[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story.
[00:00:12] So for the past few weeks, we've been talking about certain storytelling tactics, certain tools that you can use in your stories to hopefully enhance them and to actually tell better stories in general. And one of the things I've been talking about since the beginning of this podcast is how "he who tells the stories, rules the world," the importance of the place of the storyteller.
[00:00:35] Today, I'm going to change gears a little bit. And in part I'm changing gears because I'm really frustrated. In fact, I've had a number of things happen in the last just week that have really, really caused me some difficulty, some anger, and some depression even.
[00:00:56] And it's happening more and more. And I'm assuming that it's not just happening to me. And since it has to do with the narratives that are being spun in society today, it seems like it's appropriate for The Storyteller's Mission. So in essence, I want to talk to you today about something other than fiction. I'm talking about how this plays out in real world stories, real world narratives.
[00:01:24] I've been saying since the beginning of this podcast that he who controls the narrative, controls the world. And I don't know if you are paying attention to everything that's happening in this world. I don't know if it is making you as crazy as it is making me, or if it seems that the world has lost its mind to you. To me, it seems like the world has lost its mind. And to me, we have gone against reality.
[00:01:52] See, this is again, this is why this is so important. What is the first rule of storytellers? To tell thetruth. To tell the truth. But today there are so many different narratives that are being spun in so many different ways. And people are buying into lies, and they think that the lies are okay. In fact, they think that it doesn't hurt you. I mean, what's your problem?
[00:02:15] And so there's all these things that are happening, and I felt like it was important to address these because here's where we're going. I'm going to talk in the future, starting next week, we're going to start talking about different types of literature that you can tell, starting with something called Protest Literature. Which I think is important.
[00:02:36] We have to read the signs of the times. We have to be aware of the times in which we live, and as a result of the times in which we live, I can tell you I've had to make some adjustments to the stories that I'm going to tell. I've had to eliminate some of the ones that have been on my list and promote other ones that maybe are even less fun, but are more relevant to the times. So that is something we're probably going to have to do as storytellers is we're going to have to make some decisions about the types of stories that we're going to invest in, especially if it is true that we are in a certain timeframe here where the time is limited, where we don't have a lot of time. We have a narrow window of opportunity here to actually make a difference, to actually get our stories told in a way that may impact the direction of our country or culture. Because once this window closes, our future is sealed. The fate of our future depends on what we as storytellers are able to get out now. That's how important it is for you to tell your stories, but it has to be the right stories. So again, all of this is kind of mixed up and garbled. I hope that this makes sense because on the one hand we're talking about our fiction stories and the idea that you're probably going to have to make some decisions about which ones you're going to focus on and which ones you're going to not focus on anymore because they just don't matter today.
[00:04:13] But also, you're going to have to start telling stories to combat the lies, to combat the false beliefs that are actually being held and promoted in society today in order to, again, help make sure that we don't lose the narrative. Actually, we probably already lost the narrative, but it's the only way maybe we can win the narrative back.
[00:04:39] We have a real place of importance right now and a real limited narrow time to exercise our ability to impact culture.
[00:04:49] Okay, so what am I talking about? I'm sort of speaking cryptically, but let's just be real. Okay? I'm going to spell it out for you. I'm not going to make you read between the lines. I have come under a lot of attack.
[00:05:05] Because of a lot of the posts that I've been sharing on Instagram. By the way, you can follow me personally on Instagram if you're interested. I share a lot of stuff that I think is relevant, for Christians particularly, to be aware of. The stuff that maybe you're not gonna see in, certainly not in mainstream media, but maybe not anywhere else. It's a weird time.
[00:05:25] So I share a lot of these things. And as a result of these things, I have been accused of a number of things. In the last week alone, I have been accused of being anti-trans. I've been accused of being a Christian nationalist. I was accused of, well, being stupid. This guy said, "Wow, your lack of awareness is breathtaking. Stop spreading stupidity." Lots of fun things. Lots of fun things. And of course, I've been accused of butting in or forcing my morality on others of being intolerant or afraid. I was also accused of being afraid of what I didn't understand or being close-minded.
