In George Monbiot's recent Ted talk he turns to the question of stories. There is one interesting distinction he makes between stories that bridge communities versus stories that bond one community in opposition to others. His main thrust concerns the need for restoration stories. He makes a compelling case, showing how the power of stories transport us. But restoration stories are still stories of struggle and fighting and overturning an old order to establish a new bargain to be negotiated by atomized parties. In this he falls into the same trap he wants to warn us about. We suffer a poverty of imagination, a failure of imagination; but his critique does not leave these scant environs. We need to look deeper. The connection and the dynamic between our stories and the myths they serve and defend is part of the problem. The other aspect we need to look at is our predicament that all of the myths currently in circulation share common assumptions out of alignment with reality. Simply put, they ignore and discount our capacities to change. They all expect us to be able to find some way to transform the world to our liking instead of finding how we might transform our liking to be in accord with the limits and possibilities within which existence actually does unfold.
Change
Change
Change
In George Monbiot's recent Ted talk he turns to the question of stories. There is one interesting distinction he makes between stories that bridge communities versus stories that bond one community in opposition to others. His main thrust concerns the need for restoration stories. He makes a compelling case, showing how the power of stories transport us. But restoration stories are still stories of struggle and fighting and overturning an old order to establish a new bargain to be negotiated by atomized parties. In this he falls into the same trap he wants to warn us about. We suffer a poverty of imagination, a failure of imagination; but his critique does not leave these scant environs. We need to look deeper. The connection and the dynamic between our stories and the myths they serve and defend is part of the problem. The other aspect we need to look at is our predicament that all of the myths currently in circulation share common assumptions out of alignment with reality. Simply put, they ignore and discount our capacities to change. They all expect us to be able to find some way to transform the world to our liking instead of finding how we might transform our liking to be in accord with the limits and possibilities within which existence actually does unfold.