Two Narratives

 By Will Bledsoe Ph.D. (2026)

From: The Restorative Way: Harnessing the Power of Restorative Communication to Mend Relationships, Heal Trauma, and Reclaim Civility One Conversation at a Time (Bledsoe, 2024).

[Note: One of the consequences of working in the field of restorative practices (i.e., justice, school conduct, conflict management, etc.) is that it opens our eyes to those stories that either celebrate diversity and promote inclusion, or condemn diversity and promote exclusion. Both worldviews are "narratives" and narratives embody statements about who we are as human beings.]

     There are two foundational narratives being told in America. One is a fear-based narrative where diversity is interpreted as a threat. The other narrative is one that recognizes the necessity of diversity for our survival as a species and a nation. It is a fear-less narrative that celebrates diversity with encouragement, invitation, and engagement. These narratives are not new. They do seem to matter more now than ever in this moment of radical uncertainty in our country.

     The fear-based narrative is disintegrative. Its power depends on tearing people apart and casting us as enemies of each other. It is an adversarial narrative. The fear-less narrative is integrative. It is an advocacy narrative. Its power emerges from continuous engagement and recognition of shared humanity.

     The fear-based narrative is a protectionist narrative. It's a narrative that exalts sameness, gentrification, and uniformity. Immigration, integration, and inclusion are deemed "threats" and thus, rhetorically weaponized by political actors to incite terror, foment racism, separatism, and build barriers. Its ultimate logic is one of violence, retribution, dominance, and control.

     It’s the illusion that exclusion is the only way. To make and keep America “great” we have to keep “those people” out—even if it means ripping children from the arms of mothers and fathers and putting them in cages. It capitalizes on fear and condones violence on some of the most vulnerable populations.

     This is a dark, dangerous, and world-destroying narrative that can only exist in a morally bankrupt discourse rife with hatred, dehumanization, bigotry, and bitterness. Like all terror narratives, its power depends on exploiting a primal instinct for survival.

     It does so with stories that demonize difference. Its power as a narrative relies on the convolution and/or suppression of truth and voice. It’s an offensive discourse designed to divide, deceive, and dissolve democracy. It’s a bitter narrative that produces bitter people.

     The fearless narrative values and embraces diversity, social ecology, social justice, and the awareness that integration is the process by which diversity feeds a healthy social organism. Immigration, integration, and inclusion are not expressions of “liberal idealism,” but understood as necessary nutrients to a prosperous and vibrant social ecosystem. 

     It would be easy to dismiss what I’m saying as theoretical indulgence and that any discussion about these two narratives is best suited for a “woke” academic setting. But in fact, these two narratives represent two competing worldviews, two mindsets with fundamentally different core beliefs about life, the purpose of relationships, and what it means to be human that concretely and physically impact us everyday. 

The fearless narrative invites any and all people to share their perspective and voice. The fear-based narrative tells you to ‘shut-up.’

     Where these two narratives become real, current, tangible, and felt is in our day-to-day lived experience of each other in our families, schools, institutions, and workplaces, communities, and our relationship with the environment. What do we want that experience to be? If we choose the "fearless narrative", how do we demonstrate that? How does that "play out" in our interaction with each other?

     Narratives, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves (consciously or not) have consequences. They direct our thinking, behavior, choices, decisions, and our regard for each other. Narratives impact our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and environmental health. Rather than simply being “stories” or myths that describe or represent an ‘imagined reality,’ narratives create that reality in how they direct human behavior.

     Understanding the power of narratives, accepting that they are not “just stories” but blueprints for how to be in relationship with ourselves, each other, and our world, presents us with a few questions.

     First, which narrative would we rather inhabit and move forward? If you’re reading this book, there’s a good chance you much prefer the fear-less narrative.

     Second, where do you see these two narratives playing out? Part of what this book has tried to accomplish is to help you spot the signs of a fear-based narrative and mindset. Those signs are evident just about everywhere we train our eyes. They’re observable in how we parent; our leadership and management styles; our behavioral policies in our workplaces and institutions; how we resolve conflict and misconduct; how we achieve justice; how we regard and reconcile history; how we relate to the environment and our environmental policies, school curriculums and classrooms; and how we relate to ourselves.

     Third, and what this book has primarily been about, how do we change the narrative? How do we break from a fear-based paradigm and shift to a fear-less paradigm? What’s it going to take? It’s been my argument and experience that one way is by restorative communication practices.

     What happens when we make that shift? What are the outcomes? What are the principles and practices that make that shift possible? What resistance and objections can we expect as we work to shift our approach from a fear-based mentality to a fear-less experience? What will the ‘betwixt and between’ stage look and feel like? What will we become? Who will we choose to be?

     Lastly, and most importantly, the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Are we willing to do the necessary personal and collective soul-searching and work to make that shift? Are we willing to embrace our own fears, face them, recognize that we all have them, learn from them, and support each other to move full-heartedly and restoratively forward? Not just with those who agree with us, but those who only know and/or believe that fear and dominance are the only way. Are we willing to embark on the restorative way with them?” Somebody’s got to do it. Why not us?