[00:06:07] These are all things I've personally been accused of in just the last week, and this is happening more and more, and this is why, by the way, a lot of us are afraid to even speak up because a lot of the arguments that are put forth to us, when we raise our concerns are put to us in these terms that label us something very, very ugly and undesirable.
[00:06:32] So what I want to do is sort of teach you some principles to learn how to navigate this because it isn't easy. It isn't easy. In fact, when somebody accuses you of some of these things, the instinct is to suddenly get really defensive and try to defend yourself and try to explain, no, I, I'm not, I'm not this, I'm not that. And, and then we back off of whatever positive position we were trying to put forth. We back off of that because we're afraid now of being labeled that. And by the way, part of this is because as Christians, we want to be nice, right? So boy, we don't want them to think that we're a horrible, hateful person. Now we've got a, oh gosh, gosh, we got a cow tow to that.
[00:07:12] And I think that's the wrong approach. I think the time for doing that is over. We need to change it. We need to change it. And what we have to do, we have to switch the paradigm by putting the burden of proof on them, we have to stop playing defense and start playing offense.
[00:07:31] And I'm going to give you some tactics to do that. And again, I know this probably seems odd that we're talking about this, but this is about story and it's about narrative. It's about all of it. We're not just talking about fiction, we're talking about life. It is all connected. You cannot separate them.
[00:07:49] And if it is true that in stories, the most important thing is to tell the truth, then it is true in life that the most important thing is to tell the truth. We have to tell the truth. We have to be brave and bold. We have to understand the world correctly. The worldview stuff that we talk about in this podcast is not limited to our stories, our fiction stories.
[00:08:10] These are the things we must be working out now. We must be acting out now. We must be understanding them now. It's more important than ever to understand Christian worldview, and it's more important than ever to have tactics and tools to be able to navigate a culture and a society that is trying to undermine the Christian worldview at every front and is trying to twist it into something ugly and trying to characterize it into something undesirable and something to be shunned. We must resist.
[00:08:44] And there is a way to resist that without yelling, without screaming, without defending, without becoming nasty. And yet without also cowtowing and being nice. So that's what we're talking about today. I hope it interests you.
[00:09:00] And here's the thing, anyone who opposes one of these issues that is in the forefront of culture today, woke culture, I'm talking primarily of woke culture, immediately becomes labeled something.
[00:09:14] All right? So that's the first thing. You need to understand that what's happening is the tactic that they are using— and I'm saying they, anybody who is promoting a woke ideology, maybe you're woke, but I'm going to challenge you in this. Anyone promoting a woke ideology, what they automatically do is they label. Label.
[00:09:40] And by the way, this happens, even people that aren't promoting woke ideologies. I have talked about this, about how we have trigger words now in society. We have these philosophies. We have so much psychological understanding now that we say words like I was triggered, or we say we're, oh, that person's toxic.
[00:10:00] Oh, that person's a narcissist. Oh my trauma. Things likethis. Oh, I'm an empath. You know these types of words. These are labels and they're overused and they are abused because of their overuse. But the reason we like to go to labels is because the minute we can label somebody any of those things, now we can dismiss them.
[00:10:25] See, the minute we label somebody, now they become a non-person. So the very first thing they do is they label you. And by the way, we have to be careful of this too, because I'm calling people out who have a woke ideology. Now notice I'm pointing out, it's an ideology that they're holding. I'm trying not to label the person and dismiss the person. I'm talking about the ideology, but that's not what happens all the time, and that certainly isn't what happens in reverse.
[00:10:58] So this gentleman who posted, "Wow, your lack of awareness is breathtaking. Stop spreading stupidity." Now, he was referring to one of the posts that I had made on my social media page where I was taking a video, of the fact that it was snowing in LA and I said, "Hey everyone, if you still believe in global warming, check it out. It's snowing in LA." And I showed how it was snowing in LA. So he was trying to combat my belief, I guess, in a no global warming. Now mind you, I was kidding. I was joking when I said that. If I wanted to make an argument for that, I could do that.
