Conjecture

Joining a story cheaply is not the same as getting a part in it: when the story assigns the newcomer a fixed subordinate role, membership is nominal and the joiner cannot build a self inside it. Ansary's ch. 17: "the natives could abandon their own ways, accept baptism, and join the church. Many did. But this didn't make them the fellow Christians of the conquistadors." "The narrative they were joining assigned to them the role of stud worker" (transcript as written), and they "faced quite a challenge constructing a healthy sense of self within this framework." Clay's step: for a commons, an open door is not enough; the roles with standing, and the credit that goes with them, have to be reachable by newcomers, or the open story is a closed one with a cheap entrance.

Stories that make people act