Under the Influence of Stories
From fairy tales to propaganda to conspiracy theories
“Who tells the story creates the world.”
~ Christopher Ryan, Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress
Storytelling, as an art, traces back to the beginning of our human origins. Starting with cave drawings it evolved to oral tellings and then, of course, to the written word.
Stories run the gamut from fairy tales, fables, parables, allegories, myths, legends, and folk tales. These ancient stories survive for thousands of years, traversing geography, time, and space to share their journeys, lessons, wisdom, and secrets.
Creation stories explain how we humans got here. Were we created from the navel of some great god? From a cosmic egg? Or did we come from nothing? Creation stories, bereft of scientific evidence, are meant to provide a reason for our existence and a direction for our lives. Some people know that these are merely stories that can offer a sense of grounding in an otherwise fathomless existence. Other people believe these stories to be literally true and turn their creation stories into religions. What is one person’s eager virgins waiting upon death is another person’s Divine birth from a virgin. Many creation myths come with a free toy at the bottom of the box: a code of ethics or a…