[00:11:38] Nevertheless, what he did was he went immediately to namecalling and labeling. He went to trying to undermine me. He went to trying—he didn't engage me as a person. He felt completely comfortable abusing me actually. That was a terrible. That was a terribly abuser— who's he? To tell me I'm stupid, you know? Wow. Your lack of awareness is breathtaking. I mean, that is, that is such a tactic to undermine, humiliate, shame the other person. It is really sick. It is really sick.
[00:12:12] And see if they can shame you and try to humiliate you- first of all, anybody who reads that doesn't want to be associated with that anymore. So now they're trying to polarize other people towards you. They don't want them to align with you. Right? Now they're isolating you because of the way they are labeling you, and also they're attacking your character. Attacking your beliefs, your knowledge, your thinking ability. But believe me, if the choice is between accidentally spreading false information on social media and intentionally belittling and shaming and bullying and harassing another human being, which one is the greater violation?
[00:12:59] There is a hierarchy here of sin, if you will. There's a hierarchy of sin that ought to be regarded, and I'm here to tell you I think this one's worse. The intentional abuse or dismissal or harassing of another individual, I think is worse than an accidental promoting of something that might be false.
[00:13:21] The real point is the label. They wanna label you.
[00:13:26] Anyone who opposes their arguments or their beliefs or their position or whatever becomes labeled. They are labeled with things like your hateful, you're intolerant, you're a Nazi, you're a fascist, you're anti-American, you're self-righteous. All of those things.
[00:13:45] I don't know if you saw even President Biden's speech. It was shocking how he basically said anybody who voted for Trump was anti-American, was a fascist. I mean, how terrible to label half of America as fascist because they voted for your opponent. I think that's wrong. I think that's wrong, and it isn't a correct characterization.
[00:14:11] Now you can believe what you want about Trump. Maybe you didn't vote for him, maybe you did. It doesn't matter. The point is labeling anybody who voted for him as a fascist is simply not accurate and not right. It's wrong, but the label itself is meant to do something. It's meant to bully you into submission. It's meant to corner you into a hold. It's meant to put you on the defensive, and it's meant to isolate you and polarize you so that others don't wanna be associated with you. Do you see how effective this sort of tactic is?
[00:14:46] And by the way, part of the problem is we can't just do the opposite, right? Because it seems like if we know this is a tactic, why can't we just start doing this? Well, because it's wrong, and we do have to be held to a higher standard. We can't combat the badness by being bad. That's the problem.
[00:15:06] If we could, we could probably work against this faster, but we actually cannot do that. That is not open to us. And so we have to find different ways of doing it, and that's where this comes in.
[00:15:19] So again, anyone who opposes a particular doctrine per se, is going to be labeled with language that is going to try to silence them ultimately, or render them ineffective because of the particular negativity associated with the label.
[00:15:43] So what are we supposed to do? How now shall we live? All right. Well, so this is where we have to come up with some appropriate responses. We have to come up with some appropriate tactics to allow us to engage without participating in the horribly dysfunctional abusive tactics that people are engaging in with this woke ideology.
[00:16:17] So what is that? Well, I'm going to tell you. So I'm going to give you three tactics that you can use to try to navigate this very tricky sea of controversy that I think will help you preserve your dignity. It will prevent you from being defensive. It will prevent you from being aggressive, but it will also prevent you from shrinking and being cowardly. It will prevent you from having to disappear because you don't know how to handle it. So I'm hoping that that's what this is going to do. And they have to kind of go in this order because they all go hand in hand. I mean, when I say three different tactics, really it's one tactic that has three parts.
[00:16:59] The very first one, you have to stop and examine the underlying assumptions that are being made. Now what do I mean by. Well, for example, I told you about the conversation that I had recently with my roommate, a gal that's staying with me. And she talked about how with the trans issue, that people that were against it, that, you know, she just felt like a lot of people were really afraid of what they don't understand. And she felt like, you know, God is love and that God is beyond gender and that we shouldn't get hung up on gender because just God is bigger than gender.
