The Dark Side of Storytelling: From Innocence to Propaganda

Exploring the Dual Nature of Stories: Both Its Creative Potential and Its Capacity for Harm. They can Shape Perceptions, Manipulate Truths, or Transform our Future.

Human beings have evolved through oral storytelling. Until the advent of the printing press and later the technologies that gave us television and the internet, we communicated through oral traditions alone. We possessed early writings from Mesopotamia and the Roman times, but most were for accounting purposes. The earliest known writing originated with the Sumerians about 5500 years ago. Writing was not invented for the storytelling of the great conquests of kings or important legal documents. The earliest known writing documented simple commercial transactions.

A quote by Edward Miller illustrates what stories were meant to impact: “Stories are our primary tools of learning and teaching, the repositories of our lore and legends. They bring order into our confusing world. Think about how many times a day you use stories to pass along data, insights, memories, or common-sense advice.”

It is widely known that around 700 B.C., there is evidence of the first recorded stories, including the Iliad by Homer. The fact that these stories were recorded enabled them to spread quickly. Other surviving stories are still widely known today, including Aesop’s Fables. Without the written language to record these stories that originated as person-to-person tales, they may not have made it across the centuries.

There is however a hidden side to stories. It is the distortion and confusion it can bring to our consciousness. The first thing to remember is that a story is not a fact. Oh, it can be beautiful and entertaining, even captivating. The point is that a story is a tale. Truth is not necessary, let alone accuracy. Hence, its potential danger. Courtrooms are filled with one story against the other, and it is up to the judge and jury to hunt for the facts to render a verdict. If not held accountable, stories destroy reputations, hurt families, bankrupt companies, etc.

The “dark side” of storytelling highlights the potential for distortion, confusion, and even manipulation that storytelling can bring. Here are a few examples that illustrate the dangerous aspects of stories:

Propaganda: Throughout history, stories have been used as powerful tools for propaganda. During times of war, governments and leaders often craft narratives that demonize the “so-called” enemy and glorify their own actions, at the expense of truth.

Adolf Hitler’s propaganda, orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels, was rooted in the narrative of Aryan supremacy and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The Nazis spread the story of the “Jewish threat,” claiming that Jews were the source of all Germany’s problems, from economic woes to moral decay. This false narrative was embedded in every aspect of German society through films, newspapers, books, and even children’s school curriculums. Jews were depicted as subhuman and parasites, reinforcing the idea that their extermination was necessary for the survival of the Aryan race. This relentless propaganda paved the way for the Holocaust, where six million Jews were systematically exterminated.

Stories from religious texts can be interpreted in various ways, and sometimes they are used to justify extreme actions. For instance, during the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, the narrative of witchcraft as a satanic practice was used to justify the torture and execution of thousands of innocent people, mostly women. Fueled by religious fervor and stories of demonic possession and evil spells, communities across Europe and North America burned alleged witches at the stake, believing they were eradicating a great threat to their faith and society. This tragic chapter in history shows how religious narratives can be twisted into tools of fear and oppression, leading to unimaginable cruelty.

Conspiracy theories are essentially stories that offer alternative explanations to widely accepted events, often without any factual basis. These narratives can be particularly dangerous as they foster distrust in institutions, spread misinformation, and in extreme cases, incite violence. The rise of Islamist extremist groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), and Boko Haram demonstrates the dark power of propaganda in radicalizing individuals and spreading terror. These groups have masterfully crafted narratives that exploit religious and political grievances to justify violence and recruit followers.

ISIS propaganda depicted the West as enemies of Islam, corrupting the faith and oppressing true believers. Through slick online videos, social media campaigns, and magazines like Dabiq, ISIS spread gruesome images and videos of executions, alongside messages that glorified martyrdom and jihad.

The effectiveness of this propaganda lay in its ability to tap into real grievances-such as foreign intervention in the Middle East-and channel them into a narrative that justified extreme violence. By framing terrorism as a sacred duty, Al-Qaeda was able to recruit and radicalize followers across the globe, leading to a wave of deadly attacks that have claimed thousands of lives.

Benito Mussolini used propaganda to build the story of the Fascist state as the revival of the Roman Empire, with himself as the modern-day Caesar. Mussolini’s regime glorified war, nationalism, and the power of the state through films, newsreels, and mass rallies. The propaganda machine portrayed Mussolini as the embodiment of the will of the Italian people, emphasizing strength, discipline, and obedience. This narrative suppressed dissent, justified aggressive military expansion, and led to brutal repression of political opponents, ethnic minorities, and colonial subjects, particularly in Africa, where Italian forces committed atrocities under the guise of bringing civilization and order.

These examples illustrate how stories, when unhindered from truth and accountability, can become tools of manipulation, fear, and division. They remind us of the importance of critical thinking and the need to distinguish between narratives that enrich our understanding and those that distort it.

Beware of stories, for they dominate the world consciousness. We traffic in so many stories, interpretations, complaints, certainties, hearsays, explanations, renditions, evaluations, opinions, gossips, beliefs, ratings, assessments, measurements, estimations, protests, claims, reports, narrations, news and scoops, analyses, appraisals, predictions, judgments, projections, guesses, estimations, rumors, fake news, and conspiracy theories.

Seeing where we traffic in our minds is paramount to transcending lower levels of awareness. These constructs deprive us of our natural ability to access our intuition and instincts. In this clutter, we become blind and deaf, believing we need a story to exist.

In our relentless pursuit of stories, we lose sight of the reality beneath them. We are not the tales we tell, nor the lies we believe. We can see the world as it is-raw, and unfiltered.

As Napoleon observed and wrote in his memoirs, ‘History is just a set of lies that nobody dares to dispute.’ Our consciousness is buried in stories through mythology, religion, philosophy, and literature binding us to illusions and delusions. But to awaken is to see the world as it truly is, beyond the narratives and fit-all explanations. Only then can we begin to reclaim our true nature. It’s time to break the spell and step into the light.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Husband | Performance & Leadership Coach | Visual Artist & Author |

These articles aim to help the reader gain insights into personal growth and development. My work as a mentor is to catalyze awareness and empower creative thinking.

My writings are essays in intuitive awareness, offered as musings to enhance personal effectiveness, fulfillment, and greater clarity of purpose. Science uses intuition to establish new paths of inquiry to advance possible theories. I favor a metaphysical exploration through my intuition rather than fit-all reasoning.

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