To Win, the Right Must Master the Art of Controlling the Narrative
Luis Miguel
Article audio sponsored by The John Birch Society

Victory always goes to the army that fights the war of today, not the war of yesterday.

Constitutionalists will be in a far better position to reclaim their country when they understand that a war is and has been taking place. Whether they wanted it or not, they are already involved in it. 

The Deep State is waging war against the American people. Can anyone argue against that proposition anymore when we see fundamental freedoms being eroded, conservatives being persecuted by federal law enforcement agencies, immoral propaganda being forced on children, and Americans losing their jobs or being denied access to financial instruments for holding conservative political views?

The war is already here. Americans can choose to do nothing about it and be the victims — or they can choose to fight back and be the victors.

Winning the fight requires an understanding of the nature of the struggle.

Many citizens are now aware of the concept of unrestricted warfare, a strategy advanced in 1999 by colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui of the People’s Liberation Army.

The strategy holds that a nation, such as China, can defeat a technologically superior opponent, such as the United States, through a variety of means beyond direct military confrontation. Victory can be attained without a single shot being fired by turning everything from economics to media to education into means of war.

While talk of unrestricted warfare often focuses on China’s successful employment of it against the U.S., it should also be understood that this is precisely what the Deep State has been doing to the American people at large. And it is on this same plane that constitutionalists must fight to take back the country and restore the republic.

In this sphere, much of the actual “fighting” boils down to information warfare. To win, the right must embrace and perfect the use of information warfare.

Taking this a step further, one of the most important aspects of information warfare — one which the unified Deep State and political Left have perfected — is the art of creating and controlling narratives.

The narrative is everything. A narrative is a framework by which one perceives, processes, understands, and interacts with the world around him. Two people can see the same thing or pass through the same objective external conditions, but have totally opposite experiences if they hold opposing narratives.

In a psychological sense then, whoever controls the narrative controls reality, for each person’s personal narrative determines his subjective reality.

For the Deep State, controlling the narrative is one of the most important keys to social control. For it is an eternal principle that whatever a man truly believes in his heart is generally what manifests in his external, outward reality. King Solmon articulated this truth in the Proverbs, writing, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

Convince someone of the narrative that he is a victim, and he will forever be a victim to forces outside his control. Convince him that the country is filled with racists who hate him and want to keep him oppressed, and that is what he will encounter. Convince him that the free market is broken and that only socialism will allow young people to be successful in America today, and socialism is what he will support.

Conversely, if a man’s mind is framed within the narrative that he is free and successful, that this country affords him all the opportunity he needs to achieve his dreams and he need only apply himself to meet his goals — then that is the life he will live.

One of the reasons Trump was so successful as a private citizen and as the leader of a political movement is that he understood and practiced these principles. Many have noticed how he constantly uses positive affirmations, boldly declaring that he is the best, that people love him, and that “we are winning” — even when it outwardly appears that these things are not so.

What Trump’s critics don’t understand is that he doesn’t do it because he’s delusional; rather, it’s because he’s deliberately priming his mind and the minds of Americans to accept his narrative so that it becomes a reality.

What is needed to create and control narratives?

First, vision. Conservative leaders should be bold and decisive. They should present compelling visions for America’s future that appeal to man’s highest aspirations. The Left’s appeals to man’s basest instincts — resentment, fear, victimhood — cannot compete against a movement that offers freedom, success, triumph, brotherhood, hope, prosperity.

Second, conservatives must learn to craft stories that further the narrative. Constant repetition is key. The mainstream media convinces minorities that white Americans are out to get them by churning out story after story of whites allegedly targeting blacks with violence. The right must continually cover news events, write histories, craft entertainment, and produce analyses that further their own narratives.

To that end, the Right must absolutely stop being reactionary. Conservative media largely still has not learned that it cannot win by making all of its content merely a reaction to liberal media (as opposed to original stories). Nor have conservative activists yet made themselves truly independent; they tend to counter-protest what the Left is doing rather than launch their own movements first. We must be the ones to act first, and then let the Left react to us.

Understand that so long as you are reacting to the Left, you have already ceded them the victory. You have already bought into their narrative and are working within their intellectual framework.

If we want to win this war, then we must be leaders, not followers.