Stories That Can’t End Well
After almost a century in which economic policymaking was the preserve of technocrats and social scientists, scholars from narrative-based disciplines have begun to feature prominently in policy debates. But by using partial knowledge to advance specific policy prescriptions, they have become even more dangerous than economists.
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PRINCETON – In today’s irrational world of fake news and bad-faith politics, a new mantra has emerged: It’s all about narratives. Power today lies in one’s ability to tell a story. As a case in point, consider Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian whose only political experience is that he played a president on TV. Zelensky beat the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, because he knew how to spin a yarn.