After the Death of Old Stories

There is a certain madness in the air that goes beyond the facts and circumstances that have occupied our attention recently. The divisive arguments at center stage throughout the world, whether over Brexit or Donald Trump or Israel, are not about Brexit or Donald Trump or Israel, really. These and other focal issues are but symbolic representations; archetypes, so to speak, for our broader hopes for the future - about the kind of future that we want and the kind of future that we don't want. The differences between us are more about what kind of people we think we are and the kind of people we think others are. In essence, the fight is over myths, representations, and stories of the world as it is and as we want it to be.

Standing back and viewing the world from above, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are approaching an episode that dwarfs the parochial concerns of the outcome of certain elections or political arrangements between nations. We are facing a shift of historic proportions, one the likes of which the planet has not witnessed for a long time. It is a shift that will not only change the planet, but lead to unprecedented cultural and political upheaval.

We make hugely erroneous assumptions with our outlook that the future will likely be an extension of the recent past, ignoring the long version of history periodically punctuated by turmoil, upheaval, and calamity. All around us the standard world view is beginning to collapse as we close our eyes and attempt to hold the high ground. The Romans did not see it coming, nor the Indus Valley civilization or the Ur of Chaldea or the followers of Amun Ra in Egypt. While the arc of justice prevailed in favor of their worldview for a long period, each would unexpectedly succumb to being little more than a footnote in history.

Our narratives about culture, history, and our continued successful march of progress are feeling the pressure of imminent existential challenge. The arguments we bring to bear over divisive issues are symptomatic of a larger malaise. The stories upon which we base are world are developing cracks and beginning to die. The stories, myths, and representations we have been pretending to believe about the world are turning out not to be true. More lies are yet to drop. More damage is inevitably on its way.

The stories we tell today will soon no longer hold up the world. We are being pushed to the margins to come up with new narratives, stories built from what we know in our hearts the world is capable of. The only way to successfully move through the ensuing madness is to write new stories. The time is ripe to write new stories because the old ones are already half-dead. Before we are consumed by our own anger we need to walk up the mountain, sit quietly, and pay close attention.

All great religions, philosophies, art forms, and political ideologies originate at the margins. The marginal figures behind innovative ways of thinking and doing things realized that when things get bad you need to go to the edges to gain perspective on the turmoil that is consuming the world. Abdicating the accepted collapsing norm is not an abandonment of public responsibility, but just its opposite. It is a time, now, for each of us to go into the forest in search of new ideas and understandings to bring back to share with a world at large that will not survive without them.

We are at an historic crisis point. We are called to go to the margins and write the new stories. Look closely at the tall tales being spun by the media and cultural standard-bearers and arbiters. Note the deficiencies and write an alternative story line along a new path that others can follow. Build a narrative that runs headlong into the crisis and articulate what is needed now. Listen to the artists and philosophers at the edges of the world that scream for our attention. Listen and learn from them, for they often see the world of potentiality more clearly. Imagine what kind of world is possible after the death of the old stories. Then begin to write a new one.