The Power Of Stories

While I was preparing for this article, I came to find that the subject matter is multifaceted. So, I should hope that I don’t digress too far from the topic of discussion. But, regardless of how far I stray, I’ll do my best to make it relevant to the subject matter. If you are a new reader, I hope you stick around, and if you are a returning reader, thank you for being here. I hope you enjoy this.

Psychoanalysis deals mostly with the unconscious human mind. Under psychoanalysis, an archetype is defined as a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors, and supposed to be present in the collective unconscious. Instantly, this already refutes Aristotle’s idea that humans are born as “tabula rasa”, which translates roughly into “empty slates”. An archetype, in simple English, is the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based.

Dunbar’s hypothesis believed that homo sapiens’ communicative ability was developed, mostly out of the need to gossip. And since humans could interact better, we’ve consciously been trying to make sense of the world. The question of “Why are we here?” is an existential question that lingers at the back of every rational human’s head, even today. This partly gave birth to nihilism(the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless).

The rationalization of human existence, in relation to gods, the natural world, and human knowledge, gave birth to philosophy. But way before the ancient Greeks, humans interacted with the world through stories. Stories are powerful.

Humans share 99% of DNA with chimpanzees, and unlike them, we managed to exceed 200 in number. To simplify that explanation, zoologists have noted that chimpanzees can only exist in bands of 15–150(200)members.

Today, China has a population of 1.4 billion people. The best thing that keeps them together is nationalism, which means; loyalty and devotion to a nation. This far supersedes individual or group interests. Which makes it an ideal that can bind multiple people with varying interests under something greater than all of them. A God, if you will.

So, like most countries today have nationalism, which is above all else… Primitive humans, to co-exist, had to form some sort of relationship with the natural world. Animism — the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates the material universe — was the earliest form of worship. People would exist together to worship the tallest tree, largest mountain, biggest river, the rain, etc…

Humans have existed for millions of years, worshipping different deities and idols. We had our first monotheistic religion, in the form of Zoroastrianism, until some 4,000 years ago. It was a prevalent religion in the Persian Empire. This gave way to other monotheistic religions like Judaism, Islam and, Christianity.

Just like how the “Rule of Law”, in most democracies, is above everyone… It also has an archetype of a model or an “upright citizen”. Which in turn, are called Duties And Obligations; paying taxes, obeying the law, etc… In major religions like Islam and Christianity, this archetype is in form of a person.

Muhammad, and Jesus Christ, respectively. The legal system has a constitution, which has a list of things to do and things to not do, it is constantly updated over time. Christians and Muslims have the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran. Other religions have their books as well, which dictate how to live right.

Stories are important. What you read, see, listen to… They continually update your model of existence. Stories help us formulate permanent parts of our character. It ultimately becomes a structure through which we view the world. As humans, we are nested inside moral systems. They afford us how we should live our lives, because we must conduct ourselves in the right ways, ethically and morally speaking.

To a large extent, important stories that have ever existed have come to be encapsulated down to the most memorable aspect of it. Or a “moral of the story”. Out of all of that, do we have things as clichéd/hackneyed/overused expressions? The quote “veni vidi vici” by Julius Caesar, for example, means “I came, I saw, I conquered”… It was used all the way back in 46BC, but it is currently 21st(2,000 years later), and the quote still survives.

This is how most fairy tales with moral stories have been passed down for generations too. Usually orally. I think a good percentage of people today assign cunningness to the tortoise, cleverness to the fox, brute force to the lion, etc. We created these archetypes to better understand the world.

Carl Jung said, “Everybody acts out a myth, but very few people know what their myth is. And you should know what your myth is because it might be a tragedy and maybe you don’t want it to be”. As humans, we have a proclivity for the divine. Most people, whether religious or non-religious, can’t help but shout “Thank God”, whenever something good happens to them. We act out a myth. Whether we know it or not. You are either in love with what you know, or what you don’t. So, pick your love carefully, because there are a lot of things you don’t know.

Whatever you find valuable, is a hint to your unconscious value system. Especially of qualities you find admirable in another person. Sort of like models; Jesus, Messi, Spiderman, Naruto… We act these out because we go to church and mosque to update our model of existence, by listening to a preacher or an imam.

We go to comic-con to be like our favourite characters, and we dress in the movies as our favourite superheroes. We act out these preconceived notions. To our ancestors, it’ll be a form of ritual. But to us today, it is entertainment.

The Bible and Quran are libraries of stories that have been written and re-written for years, whether these stories don’t mean anything, is primarily up to you. But as by-products of the two major religions, they’ve been widely accepted as a precondition of the manifestation of truth.

