Critics suggest that too many narratives stretch the truth too far, and become mere “spin.” But legitimate self-fulfilling narratives combine current strengths, values, cultural traits, location distinctions, and missions into a vision for a bigger and better future. A self-fulfilling prophecy uses current facts to inspire an institution or country to a new and higher level of achievement. Credibility is maintained because the vision is believable.
An America that is truly democratic, with opportunities for everyone, and protects each individual’s freedom has been a credible and enviable narrative for many years. It is inspirational, and promises a believable self-fulfilling prophecy. But polarization, infighting, unsolved economic problems, and confusing international behaviors are seriously threatening the credibility and believability of this narrative.
When you think about it, we all resent it when surrounded by truths that are stretched too far, or hear narratives that no longer ring true. Yet, we still yearn to be inspired by an institution or country we care deeply about. We will accept narratives that stretch us beyond the present. We will buy into exciting self-fulfilling prophecies. But such motivational narratives require consistent and credible champions.
Larry D. Lauer 
Several weeks ago you made the point that the United States had lost its narrative. I was going to call you on that. It struck me that there are two narratives at war here, and they relate a bit to the Gettysburg Address we celebrated several weeks ago: “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” One narrative emphasizes the call of liberty and the other that of equality. But, underneath we have two significant challenges to any real definition of democracy and hope for our future as a democratic society. I don’t see how this is really a democracy when you define corporations as people, and then decide political contributions are free speech. This is made even more complicated by our campaign contribution laws and the fact that our Congressional representatives spend half their time dialing for dollars. So money is distorting anybody’s definition of democracy. And, economically we are losing our middle class as there are fewer and fewer jobs that pay a living wage and thus we are seeing this growing inequality between the top five percent and the rest of America. We are going through an economic transformation that is not helpful to any notions of democracy.