When it comes to politics or business, some times the numbers work for you, and sometimes the narrative is the wind in your sails. Either way, narrative and numbers are a single sword with two equally sharp edges. In one of my professional lives I did statewide needs assessments and insisted that the work be a balance of narrative and numbers. Politicians and providers who felt the numbers (“metrics”) ruled the day and those who worked strictly from the story didn’t fit the process. Congress or state legislatures could use either edge of this sword to sink worthy aspiration. We live in a time when numbers are losing their power and there are two conflicting stories are at each other’s throat. Runaway narrative or numbers could lead beyond the tipping point to a disastrous authoritarian government.

Narrative (qualitative inputs), properly and carefully worked, fill out the true context of a society.  Narrative describes and holds motivation. The stories that build the narrative from true context tell you what is being ‘felt-to-be needed’ which is a sense of things that does not bridge contradiction.  Ignore the narratives of need, regardless if true or not, pleasant or not, and you can light your next campfire with the numbers.  But valid numbers point to a trend direction that, barring Black Swans or radical intervention, will almost certainly come true.  In our age, a near voting majority ‘feel’ an overpowering need for climate change not to be true, but the numbers (quantitative) are proving sadly and tragically to be right on.  The critical response system is stymied.  In this instance the unregarded narrative needs may just trump the numbers to our collective peril.

Yes, it appears now that needy delusion could rule the day and run us off the cliff. What if we had been for the past years approaching this stalemate from both sides; the genuine inquiry into the need for denial and building a consensus for the execution of the mutually accepted numbers. We have been waiting for a winner and that won’t happen in time. There is a felt-to-be-needed state that seems to rule today and desperately needs attention. In a close horse race the jockey doesn’t decide to change muddy goggles on the last turn. So it is with this election. Whoever wins this one wins for better or worse. But in the next phase of our country we need to listen to the stories of need and we need to tell the stories of our own true needs. We can process the numbers in the resolution of needs. They are the same thing, but have different root paths. That said I believe the human heart, sense of personal efficacy, and dignity are the ultimate rulers of any society. Forget that and I think you can forget the rest.