In essence, we have a low resolution of our understanding of reality. Our exposure to other understanding of being, helps us navigate our ways through life. But by exposing yourself to other stories, you can derive your own philosophy. Rather than being someone that has no understanding of what it is he truly “believes”.

Such people are those included in the quote by Karl Marx. Where he said, “religion is the opium of the masses”. In his philosophy, he hopes to have it replaced by a different ideology; socialism. Which, if you ask me, is the “cocaine of the masses”. Mostly because it equally promises a paradise of some sort, where everyone is equal and everybody lives peacefully. This idea, of course, is appealing to the masses. Just tell them rich people didn’t get rich by their hard work, but by exploiting the poor.

Wouldn’t you rally behind a messiah that is ready to take out all the “bourgeoisie”? It follows the notion of good and bad in the first genesis, where Cain kills Abel out of spite and jealousy. But of course, if you are reading this and you’ve never heard of the horrors of socialism/communism.

It resulted in the deaths of over 2 million in Cambodia, 27 million in Soviet Russia, 40–80 million in China, 2 million in Ethiopia, 2 million in North Korea, etc… All of these happened in the 20th century. I think the point here is that you should understand the ideology which you follow.

Friedrich Nietzsche warned that after the fall of Christianity(or major religions thereof), people must learn to craft an identity or a value system. After the 1648 treaty of Westphalia that solved the conflicts concerning the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, religion, and the state system of Europe…

Most European states adopted secularism(separation of religion from the state, which in turn led to people having different kinds of values outside the traditional Christian values. In the 20th century alone, we developed major ideologies like nazism, fascism, and communism… Today, there is LGBT+, Antifa, and the like. These values are attractive to people that score high on the “openness, and agreeableness” personality traits.

The best stories are told in songs. Drama is the final stage of any form of literature. Lion King, for example, is based on an Egyptian myth. Where Simba is Horus, Mufasa is Osiris, and Scar is Seth. Fun fact, Seth later came to be used as Satan in Christian myth. Zazu is the eyes of Horus because he flies everywhere and reports to the king, the all-seeing eye. If you will. It is the same eye on the Illuminati’s logo. The same eye at the top of the pyramid is on the dollar note.

Anyway, stories that have existed for years and have been passed down by generations, we still act them out. Archetypes. We just retell the stories differently. I recently saw a fantastic movie; The Northman(2022). Very interesting movie. It followed the same Egyptian myth of Osiris(good king), killed by Seth(evil brother), and now Horus(the son) must wander outside of his father’s kingdom(order), and into dangerous/foreign lands(chaos), where he will become stronger and then return to claim his rightful throne.

I saw a stage playat the University of Ibadan this year(2022), where this same archetype was being played out, but differently. As humans, we’ve learnt to immortalize stories in statues and pictures/portraits.

I saw another movie recently; King of Thieves(2022), where the opening scene was a bunch of people walking into an art gallery, and they were met by a man who narrated events that are behind the man in one of the portraits. The events were the movie. It was so beautiful to see. A picture, indeed, could tell a thousand words.

This article is supposed to be of 3 segments, but it is already too long, so I might end up writing the other two in a separate article. Alright… Since I’m talking about movies, I should like to end this article with a scene from one of my favourite scenes from “The Boondocks”, where a character voiced by Samuel L Jackson was explaining to Riley Freeman that; “There are known knowns and there are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns, things we don’t know that we don’t know.”.

Today, we are still trying to explore and make sense of the world. The more you learn, the more you know. The more you know, the less you know. Socrates believed that no one does wrong voluntarily. “Evil is the result of ignorance”, he said. You need to expand your horizon of understanding. Stories are how you do this. Or more predominantly, history. Those who don’t know their histories are bound to make the same mistakes as before.

Socrates also claimed that “Ignorance is the beginning of wisdom”. You must understand that your scope of understanding is limited to your house, community, state, religion, country, etc… You know nothing. You must seek to understand the world. That’s why children are sent to school. That’s why you are reading this article, I think.

The more rightly guided you consume information the more you stay in form. In essence, becoming informed. Reading is how you do that. This is not a trick to get you to read my other articles, and maybe subscribe to my page to also read my other articles. Or is it? xoxo

On that note, I hope I’ve been able to deliver. Thank you for reading my article. It gladdens my heart that anyone would even read this far. Thank you, truly. If I’ve been able to keep you this long, I think you’ll enjoy my previous articles. You should check them out. I’ve written on Overpopulation, Underpopulation, Men, Women, The War In Ukraine, and Why Some People Are Richer Than Everyone Else. This is my seventh article thus far. I write every week.

I would love to know in the comments, whether you prefer long or short articles, and also your opinions. Most importantly, share the link with your friends, the more engagements I get, the more I’m pumped to write more. So, copying and sharing the link goes far in helping me. Thank you. See you next Friday!

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