Ok. A few questions.

1.
a. Who did Tom Cruise recently divorce?

b. What achievement was the Nobel prize in Medicine given out for last year?

2.
a. Who is Jennifer Lopez engaged to?

b. Where was the settlement money from the tobacco lawsuits spent?

3.
a. What country did Diana, Princess of Wales die in?

b. Which EPA emissions standard does an SUV fall under?

If you are like me you probably knew the answer to the "a" portion of each of those questions, but would have to look up the answer to the "b" portion. You would also have to admit that from an objective standpoint the "b" answer is the one that is probably more important to your life. In fact the "a" questions probably have almost no impact on your life.

So why do we even care about the "a" facts? There is an evolutionist answer. The answer to someone who believes in evolution is that we humans are primates, and like other primates we have evolved to live in heirarchial tribal structures where access to resources and reproduction is controlled by an individual's place within the heirarchy. In such structures knowing what the highest members of that structure are doing is vitally important to reproductive survival. In other words to reproduce in such structures you had better know who is fucking who.

If you want to take a nuture stance and say that the reason that we know about Tom and Jennifer and Diana is that the media pushes it on us, you are still left with the question of why you are vulnerable to having it pushed on you. The evolutionist would say that corporate advertisers are taking advantage of natural predispositions and pushing the narratives of people's lives on us as a way of selling products

In that essay I quoted from Wilson is saying something deeper though. Let me give another example:

Visualize in your head one of any object. It can be lines, circles, apples, breasts, whatever. Now hold it there in your head.

Now add another object. Now can you see two objects side by side in your head?

Add a third. Do you see three objects in your head simultaneously?

Add a fourth then a fifth. Are they all there at the same time?

Go to six and seven. Try eight.

If you are like most folk you aren't actually seeing all eight objects in your head simultaneously anymore. You are probably seeing two separate groups of four. I recall reading somewhere that seven is more than most people can do.

So. As advanced as we are as a race, and as wonderful as our achievements are, in some sense we still can't conceptualize numbers higher than seven.

What we have then are minds that are capable of amazing achievements, but have to get around a number of limitations to do so. Our brains deal with small bits of information and process it in very specialized fashions.

Hence Wilson's focus on narrative. Not only as a tool for surviving in heirarchies, but as our most innate method of thinking and dealing with our environment. The narrative in our head is our most basic method of coping with reality.

And thus in addition to needing to keep track of the narratives of others for social purposes we also follow the narratives of other people's lives because they reflect the way in which we deal with our own lives. And as such they can serve as a learning tool.

As an attorney working as a general practitioner I am immersed in other people's narratives continously. I know more about the intimate details of more people's lives than you can shake a stick at. I see people dealing with major life impacting decisions. Which is why they make TV shows about attorneys. Because of that intimate personal connection that has to be there. Same thing with cops and doctors. These people intersect other people's lives in a very personal way.

They don't make shows about dentists or physics professors. Not because these things aren't important, in fact what they do is more important in a lot of cases. But there is no narrative drama inherent in the subject matter of their work.

Our society responds to our narrative minds and provides with us materials that satisfy their desires. And so we have books and movies and plays that repeat the human experience. And so we have a media that keeps giving us materials about Tom and Jennifer and Diana.

It is this inherent personal narrative that makes us more interested in what the President is doing than the Congress. Congress is about bills and committees, and although there a fair amount of drama, it is not as intimate and personal as this one man making decisions that affect the country. We CAN learn about world impacting things through our narrative impulse.

The newest addition to the world of the narrative is the online journal or blog. I got addicted to these things a few years ago. I don't need tv anymore because I have the real lives of Jen and Ken and Karen and Mike and Greg and Lisa. From them I explore the lives of other regular middle class Americans. In much the same mannner that I have become caught up in the lives of Hawkeye Pierce from M.A.S.H., those people from the soap operas I used to watch in the eighties, or the Brothers Karamozov, I find myself immersed in the narratives of others and caught up in their lives.

In the same way, part of the reason (and there are others)I am writing this journal is to absorb people into my narrative, and to make them want to understand and follow my life. So to the hypothetical readers of this journal (although most of the hits here are probably just me clicking on this repeatedly), take heed. Even though my life may have nothing to do with yours at all, this journal is a trap which preys upon your misguided primate instincts, and will force you to give a damn.