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The Eye of the Storm
How history is driven by the narrative
The hurricane metaphor frequently comes to me because it describes so well many of life’s events. The counterintuitive nature of the eye is what makes it most evocative even though danger often lies in places and situations that feel most safe. That’s what scares me most about where we are as a nation because the safe places are where political chancers operate.
The media is in continual hurricane season with scandal followed by tragedy followed by celebrity event. It’s the tempest the audience craves while seeking comfort in it’s eye. This means each story has the a life cycle of a few days or weeks before the next storm rolls in while only the most recent scandal is remembered in the calm.
The debris has no time to fester. It gets caught up in the next storm, it’s timeline destroyed and it’s sting removed. Transliterated headlines strained through government and corporate filters dominate the 6 o’clock news to the extent that it’s neither new nor informative. The papers largely carry political statements and propaganda.
Storm ridden, the majority of the population seek comfort in the familiar not comprehending that, in political terms, what is familiar is largely made up. The post war comfort most of us have enjoyed was hard fought and radical, in stark contrast…
