The Fiction That Wins — Why Narratives, Not Reasons, Shape History
We are taught that the world runs on reasons. The best argument wins. The facts speak for themselves. Truth has a gravitational pull. Decisions—individual and collective—flow from rational calculation: costs weighed against benefits, evidence stacked against counterevidence, the strong claim vanquishing the weak. But history, observed coldly, tells a different story. What wins is not the truest argument but the most compelling fiction. The narrative that best captures attention, simplifies complexity into a hero-and-villain arc, and offers closure. The one that feels right rather than the one that is right. The story that promises meaning, belonging, and cosmic order beats the story that promises accuracy every time. …