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Narratives

As I’ve suggested recently, I take umbrage at the way news — or what purports to be news — is presented to us. I deliberately didn’t write reported to us because it’s not reporting. It’s biased speculation, pre-judged and unquestioned. The faults for this charade lie in two places:

  1. In the media. We’ve progressed (I use that term very loosely) to a point at which objectivity is passé; at which intellectual honesty and curiosity are nonexistent; at which we’re being preached at by pedantic pedagogues from this camp or that camp; at which those camps are diametrically and ideologically opposed; and from which the competing narratives are conflicting, antagonistic, and inflammatory
  2. With us. We’re willing to settle for #1.

The other morning, Anne shared this article with me. I don’t subscribe to all of it. And I don’t invest as much faith in astrology as she does. Maybe I should. But this excerpt from the article jumped all over me:

I have my doubts … whether enough people are up to the task of individuating sufficiently to ask their own questions … To preserve our humanity means being willing to risk vulnerability. It also means having courage, and in particular, the courage to seek out the truth and make your own decisions, rather than be told what is so, and accepting some order or mandate not to question it … this is not about the world: it’s about what you think of yourself. Every decision you make stems from what you think you are … the choice is yours alone.

The same day Anne shared that article, our friend, Marc Fishman, wrote something so stunningly brilliant, so disarmingly correct, it inspired this video, in which I quote Marc at the end:

I chose the music for the soundtrack based on the fact that — through the combination of the media’s peddling of narratives and our complacent gullibility — culturally, societally, and politically, we’ve put the funk in dysfunction.

The Law of Unintended Consequences is sharpening its teeth.

Mark O'Brien
Mark O'Brienhttps://obriencg.com/
I’m a business owner. My company — O’Brien Communications Group (OCG) — is a B2B brand-management and marketing-communication firm that helps companies position their brands effectively and persuasively in industries as diverse as: Insurance, Financial Services, Senior Living, Manufacturing, Construction, and Nonprofit. We do our work so well that seven of the companies (brands) we’ve represented have been acquired by other companies. OCG is different because our business model is different. We don’t bill by the hour or the project. We don’t bill by time or materials. We don’t mark anything up. We don’t take media commissions. We pass through every expense incurred on behalf of our clients at net. We scope the work, price the work, put beginning and end dates on our engagements, and charge flat, consistent fees every month for the terms of the engagements. I’m also a writer by calling and an Irish storyteller by nature. In addition to writing posts for my company’s blog, I’m a frequent publisher on LinkedIn and Medium. And I’ve published three books for children, numerous short stories, and other works, all of which are available on Amazon under my full name, Mark Nelson O’Brien.

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