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Throughout history, grand narratives—metanarratives arising from a society’s collective anxieties and aspirations, influencing its social, cultural, and political agency—have served as powerful instruments of political and ideological control. They have steered the course of history, defining the self-identity and agency of societies. The Greco-Persian Wars (499–449 BC) engendered an enduring civilisational divide rooted in assertions of superiority, shaping over two and a half millennia of the east-west dynamics, including almost five centuries of colonial politics. The grand narrative of Occidental superiority influences its relations with the Orient to the present day, attesting to its power and endurance in withstanding the vicissitudes of time. The ‘Manifest Destiny’ of the US, France’s ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ and the erstwhile Soviet Union’s emblematisation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s ‘Proletarians of all countries, unite!’ from ‘The Communist Manifesto’ (1848), not only shaped the politics, identity, and ambitions of their time but also informed the contemporary political agency.
The grand narrative of Occidental superiority influences its relations with the Orient to the present day, attesting to its power and endurance in withstanding the vicissitudes of time.
‘Manifest Destiny’ framed America’s westward expansion as both a divine and national imperative. This grand narrative justified a series of territorial acquisitions: the Louisiana Purchase (1803), the annexation of Texas (1845), the Oregon Trail migration, and the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), ultimately extending the US to the Pacific coast. The idea of an America with territoriality over extra-sovereign spaces like Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal expanding the ambit of US President Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ initiative, beyond economic nationalism remains a lingering echo of this grand narrative. Similarly, the tripartite motto ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’, the rallying ideal of the French Revolution, underpins modern debates on democracy and social justice. It has inspired political movements worldwide and even influenced the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the same vein, while the global appeal of international proletarian solidarity might have faded, its ideological essence endures within contemporary trade union movements, social justice movements, and anti-imperialist struggles.
Emotive appeal
The appeal of grand narratives lies in their ability to distil diverse existential anxieties—contemporaneous jobs, economy, immigration, territoriality, and national pride—into emotionally charged and resonant ideas that captivate the public imagination, forging powerful ideological frameworks. The unifying messages embedded in these grand narratives offer a shared purpose and the promise of a grand reward—something decades of policy discourse barely achieves. In the process, they transcend ideological divides and serve as the lens through which individuals interpret their social and moral imperatives, becoming powerful instruments of mass persuasion.
Former US President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign slogan ‘Let’s Make America Great Again’ which tapped into anxieties over stagflation at the time, and President Trump’s 2016 and 2024 presidential campaign slogans ‘Make America Great Again’ which resonated with contemporary cultural and economic anxieties helped both secure office. Such was the resonance of the grand narrative of American exceptionalism that it found traction even among the Democrats. For instance, Former US President Bill Clinton referenced the term several times during his successful 1992 presidential campaign. By the same token, ‘Take Back Control,’ the central theme of the ‘Vote Leave’ side during the Brexit referendum, tapped into the innate desire for sovereignty and self-determination and achieved what few thought possible – breaking Britain away from the European Union.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature ‘China Dream’ for the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ to raise his country from centuries of ‘humiliation’, to be achieved through ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, was as much meant to appeal to national pride as a tool for advancing his Sino-centric world order project.
Similarly, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature ‘China Dream’ for the ‘great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ to raise his country from centuries of ‘humiliation’, to be achieved through ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, was as much meant to appeal to national pride as a tool for advancing his Sino-centric world order project. Or, for that matter, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s idea of ‘Russkiy Mir’ or ‘Russian World’ to unify the vast territories outside Russia’s political boundaries that constitute the broader Russian civilisational and cultural sphere. Likewise, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s ‘Bolivarianism’—ostensibly drawing from Simon Bolivar’s struggle to free Venezuela from Spanish colonial yoke and encompassing a mix of pan-Hispanic, socialist, and nationalist ideals offered an alternative to American ideological domination of the South American continent influencing political movements beyond that country’s borders.
Social media propulsion
While grand narratives are an integral part of political agency, they have achieved greater potency with the rise of social media. Grand narratives, rooted in emotionally charged, oversimplified messaging, align seamlessly with the mechanics of social media, which thrives on byte-sized, emotionally appealing content. Algorithms prioritise content that generates engagement, force-multiplying grand narratives as they trigger strong emotional responses. This gives them traction and virality ensuring their sustenance far beyond their original political contexts. Sub-narratives of large-scale illegal immigration, joblessness, unfair trade relationships, and national security make deeply resonant emotional content, reinforcing ideological echo chambers and mobilising disparate publics.
During the Brexit campaign, for instance, ‘Vote Leave’ proponents’ claim that leaving the European Union would free up to £350 million per week for the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) became a viral talking point, despite being widely debunked. Similarly, in the Philippines, social media played a key role in popularising former President Rodrigo Duterte's ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, tapping into widespread concerns about crime and disorder. Supporters used social media to circulate content that justified the campaign's tactics and portrayed the police actions as heroic endeavours to safeguard communities from drug-related violence, shaping public perception in favour of the campaign.
