Posted on 09/16/2025 10:23:28 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN
There was a time, thousands of years ago, when the day’s work was done and the people of a tribe would gather around a fire. There was no television, no printing press, no smartphones — just the night sky, the crackle of flame, and the voice of the storyteller. This figure wasn’t just a source of entertainment. He was the keeper of the tribe’s soul.
Through his stories, children learned who they were supposed to be. The brave were praised, the cowardly shamed. The heroes were honored with tales that would last generations, while the villains were remembered as warnings. These stories taught more than just history — they taught identity, morality, and what the tribe valued most.
But here’s the truth: the stories weren’t always historically accurate. They didn’t have to be. What mattered was not whether something had happened exactly as told — what mattered was what the tribe needed to believe to survive, stay together, and pass on its values. The stories didn’t preserve truth; they preserved culture. And in many cases, the two were not the same.
This tradition never ended. It just changed form.
The fire became a stage. The stage became a television. The television became a smartphone. The tribal storyteller became the playwright, the journalist, the screenwriter — even the algorithm. And still, the stories we hear shape how we see ourselves, our past, and each other.
In the 1950s, science fiction films — often dismissed as cheap entertainment — were actually the modern fire-circle. Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers weren’t just about aliens. They were warnings about ideological conformity, communism, and the fear of losing one’s identity. The Day the Earth Stood Still wasn’t just about a flying saucer; it was about the dangers of nuclear war and global distrust.
Television followed the same pattern. Star Trek gave us colorful planets and space battles, but behind every episode was a moral question: racism, war, prejudice, authoritarianism. Children watched for fun, but adults saw the lessons hidden just beneath the surface — lessons that couldn't be spoken aloud in public without consequences.
These weren’t accidents. They were carefully coded messages — a way for thinkers and creators to bypass censors and speak to the people directly. It’s a tradition as old as the fire pit, using fiction to tell the truths that power doesn’t want heard.
Today, we’re still surrounded by stories. But the difference is that now, most people don’t realize they're being told one. They think the news is pure fact. They think movies are just entertainment. They don’t see the tribal fire has been replaced by screens — but the messages are still shaping them, just as they always have.
Because the history of storytelling is not the history of truth. It’s the history of what people needed — or were taught — to believe was true.
And in every era, those who control the story control the tribe.
The stories didn’t preserve truth; they preserved culture. And in many cases, the two were not the same.
It also depends on the ears that hear...............
“Today, we’re still surrounded by stories.”
News, TV and films?
The news is not a story in the sense he means. A story has a pattern. A classic story or film, TV show. They have a pattern.
A story that people consider entertainment as the writer is mentioning is a story of a hero. A tragedy or comedy, in the classic sense
There is an arc of development. The protagonist/hero is transformed. They either choose virtue in the end or reject it, but there is a resolution.
We can see this in the fact that on cable and other networks as well as in theaters there is a repetition.
Look at what is popular and what is repeatedly put on from the past. There are movies with a wide audience on TCM going back to the early 1930s to now. They are watched and shared. Why? Because they are, just like a song or symphony, they follow a pattern
AMC re plays Jaws, My Cousin Vinny, Overboard, Karate Kid. They follow a classic pattern. Silly movies. Seemingly irrelevant.
People need to see a story in order to make sense of the world on a daily basis
Now, you have soap operas. Downton, Yellowstone, the miniseries. They follow the pattern of real news. They’re on-going. They can’t be told at a campfire settings this article refers to
But in the recent 30 years since Disney was taken over and similar movements came about, Harry Potter is part of it, the story arc is radically different in these venues, genres, since the time of the printing press and beyond. Stories did not start with the printing press
Harry Potter, for example, is the story of a warlock. There are no virtues being developed, nor rejected, as in a tragedy. He has some values such as loyalty to his friends. That is not a natural development of a story that people need nor find satisfying. He has accepted warlock life and the goodness and evil in the story is only relative. It is all evil. He rejected his family who are Christian’s
Nothing particularly against Harry Potter, just as a way to show why stories fizzle. It is popular but that doesn’t make it good. Just successful.
It’s reflective of the quality of story telling produced and published
Recent movies that were well received that for the classic pattern, one has to go to 2024- The Fall Guy and Twisters. Delightful and re-watchable.
Right now on TV, there are no writers over the age of 40. That’s ageist. It’s fine. It’s a private industry. But people should be aware they are watching stuff that’s derivative of non classic stories. The quality deteriorates
Young adults have rejected TV. Most contemporary books are written by women published by a publishing industry that discriminates. They’re allowed to, but people should be aware.
