Today, tens of millions of Americans are losing their jobs, worried about the health of their families and friends, and feeling fear and uncertainty about what the future holds for themselves and society. Deep narratives are breaking down and being rebuilt. Here are four ideas for approaching narrative strategy now so that together we may weave together an equitable, healthy and just fabric – one strong enough to hold all of us.

COVID-19 is transforming American society at a rapid pace. Over 22 million people filed for unemployment in four weeks from mid-March to mid-April and economists project an unemployment rate of 30% or higher in coming months. Nearly all of America’s more than 56 million K-12 students are being taught online with no clear idea when they will return to in-school classes. Falling demand is helping drive oil and gas prices to historic lows while air quality improves.

The question now is whether we as a society move towards systems that center equity and justice or continue on as before, unprepared for the next crisis?

This is a critical moment for narrative strategy

We must offer a powerful vision for the future, even while our organizations continue to help people make sense of the crisis in real time. That kind of vision takes time to build. And it doesn’t come without risk. Defenders of the status quo will advocate a return to “normal” and use fear to cast doubt on policy change. Hope will be characterized as political opportunism.

How we identify, share and deploy narrative strategy matters. We’ve seen a number of brilliant offerings from narrative change practitioners. Nicole Carty, Anthony Torres, Anat Shenker-Osorio and others have offered detailed messaging recommendations. Campaigners and policy organizations are making key demands of governments: protect the most vulnerable; support people, not corporations; emphasize care, solidarity and social good. Organizers are engaging their members, re-orienting their work to operate in a virtual environment.

Here are four ideas we have about approaching narrative strategy now. They build on the good thinking of our peers, Narrative Initiative’s large-scale social media listening over the last six months, and our team’s deep experience working with coalitions and individuals. These ideas are offered in the spirit of dialogue as we continue to work together to meet this moment.

1. This crisis will be fast and slow. We need a narrative strategy that can hold both.

In March, Congress passed its third COVID-19 relief package and may pass a fourth package as soon as this week. There are urgent needs to align messaging and organizing. Campaigns to shape federal legislation and local decision-making will impact the ability of millions of Americans to pay rent, receive medical care, feed their kids, stay safe, and eventually get back to work.

Though we are in an unprecedented moment, we’ve seen some of this before. The past – from the Great Recession to Hurricane Maria – shows us that the economic, public health and political impacts of this crisis will come in waves that will wash over us for years to come.

Let’s roll up our sleeves to build durable frames and narrative infrastructure for the long haul, even as we respond to immediate needs. We need to work now to ground our rapid response work in deep narratives capable of shifting values and worldviews. That way, we will set the stage for what’s to come months or even years from now.

How do we arrive at and maintain a long-term focus? We’ve seen emerging frameworks and principles that could act as narrative anchors. These principles lay the foundation to respond to the crisis now. If tended to, they also buttress a just recovery as we emerge from the pandemic. If we collaborate on a shared narrative, we can lead a movement for equity and justice that is greater than the sum of its parts.

At the same time, we urge people in the progressive space to be comfortable with disagreement. Some organizations are building a big tent. Others are holding a line on some of the boldest demands on the scene. That’s okay. We live in an ecosystem. We must remain in communication and maintain as much unity as we can across the broad coalition that’s needed to win.

2. Deep narratives, not just messaging

Long-term narrative strategy identifies the deep narratives at the heart of our work and finds ways to move them into the conversation. As we craft messages and stories, it’s important to think about how we’re simultaneously building out narratives that anchor our rapid response work and start pointing toward a different vision of the future.

By doing so, we can engage around even deeper narratives that underpin the structure of our society. Right now, we are seeing these areas surface as key places to engage:

• The role of governments and markets in a resilient society.
• The interplay between communities and individuals.
• The specificity of lived experience and how it is shaped by race, nationality, gender, and status.
• Who is essential, worthy, and valued (often defined through employment).
• “We can change!” or “We can’t change!”

Deep narrative in these areas underpin neoliberalism and have dominated global society for more than four decades (our entire lifetimes, dear readers). Neoliberal narratives elicit a sympathetic response in most people, even people who support transformative change.

It can take many, many conversations and engagements to begin shifting the way people, much less societies, hold deep narratives. But in times of crisis, they can shift much more rapidly, especially if we create space to talk about the Big Life Questions together. Here are some of the deep narrative currents that we think could be part of those conversations:

• Role of Government: Only governments are capable of providing truly universal access to essential goods. Markets are simply an inadequate way to provide access to what must be treated as common goods.
• Interdependence: Individual well-being depends on the health and security of the broader community. A fair society creates the conditions for each individual to flourish.
• Confronting inequality: Each of us is at risk during this crisis, but inequality increases harm done to those who are already suffering. Society as a whole is only as healthy and safe as its most vulnerable members.
• Value all work: People providing food, care, and safety are essential to society and should be valued, compensated and protected as such.
• We can change: Moments of great uncertainty show us how easy it can be to change our perspective and behavior. We are capable of doing great things together.

