Facts get in the way of progress. Fiction, or what is more fashionably called ‘the narrative,’ is the foundation for our great society.
Maryland State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced this week that second-degree murder was among the charges being brought against the six police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who later died as a result of injuries sustained while in custody on April 12.
Legal experts say it will be extremely difficult for Mosby to get a guilty verdict on such steep charges, given that the currently known facts of the case don’t appear to bear the weight of such a heavy charge.
But if Mosby’s words are any indication of how the case will proceed, facts will likely take a back seat to political motivations and calls for racial justice. What has been, for the most part, a methodical and evidence-driven justice system may now be shifting to one driven by social unrest and political ambition—neither of which are beholden to concrete realities.
Facts are now irrelevant. They tend to get in the way of progress. Fiction, or what is more fashionably called “the narrative,” is the foundation for our great society—and what a more vibrant, tolerant, positive society it is! Or conversely, what a tragic, hellish, frightful world we inhabit. They are both equally valid perspectives, depending on our social and political goals.
I’ll tell the story, since we are so enamored of narratives of late, of how facts passed away into the dark void of historical insignificance.
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