Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is saying the Gulf oil spill is overblown and that sensational reporting is destroying Gulf Coast tourism. Who does this remind us of? Maybe the best parallel is Amity Island Mayor Larry Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton in the movie, Jaws.
“The truth is,” he said, “we have had virtually no oil. If you were on the Mississippi Gulf coast anytime in the last 48 days you didn’t see any oil at all. We have had a few tar balls but we have had tar balls every year, as a natural product of the Gulf of Mexico. 250,000 to 750,000 barrels of oil seep into the Gulf of Mexico through the floor every year. So, tar balls are no big deal. In fact, I read that Pensacola or the Florida beaches when they have tar balls yesterday didn’t even close. They just sent people out to pick them up and throw them in the bag.”
American cultural narratives are full of selfish idiots who feign skepticism to promote their greedy interests. Such characters are a staple of the horror and thriller genres. We know them as the characters who cost innocent lives and who heroes have to overcome. They are always revealed as the deadly fools they are in the end.
Because the storyline is so well known, this gives an opening for those of us who want an open-eyed, realistic approach to environmental and economic disasters. The Gulf spill, of course, is both. By simply pointing out that parallels between, say, Barbour and Amity Island Mayor Larry Vaughn, the narrative frame will do the work for us.
That’s because human brains are wired that way. Narrative expectations are powerful things. We make predictions of future events based in large part on narrative expectations. Seen as Mayor Vaughn, the public will see his cavalier disregard for our well-being for what it is. And they will expect him to fail.
So what narratives are at work in these fools’ minds? In the stories they tell themselves, they are always right. Their authority is unchallengeable. The moral thing to do is what they say to do. It blinds them to the real world, hence their vulnerability.
So, here’s my modest recommendation. Those of us battling to contain the terrible consequences of the spill — and to enforce necessary regulations and precautions to prevent like tragedies in the future — we need to evoke the “Mayor Vaughn” narrative frame. It’s not hard to do. Of course, it’s only one of many things we need to do.
But we all know this story so well we ought to be able to do it in our sleep.
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About Glenn W. Smith
Glenn W. Smith has spent the past 30 years in journalism and politics, where he’s made a name for himself as a writer, campaign manager, activist, think tank analyst and, as Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” “There’s no one like him,” says author George Lakoff. CNN commentator Paul Begala says, “He has unmatched experience, a graceful pen (or pixel nowadays) and deep insight into the best and worst of us.” Novelist Sarah Bird speaks of his “lucid and lyrical” prose. And, she says, he’s fun. Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington says Glenn writes with “grace and abundant humor” and “uses his colorful experiences in Texas to enlighten us all.”
Smith led Ann Richards’ successful 1990 campaign for Governor of Texas. He worked for former Texas Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. Earlier, Smith was a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He’s coordinated national campaigns for groups such as MoveOn.org. In 2004, he authored the highly acclaimed book, The Politics of Deceit: Saving Freedom and Democracy from Extinction. He also wrote Unfit Commander, a book that detailed George W. Bush’s mysterious disappearance from military service.
In 2004, Smith was featured in the film, Bush’s Brain, a documentary about Karl Rove. Smith provided commentary on Rove’s role as then-President Bush’s senior advisor. He has made numerous media appearances with Chris Mathews on Hardball, Joe Scarborough, Brit Hume, and many others. He writes a regularly for top national web sites, including FireDogLake and Huffington Post.
As a senior fellow at George Lakoff’s prestigious Rockridge Institute in Berkeley he studied, wrote and taught on the power of metaphor and narrative in political communications. He also lectured on religion and politics at the Starr King School for Ministry in Berkeley. As a sponsor and organizer, he has pulled together numerous national events with progressive religious leaders. He also organized a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King at Riverside Church in New York City as well as “Freedom and Faith” bus tours, which was a nationwide campaign for social justice and progressive values.
Smith’s play, Double Play, which explored American Western myths and legends, was held over to sold-out audiences. He’s even written and performed songs in the Americana tradition, such as his best-known song, “Helping Marty Robbins,” a tribute to his hometown, Houston.
Most recently, Smith is the creator of DogCanyon, a political and cultural web site covering state, national and global issues from a Texas perspective. DogCanyon is an exhilarating and unique site that gets the connections between politics and culture and explores both the personal side of politics and the ups, down, craziness and beauty of “life its ownself,” as humorist Dan Jenkins would say. DogCanyon offers heartfelt personal essays, hard-hitting political analysis, and, most importantly, laughs.
As Paul Begala said, Smith writes in “the finest, firmest, fearless tradition of Texas essayists like Molly Ivins.”
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is saying the Gulf oil spill is overblown and that sensational reporting is destroying Gulf Coast tourism. Who does this remind us of? Maybe the best parallel is Amity Island Mayor Larry Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton in the movie, Jaws.
That’s because human brains are wired that way. Narrative expectations are powerful things. We make predictions of future events based in large part on narrative expectations. Seen as Mayor Vaughn, the public will see his cavalier disregard for our well-being for what it is. And they will expect him to fail.
I think they're not going to do anything about this problem until it swims up and bites them in the ass!!!
The mayor of Amity is the perfect symbol for local boosterism that puts profits before health and safety. You'll see this phenomenon in every public hearing concerning the South Texas Nuclear Project expansion or in the plans to store nuclear waste in West Texas.
In fact, there's a connection between nukes and the oil spill. A number of nuke boosters are trying to take advantage of the spill to push for more nukes. Here's a link to a press release that makes it clear that the same kinds of boosters will use the oil spill to give us a new generation of nukes:
http://www.newswise.com/articles/will-the-gulf-oi…