Our culture and society is one big story, a cult one might say, fiction or non-fiction our stories are leading us to a horror story of our final chapter: Industrial mass society.
Our story world is where we spend most of our psychological time. The self as it exists in this imaginary realm built from a collection of ideas about who we are. Our stories are built from times gone by, we are enacting stories made up and told from times of ignorance when climate change and environmental issues were unknown back when our societal stories were being authored.
Our evolution into Homo narrans, the storytelling animal, is the secret of our success. Like other animals, humans exist in a realm of survival in which we seek sustenance, safety and procreation. But, uniquely, we also live in a second realm, a story world that’s made out of the collective imagination.
‘The human brain isn’t especially interested in truth. It’s not a fact-finder, but a story processor.’
The truth gives way to stories and false narratives that blind us to reality. We pacify ourselves with lies made into truths through deceptive sophistry.
We need to rewrite the uncomfortable truths of our current story into new stories of change, of hope of a future where nature and humanity can co-exist without chronic war and exploitation.
work in progress.