Charles Eisenstein: Everything We Tell Ourselves About America -

and the world is wrong: Why we need a new story that gives meaning to the world. Every culture has a Story of the People to give meaning to the world. Every culture has a story of the people,, to give meaning to the world. Part conscious and part unconscious, it consists of a matrix of agreements, narratives, and symbols that tell us why we are here, where we are headed, what is important, and even what is real. I think we are entering a new phase in the dissolution of our Story of the People, and therefore, with some lag time, of the edifice of civilization built on top of it. Sometimes I feel intense nostalgia for the cultural mythology of my youth, a world in which there was nothing wrong with soda pop, in which the Superbowl was important, in which the world's greatest democracy was bringing democracy to the world, in which science was going to make life better and better. Life made sense. If you worked hard, you could get good grades, get into a good college, go to grad school or follow some other professional path, and you would be happy. With a few unfortunate exceptions, you would be successful if you obeyed the rules of our society. If you followed the latest medical advice, kept informed by reading the New York Times, and stayed away from bad things like drugs. Sure there were problems, but the scientists and experts were working hard to fix them. Soon a new medical advance, a new law, a new educational technique, would propel the onward improvement of life. My childhood perceptions were part of this Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology. To conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society. From my vantage point, the basic premises of this story seemed unquestionable. After all, it seemed to be working in my world. Looking back, I realize that this was a bubble world, built atop massive human suffering and environmental degradation, but at the same time, one could live within that bubble, without need of much self perception. The story that surrounded us was robust. It easily kept anomalous data points on the margins,