I thought the Harvey piece was very interesting because I had never related storytelling to leadership before. The more I read, the more I understood that the way the past is presented effects how the present is seen. One example that came to my head is how presidents compare former presidents to themselves. If President Trump claims that Obama’s actions and policies harmed the country and had negative effects, it makes him look better and makes people believe that his actions are much better for everybody. I also thought about how certain races tell different stories of the past in order to justify their actions. The Turkish government not acknowledging that the Armenian Genocide took place saves them thee ridicule of those actions.
To counter these stories and histories, Dr. Bezio’s piece reflected the importance of looking beyond the story itself. Determining who is telling the story, who is listening, when it is being told, etc is equally important. Hence, the moral of a story in the 1600’s would probably be different than the moral of stories today. These pieces made me think about how many stories I know and wonder if they also carried false narratives.
I think that your comment about past presidents can relate in a positive way too. I talked about it a little in my blog, but Reagan is hailed as the ultimate Republican, conservative president. Trump emulates and references him through some policies and speeches (“Make America Great Again” originally comes from Reagan). Using Reagan’s rhetoric, voters see the two leaders and similar and lend support to Trump.
I thought it was really interesting how brought up the idea of how presidents compare themselves to other presidents. Learning from other presidents mistakes and trying to convince the American people that what they are doing is better than their previous presidents.
I think you bring up a really interesting point of how presidents can change their public perception by comparing themselves to past leaders. It also made me think about how we teach events in school, like the Civil War (and how in the south it is largely referred to as the War of Northern Aggression) and how those may be skewed based on where you live and what you believe.
What you mentioned about nations telling each other these easy to digest stories really reminded me of our history as well. Whether it be our intervention in Latin American, Vietnam, etc., it all begins with this delusion that the action being taken is just. Am I unknowingly playing a role in this too, in how I’m perceiving American history?