With millions of people out of work and millions more confronting sickness and death, now is a good time for organizations to build spaces for deeper engagement and conversation on these issues through political education, teach-ins, webinars, fun, jokes, and community building events.

3. Prepare for attacks we know are coming

Powerful dominant narratives reinforce the status quo and act as a barrier to building a society that meets our needs and allows people to flourish. That said, the best defense is a good offense.

The social media listening we engaged in this year spotlights the stories and messages being leveraged by those on the right to try and shape the COVID-19 narrative. Some of these themes are familiar to us and some are specific to the moment. Nearly all further long term conservative goals. Which is to say, there are moments we can anticipate and act on together if we use our infrastructure and make a plan. In that spirit here are some of the core narratives being utilized by our opposition:

Advancing a nationalist/America first agenda:

• China is responsible for the virus. They must be held accountable.
• We’re going to solve this problem in America. We won’t give or accept foreign aid. Blame WHO.
• Close all borders. Immigrants are responsible for the spread.

Only short term relief is possible. Restructuring the economy is opportunist:

• Save the corporations! They are the lifeblood of the economy.
• Temporary income subsidies, but no fundamental shifts around wages.
• Temporary emergency care, but no fundamental changes to our care system.

Competition and market-based solutions:

• It’s un-American to sacrifice freedom and the economy for public health; the strong will survive.
• Competition amongst states and individuals for resources, federal assistance, and healthcare practitioners.
• Advocating for opt-in private industry/celebrity contributions.

We can’t do anything ambitious because it is too costly:

• Who will pay for this?
• We will bankrupt the country.

Redbaiting and scapegoating:

• Socialist/communist labeling.
• Scapegoating vulnerable populations (Asian Americans, homeless Americans, urban areas).

4. Focus on values and building power

Conversations with partners in recent days have reminded us that it’s important to center narratives on values that build a bigger “we.” Don’t focus solely on policy solutions, however strong they might be. The pandemic is making the wisdom of this exhortation increasingly clear.

We’ve been using social media monitoring technology to analyze millions of tweets about COVID-19 and the Green New Deal over the last six months. We’ve seen progressives default to policy lists and hashtags that have little meaning beyond those who are not already convinced of their utility.

Conservatives, on the other hand, focus on driving home the overarching idea that investments in green jobs, medicare, and other programs are both too expensive and amount to socialism, an unwarranted encroachment on individual freedom. And, unlike many progressives, we’ve seen that conservatives drive this narrative home in a thousand funny messages that use humor and abundance of memes.

The pandemic, of course, doesn’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican, socialist or independent. A microscopic virus isn’t interested in whether you lean left or right, watch Rachel Maddow or Tucker Carlson. It also doesn’t care what hashtags you use. A pandemic reveals how utterly human we all are. Our role as a community is to meet people in a place of humanity, listen to them, and show them that there are other ways to see our world.

Our ability to reach outward and create common ground begins with a shared set of values. Research shows that partisan political identity is a key predictor of political behavior. Political brands and labels such as Medicare for All and Green New Deal may activate party-loyal identities and make folks more vulnerable to partisan polarization where there is actually common ground and shared values.

Indeed, on Twitter, we have seen almost complete symmetry between left and right messaging focused on the Green New Deal. The opportunity lies in breaking out of this partisan echo chamber by relating to the profound ways in which this crisis is impacting all of us.

That doesn’t mean not naming a “them” – a set of people who are responsible for the suffering we are seeing all around us. But we must articulate a big and generous “us.”

So let’s name those who are most responsible for aggravating this health crisis: the Trump Administration who spent months sitting on its hands, the market-based healthcare system that denies people of their basic right to lifesaving care, and others who are profiting politically by dividing everyday people against each other by race, nationality, immigration status, and religion.

And let’s name what we’re seeing from the big and generous “us.” Through our research and our teams’ own engagement in this new digital landscape we have seen people doing incredible things and making profound observations.

For example, people across class and partisan affiliations are labeling as essential a cross section of workers from healthcare and online retail to grocery clerks, food supply, and delivery drivers. There is a push to raise wages, provide safer working conditions and recognize that these are frontline workers in roles that keep society functioning.

Values reflected in equitable care can and should be reflected back on people in many ways. DJ Nice throws a digital party with no bouncer to confirm that you’re cool enough to get in. Parents and kids are seeing new stars in the sky as we let our cars rest idle in the drive. And a robust culture of mutual aid – sewing masks, cooking tutorials, delivery grocery to our elder family members and friends – has reasserted itself, as it has in many moments of crisis. The sacrifice and inventiveness of people is astonishing. The failure of our so-called leaders is equally astonishing.

Conclusion

We are living through an almost inconceivable moment in time. Many of us have already been touched by loss of loved ones, loss of income, loss of community and loss of security. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the world we’ve known until now has died. Trying to bring it back would be a mistake.

Now, more than ever, is a time for breaking out of our usual habits and siloed issue areas. We must come together to imagine what the world can become, when it is born anew.