Narrative War: The Philosophy of Social Contract
Sunday, January 25th, 2026, via Zoom at 2:30 pm CT
When we try to understand what is happening in the world, the more frustrated we often become, for our knowledge leads to feelings of powerlessness. We feel that we are living in a world in which the citizen has become a mere spectator or a forced actor, and that our personal experience is politically useless and our political will a minor illusion. Very often, the fear of total permanent war paralyzes the kind of morally oriented politics, which might engage our interests and our passions. We sense the cultural mediocrity around us – and in us – and we know that ours is a time when, within and between all the nations of the world, the levels of public sensibilities have sunk below sight; atrocity on a mass scale has become impersonal and official; moral indignation as a public fact has become extinct or made trivial.
~ C. Wright Mills, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University
The philosophy of social conflict is based on the theory that groups compete for more scarce resources (power, wealth, status), driven by inherent tensions, not consensus, with powerful groups dominating weaker ones, making conflict the engine for social change.
Brian L. Steed, PhD, Associate Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS, and the author of Narrative War: The Philosophy of Social Contract, will discuss the six big ideas associated with narrative war and the basic strategy and critical questions necessary for understanding, conducting, and ideally winning narrative war.
What is a Narrative War? Narrative war was born out of Steed’s personal experiences dealing with 9/11, serving within and with Arab armies and planning for the Battle of Mosul to defeat ISIS. His book has been almost twenty-five in the making, with ten years dedicated to thinking, planning, teaching, speaking, and advocating for a new approach to war – narrative war – against groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and The Taliban.
The events of 2020 and 2024 in the form of elections, COVID-19, protests and marches, and violent actions against governmental events and buildings, led him to understand that narrative war is more than military war; it’s a philosophy which explains all forms of social conflict. The big ideas, basic strategy, and critical questions necessary for understanding, conducting, and ideally winning narrative war are all parts of what is inside. Narrative War also provides a philosophical understanding of narrative war ideas and concepts using multiple examples of its conduct in the real world.
Register for this presentation at: https://tinyurl.com/3hbz4bj7. Even if you can’t attend the live Theodore Talk lecture and discussion, as long as you register in advance you will receive a link to the Zoom recording of the entire event. All Theodore Talks have closed captioning enabled and this year we are offering Translated Captions as well.
A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the American Mensa National Events Calendar at: https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar/, or by viewing the January issue of the Mensa Bulletin. Thank you for your support of the Theodore Talk lecture series which is offered free to all Mensa members in an effort to provide more value to Mensa membership.
In addition, Theodore Talk lectures are now being made possible by the generosity and financial support of Life Member Dr. Mark Cohen.
Brad Lucht & Shirley Mouer – Theodore Talks Co-Chairs
Questions? Contact Brad Lucht at: [email protected]
