ecosystem”, “The Barrier Reef may not recover", or "The microgrid will cause overdevelopment".
Day after day we are assailed by these narratives.
Has anyone ever heard a “not proud” member of an Indigenous group get introduced?
I haven't.
I have never seen a bureaucrat or elected official get up and say I am a proud white Australian.
It's a paradigm - you cannot do this.
Narratives become paradigms.
A paradigm, accepted by enough people, especially those in power, becomes near impossible to challenge.
In the ’70s and ’80s people actually wrote information.
It may well have been biased, but it was in a format that some would call dull today.
In fact, sevenstepswriting.com says: “A piece of writing needs to grab the reader’s attention right from the start. But most students start with overused (and let’s face it, dull) openings: ‘Once upon a time…’, ‘One day I…’ or ‘In my opinion…’."
(My piece started with “Back in my day”. I swear when I wrote that I had not read the website info above!)
It has reached the point where I now try to read as many articles from different sources as I can on some topics, because everyone is off using the sizzling starts and it is hard to cut through to the “dull” truth.
But the dull truth underpins what will happen, as opposed to what the narrative writer wishes will happen.
We are now starting to live in a world of wishes rather than reality.
These nonsense narratives are used over and over again to reinforce the “facts” on the reader.
Few, if any, dare to question the paradigms that result.
Paradigms now include things like “renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel energy” despite the consumer pricing in no way supporting that.
That sea levels are rising fast despite few real-world examples.
That cyclones are increasing in number and intensity despite BOM data clearly showing that is not the case.
There are many more.
Paradigms are now being so embedded that people now have trouble identifying biological sex.
People are identifying as a race that they visibly are not.
And worse, when a movement is identified as “wrong” in the paradigm, it does not matter what they do or say, it is thenceforth “always wrong”.
Is Trump ever right? Think about it.
Narratives done well establish who is “right” and then when “that rightness” is the paradigm, woe betide anyone who dares challenge it.
How does this affect us?
Well, if I am correct that some populations are perhaps now looking to eschew narratives and break paradigms, we would do well to lead the way.
Already we are seeing repeated narratives about how essential it is to reforest farmland.
About the Reef being dead.
That the forest no longer stores carbon.
About people living in the forest fragmenting it.
All ignoring the long and painful planning and buyback process that ensured that the above did not happen and continues to do so.
We have fallen for this so much that our beloved Tourism Port Douglas Daintree has some of the culprits as members.
These people work completely against the goals of tourism marketing but were nonetheless welcomed into the fold.
I worry that it will soon be a paradigm that having farms here are evil, and with the concurrent paradigm that the Reef is dead, and forest following, we will effectively commit economic suicide.
No renewables because that causes rampant development.
No return to country.
A single ferry that will do little to reduce wait times is already happening.
Let's be smart and get the enemy out of our last functioning industry.
Now.
*Lawrence Mason has lived at Cape Tribulation all his life, and has been involved in farming, timber and tourism. He is a former board member of Tourism Port Douglas Daintree, founding chair of Daintree Marketing Co-operative, and has been a member of both Alexandra Bay and Mossman State High School P&C. He is also a member of the Douglas Chamber of Commerce and has a keen interest in local issues.
- The opinions and views in this column are those of the author and author only and do not reflect the Newsport editor or staff.
