Deep stories exert power precisely because they go unnoticed

Evidence

Cultural frameworks are the scaffolding on which human interaction and societies form. They consist of the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, how we came to be, and where we are going. Christian nationalism is a deep story. Cultural frameworks and deep stories contain the symbols, narratives, and traditions that unite us and dramatize the values we hold dear. Oftentimes we don’t even notice them. They just are. And to the extent that deep stories are taken for granted, they are most powerful. — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 143

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the framework of cultural frameworks and deep stories taken for granted.
• XREF: Recalls the ethnography Deep Stories by Arlie Hochschild on the Louisiana bayou — same vocabulary, same mechanism of unexamined narrative. — connects to: Jeremiads work through crisis fear, golden-age nostalgia, and calls to renewed action — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 339; Master-narratives persist unconsciously rather than disappearing outright — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 43; A mass medium’s hidden message can bypass conscious resistance and insert itself — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 222 (+6 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• A mass medium’s hidden message can bypass conscious resistance and insert itself #corroborates (0.82) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 222
• Mass passivity enables a power structure whose illusion resists objective unmasking. #corroborates (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 163
• Master-narratives persist unconsciously rather than disappearing outright #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 43
• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence #corroborates (0.75) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38
• Power conceals itself through intense effort, not through passivity #qualifies (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 651
• Obscurity can disguise banality as depth #qualifies (0.72)
• The power to not-see is constitutive of seeing itself #expands (0.72)