Advanced AI-driven bots can exploit vulnerabilities in social media algorithms effectively by generating fake engagement metrics that manipulate algorithms and ensure that particular narratives rise to prominence to create the illusion of consensus, influencing mass agency and public policy.
The mass infusion of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) into this backdrop has made matters incendiary. Hyper-realistic AI-generated content, such as deepfakes, has made distinguishing between real and synthetic content impossible. Today, such synthetic content is often blended with user-generated content, producing vast amounts of seemingly authentic material, at scale. Advanced AI-driven bots can exploit vulnerabilities in social media algorithms effectively by generating fake engagement metrics that manipulate algorithms and ensure that particular narratives rise to prominence to create the illusion of consensus, influencing mass agency and public policy. Given their potency, AI-generated deepfakes and softfakes have become staples in political projects worldwide.
New attention economy
Beyond algorithmic machinations, the effectiveness of grand narratives against the backdrop of ubiquitous computing—the widespread integration of internet-enabled communication devices into daily life—is bolstered by the public’s diminishing patience for sophisticated policy discussions. This is further aggravated by ever-shrinking attention spans due to tech addiction. Endless scrolling, driven by the constant bombardment of notifications and short-form content on digital media—especially social media—conditions cognitive frameworks to seek brief stimulation rather than sustained engagement. The result is a sharp decline in the ability to concentrate for extended periods as individuals become accustomed to rapidly switching between different pieces of information. Today, it is estimated that the attention span of Millennials is about 12 seconds, while that of GenZ is about 8 seconds on digital media. This demographic between the ages 10 to 44 years comprises over half of the global population, 40 percent of the global workforce, the greatest swathe of political influencers on the planet, and the most extensive social media users.
Traditional political discourse naturally struggles to compete in this new digital reality replete with short, emotionally compelling, easily relatable content. Grand narratives require minimal cognitive effort to understand yet evoke strong personal and moral imperatives. The simplicity of slogans like ‘Build the Wall’—championed by President Trump as part of his tough immigration stance—allows them to resonate across diverse demographics, embedding themselves in public consciousness as powerful rallying cries. Compounding this is a broader erosion of public trust in mainstream institutions everywhere. Strong anti-incumbencies engendered by decades of self-serving political agendas have left many citizens disillusioned with the establishment. Social media’s democratisation of information and the ability to bypass thrifty traditional information gatekeepers lend unparalleled agency to alternative narratives, redistributing power, and coalescing disparate publics around grand narratives that hold out hope and promise.
Traditional media’s influence
While social media has undoubtedly accelerated the spread of grand narratives, traditional media still plays a crucial role in their legitimacy. Traditional media, driven by commercial considerations, often benefits from reinforcing grand narratives for reasons ranging from audience engagement to economic and political expediency. On one hand, grand narratives, with their clear calls to action and typically anti-incumbent sentiment, tap into the public’s latent anxieties, driving circulation and viewership, and boosting advertising revenues. On the other, media conglomerates, many of which have vested political and corporate interests, seek to align with narratives that serve their stakeholders' agendas.
Traditional media, driven by commercial considerations, often benefits from reinforcing grand narratives for reasons ranging from audience engagement to economic and political expediency.
In their book, ’Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media’ (1988) Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky make a compelling case for how the media actively shapes public perception by filtering information through ideological and economic interests. This symbiotic relationship between media institutions and political actors ensures that certain grand narratives receive sustained legitimacy, shaping public discourse and ideological direction. However, with traditional media increasingly playing second fiddle to social media in a morphed information landscape where immediacy triumphs over accuracy in the battle for eyeballs, the risk of contaminated and polarised digital media narratives infecting the traditional media and, by extension, the public discourse remains high.
Through the looking glass
Grand narratives provide the cognitive shorthand through which people make meaning of the world and their place in it, cutting through voluminous policy clutter. The convergence of media, technology, and populist messaging ensures that grand narratives transcend political slogans to become identity-defining frameworks with vast and lasting consequences. As digital media continues to evolve, grand narratives will gain more potency, making them a central force in the 21st-century political and cultural schema. The power to craft compelling narratives is no longer the preserve of a few. Disruptive actors, armed with the right tools and wrong motivations, lurk in the arena. With traditional information gatekeepers by the wayside and the vagaries of unregulated AI-powered content permeating political discourses on social media, the danger posed by disruptive, manufactured grand narratives is real and present. The line between organic sentiment and engineered consensus is already blurring, challenging the notion of informed choice. Shrinking attention spans leave little motivation to engage in any meaningful fact-checking, and such engineered narratives could very well become the defining crisis of the age. In the face of contested realities and hard-to-discern truths, the question is no longer whether grand narratives will shape the future but instead, who will control them and to what extent.
Jaibal Naduvath is Vice President and Senior Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
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