[00:17:41] And this sounds very convincing, right? Sounds very, very compelling in a lot of ways. And also it sounds like you know, anyone who's against it must be afraid. Okay, well, I don't wanna be afraid, so I shouldn't be against it. You see how that works, or, oh, God is bigger than gender. Okay, so I guess I shouldn't be against it. It's silly to get hung up on this. God's bigger than that. Okay? God is love. He accepts everybody as they are. You see how this goes? This is the argument that's being made. But what you have to do is examine that argument and look for the assumptions, because there are assumptions being made, and oftentimes when we're in the heat of it, it's really hard to do this.
[00:18:21] It's really hard for us to examine it and to try to find the false assumption, but it's always there. There's always an assumption being made. Even her first thing, well, I feel like a lot of people are afraid of what they don't understand. That is making an assumption. In that moment, she was making an assumption that the reason that I am concerned about the trans agenda is because I'm afraid, or I'm transphobic.
[00:18:51] That's her assumption. She was assuming that I'm fearful. She was assuming that I'm intolerant, that I'm close-minded. She even made a statement at one point that she was more open-minded, which implies the assumption is that I'm close-minded. She also implied that I was self-righteous. That I was trying to pass my morality onto other people, that I was imposing my morality onto others and that that was wrong. She's making an assumption that that's wrong to do that, as if that's not what she's doing. Also, that I'm unloving because God is love. He accepts everybody. So therefore, to not be accepting of all the things that are happening in the trans community is to be unloving and also possibly that I'm stupid, that I'm ignorant, that I'm arrogant.
[00:19:45] I mean, there's a lot of assumptions in that, but some of the other lying assumptions are that it doesn't matter what a person believes if it doesn't impact you. There's an assumption there that it doesn'tmatter. Right? So these are the assumptions. And so we always have to come back to the assumptions and there's more, and I'll get there.
[00:20:08] But I want to first point out that one of the most important things you could do is get to the assumption and don't defend. Don't defend. Just identify to yourself what the assumption is, because that is going to dictate a possible response.
[00:20:27] Okay, so we've already talked a lot today about tactics and counter tactics and all of these things, and I want to continue this next week because this is super, super important stuff and it's necessary for us to start learning how to navigate these things because it's not going away. It is not going away.
[00:20:49] And we have to understand that this actually does pertain to the work. If we end up adopting a society or allowing a society to adopt no truth as a foundation, then pretty soon our own stories aren't even going to matter. So we need to be challenging these views. This is where it's at. This is where we're at in culture right now. We have to be able to articulate these things. We cannot shirk from the fight. You cannot stay silent because you feel ill equipped. I'm equipping you. I'm trying to equip you. I'm trying to get equipped myself. We simply cannot shirk from the fight. We have to be in it.
[00:21:34] So I hope that what we've talked about so far today has been helpful. And if it has, then I want to encourage you to go share it with other people, to share it on social media platforms, to try to get people to listen so they too can get equipped so that we can all be asking the right questions that are going to undermine the false assumptions that are being made by people that are maybe deceived by a various philosophy.
[00:21:59] Because that's what's happening here. It's about deception, and we have to uncover the truth. Truth matters. Reality matters. And what's true and real is God and the world as he created it. So we have to keep exposing the lies. That's what it's all about. That's what we're doing. That's what we're learning at this time.
[00:22:19] So please share this with somebody that you think needs to hear it. And as always, would you please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and on YouTube. Subscribe to the show. We would love that. And I just want to add, we do have some stuff going on right now at The Storyteller's Mission. If you would like to follow us on The Storyteller's Mission, if you would like to subscribe to The Digest, that's our inner circle community where you will be the first to hear about all things related to The Storyteller's Mission, like new classes that we have coming out. A really exciting new class that's about to come out, and I'm excited, excited about that. Check us out on the website if you haven't already. thestorytellersmission.com and sign up for the digest and you'll start hearing about those things.
[00:23:07] Okay. I want to thank you so much for joining me on The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe. May you go forth inspired to change the world for the better through story.
