Is it possible that the most dangerous weapon in the entire world is a story? It’s a proposition that carries more weight than most might imagine.
If you’ve ever wondered why ‘controlling the narrative’ has become such a common phrase, it’s because as never before, people are becoming aware of the fact that they are perpetually immersed in an information war upon which the nature and values of their culture is being contested.
Behind the West’s growing dystopian zeitgeist has been a concerted effort on the part of the American entertainment industry to hijack the great stories and heroes of the distant and recent past. From stories about the American revolution to the sci-fi and fantasy realm of Superman and Star Trek, the promotion of heroism has virtually been abandoned, and with it, any concept or clarity about what distinguishes good from evil.
However, as one blogger recently observed, “The morally grey narrative is not a reflection of the real world at all.” It’s a comment that certainly accounts for the huge losses following so many current theatre releases, while rare exceptions to the ‘morally grey’ trend are still reaping profits.
Clearly, if there’s a recurring theme to what seems to constitute popular stories, it is that of heroism and the hero himself. This is understandable, given that wherever heroism is involved, so too is the ‘great polarity’ made visible: right versus wrong, good versus evil, moral versus immoral, love versus fear – and of course, in politics, Right versus Left.
Just as words and concepts serve as the ‘software’ of the individual human mind, stories reflect the moral ‘operating system’ of civilizations.
What the West now needs more than ever is an army of story tellers, weaponized with heroic stories dramatizing the values known to be Just Right.
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