“To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.” Confucius
“There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there’s only narrative. E.L Doctorow
“I like moral judgment to emerge from the reader. We are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding are at a premium.” Hari Kunzru
As a way to recover from the nightmare of the first Biden-Trump debate, I tried to discern the universal truths that emerged from the calamitous confrontation hosted by CNN. For me, the most critical conclusions from this depressing debacle revolved around the relative importance voters place on knowledge, narrative, and nuance.
In short, when 80% of the American public is largely uninformed about political, social and economic issues, they are more likely to make decisions based on the stories they hear and the performances they see than on any substantive understanding of the facts underlying different policy positions. Instead of adding any more commentary to the pundit’s dissection of the aftermath of this event, however, I want to turn to the themes that might illuminate our path for the future. First, some definitions.
Knowledge consists of the facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; it is the theoretical and/or practical understanding of a subject. Knowledge enables a person to comprehend, command and master a given problem or challenge. It is the foundation for capability, adeptness, wisdom and enlightenment. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is the perspective a person brings to a situation and the judgments they make as a result of simply knowing. Anyone can become knowledgeable about a subject by reading, researching, and memorizing, but wisdom requires perspective and experience.
A narrative is simply a story one makes to share their perspective. A narrative can be a work of poetry, prose, song, or complete nonsense. While a narrative may go into great detail, it doesn’t mean that the story being told is any closer to the truth. Narratives often consist of stories that support beliefs instead of evidence that supports the truth.
Nuance is the subtle difference in shade, meaning, expression, sound or appearance that distinguishes one object or person from another. Nuances in facial expression and body language can send entirely different messages to an observer. For example, nuance can imply differences between a stubborn child, a determined child, or a contrary child. In the case of the Trump-Biden debate, the nuanced differences clearly came through between a petulant child and a frail, feeble, and fuzzy old man.
Sadly, what became abundantly clear in this debate was that, while Biden brought 50 years of dedicated service and experience to the stage, as well as deep knowledge of what he knows and doesn’t know, Trump was able to dominate the debate through his mendacious stories and his confident appearance. Even though Trump is completely clueless about what he doesn’t know, he appeared as if he did. Too many viewers have too little idea of the glaring gaps between the truth and the narratives. In short, Trump boldly promised to take actions based on little knowledge; whereas Biden was made out to take little action on what he knew to be true.
I’m afraid Doctorow, an American novelist and professor most famous for Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The March, was mostly right when he suggested that “there is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction, there’s only the narrative.” For many viewers, alternative facts, more commonly known as lies, are just as good as evidence-based knowledge. Terrifyingly, too many voters seem to prefer entertaining narratives to science based policies.
Hari Kunzru, a British author and journalist, concludes, independent of this debate, that “we are being sold a very simplistic morality by our leaders at a time when nuance and understanding are at a premium.” Evidently, many people prefer to make decisions based on fantasies, style and appearance vs. substance, experience, and expertise. Biden has a documented track record of contributing significantly to our country over a period of 50 years. Trump has a documented track record of corruption, crime, chaos, conceit and cruelty over the course of his self-centered life. And still, it appears that a share of voters prefer stories, simplistic solutions, and selfishness to knowledge, wisdom, and expertise.
Knowledge, narrative, and nuance – three factors that may determine our future as a country. I’m afraid that willful ignorance, happy ears, and simplistic moralism are paving the road to a very dangerous destination. I so hope I am wrong. May it be so. And may Biden step aside and make room for more youthful energy. It’s tragic that he would choose to end a brilliant career with a dismal failure. The one thing that he appears not to know may be the most devastating: he is in decline and is unfit to serve another term.
Also published on Medium.