“And in every era, those who control the story control the tribe”
To a great degree however the tribe rejects a lot of contemporary stories in film, TV and books. People constantly complain of no movies being out. That is a problem new within the past 30 years
With all the firestick choices, classic films and shows are quite a lot more popular for re watch than the industry would want.
If it were 1976 and the technology were similar, contemporary films would be the majority of choices not 30 to 50 year old movies
Popular shows on Netflix includes the Nanny and Andy Griffith
The controllers of the story have power but they get rejected. The audience has power as well
We used to have campfire stories at the beach when we were kids. The best lifeguard would tell a spooky story. The white hand or so. We are it up and talked about it for weeks. We still know that story decades later
If a dorky lifeguard tried to tell a story of the current contemporary type, we’d have given it the Bronx Cheer, walked away and talked about the darkness of the failed story teller - being kids
What’s out here now, parents should beware
For little kids, just go to the basics. The musicals are great. Rogers and Hammerstein, Johnny Mercer, Lerner and Lowe, movies alone, tell the story of the development of the country in a way that kids can also pick up music, dialogue, virtues, evils - they need to know what’s evil as a bad thing and watch how good people reject it in order to keep it out of their lives. Irving Berlin as well
Many of these people who crated these stories were immigrants who loved America (Berlin wrote God Bless America). They were driven out of their countries by to Pogroms mostly they came from Russia. They embraced the US and gave it so much of its culture. Anyway good stories they fit the classic pattern. They’re re watchable.
And…a home without a healthy dose of Looney Tunes is lacking - a lot
People, especially parents, are best served by being aware that stories -films, TV and Books are very formative for children. Evil themes, family and father- degrading themes, anti judeochristian themes are very very subtle. They are very suggestive and dangerous.
The news is not a story in the sense he means. A story has a pattern. A classic story or film, TV show. They have a pattern.
I agree. His point, however, is that the storyteller rules
My point is many people are rejecting it.
My point is many people are rejecting it.
—
That would make for an interesting follow up. What happens when the tribe no longer trust the storyteller?
There was a time when the storyteller sat by the fire, and all listened. Their words carried the soul of the tribe — where they came from, what they valued, what they feared, and what they hoped to become. These stories taught courage, sacrifice, honor, and shame. Children grew up wanting to be the kind of people stories were told about. The storyteller wasn’t merely a source of entertainment. They were the keeper of meaning.
But what happens when the tribe no longer believes the storyteller?
The fire still burns. The storyteller still speaks. But now, the people shift uneasily, or walk away. Some laugh. Some mock. Others whisper to each other, "That’s not how it really happened." The story that once held them together now feels like a relic, or worse — a lie. And without a shared story, the tribe begins to drift.
New storytellers emerge. They do not sit by the fire, but speak from glowing screens and digital pulpits. Their words are louder, faster, flashier — but often not deeper. Each voice brings its own version of truth, and soon the tribe is no longer one people, but many: divided by belief, by memory, by vision. The old songs are forgotten. The heroes are recast. The villains redefined. The young look at the old and wonder how they ever believed such tales.
Sometimes this loss of belief signals the end of a culture. Not with a bang, but with a forgetting. Customs become meaningless rituals. Symbols remain, but hollowed out. The tribe goes through the motions of a story they no longer understand. And into that void, other stories rush in — some hopeful, others dangerous. A people without a story is a people unguarded, adrift, vulnerable to anyone who offers purpose, even at a terrible cost.
But disbelief is not always the end. Sometimes it is a beginning.
When the tribe stops believing the storyteller, it may be because the story is no longer true — or no longer enough. The world has changed, and the old myths no longer explain it. The storyteller may resist, may beg the tribe to listen as before. But the wise ones know: it is time for new stories. Not to erase the old, but to build upon them. To carry forward the best of the past, while daring to imagine something better.
The tribe still needs stories. It always will.
The fire must be kept alive — not to warm the storyteller, but to light the faces of those who gather in the dark, still searching for meaning in a world that will always need it.
Vanity?
If this were a book I would buy it!
People with a sense of natural law always know what a good story is
I wrangled a bunch of 9th graders for a few years into studying Shakespeare, Twain, Robert Louis S, Doyle, Austen, Crane, etc
Comments from parents and teachers were ‘my boys were quoting Shakespeare in the store on the way home’.
They would read the story over a week or two then I’d show them the
How do you get them to pay attention when reading that crap’- teachers hate Shakespeare.
They relate to good stories. Even when competing with all the crap they’re dealt
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