The Power of Storytelling

Storytelling has had a more significant impact on human history than most people realize. It has shaped our societies and the way we think for all of recorded history, starting with cave paintings, oral storytelling, and up to modern day technology involving videos and internet. Children crave stories, and will spontaneously make them up if they can’t get them any other way. Every culture that exists or has been known to exist had some storytelling history. Stories are used for entertainment, to record historical events, to describe actions of famous people, to teach, to pass on old knowledge and wisdom, and to purposely create followers to certain way of thinking such as religious believes, ideology and political mindset.
Religions have had perhaps the most powerful storytelling impact on civilization, promoting moral values and controlling the lives of faithful followers. In many cases some of the stories were communicated to the believers that they came directly from God and hence should be accepted as laws. “Stories” from the good book have provided comfort for many followers, especially those with limited material possessions and social status; however, some religious leaders have and are still using messages delivered within the context of cultures of earlier times for control and for self serving economic gains. We still hear solicitations such as “donate to God” (through the religious leader?). There were also stories of folk heroes (like Robin Hood) who fought on behalf of the poor; these stories often gave comfort to the oppressed that ordinary brave people can punish the oppressors. Communists used effectively stories about brave partisans fighting the Nazis in an effort to convince people about the virtues of communism.
There are also stories that are designed to “correct” history. Currently a debate is heating up about former Ottawa mayor Charlotte E. Whitton. There is a move to commemorate her as a Canadian historic figure. Pro-arguments include that she was active promoter of feminism and was first female mayor of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. However, this initiative is being opposed by the Canadian Jewish Congress, based on well documented stories of Whitton’s anti-Semite views and activities. Early in her career, Ms. Whitton served as the director of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare (CCCW) for over two decades. As director, her job was to help improve the lives of countless needy and immigrant children. However, many argue that Whitton did the exact opposite by denying European Jewish refugee orphans into Canada during the Holocaust era, based solely on the fact that they were Jewish. This ultimately led to many children succumbing to Hitler’s wrath. Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) argues against the plans to honor Ms. Whitton and at the same time poses the question: “how do we in fact best commemorate national historic figures, when nobody’s really perfect in this world?” This week, another five Canadian historic figures (already honored), including former Prime Minister Mackenzie King, have been identified as having anti-Semitic views.
Honoring historical figures can be a controversial act, partly because of the “nobody is perfect” notion, and partly because opposing political or religious views will find stories of contradictions that will question the original intentions. Stories about people and historical events can be powerful and can change our views and understanding of history. Winston Churchill understood this well when he commented: “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”.