A Really Bad Story

Right now the world is torn between two stories that don't mesh. One story comes from the West and in particular the United States. This story goes as follows: "I am rich and powerful. I lead a civilized life. I deserve to get as much as I want out of life. My enemies are powerless to stop me, and occasionally I have to remind them of that fact."

The other story, which is told in the Arab world, goes as follows: "I am not powerful, but I am righteous. My dignity lies in the past, when I was once great and civilized. Anyone who has ever degraded me is my enemy and will learn their lesson, as God has decreed."

These two stories clash because they demand fixed roles--oppressor and oppressed--united by hostility. Stories don't have to be true to have a powerful effect on people. In reality the U.S. has never consciously wanted to play the role of oppressor, and the Middle East is far too wealthy to be degraded as a victim. God has chosen neither side over the other, and there are a dozen ways that peaceful cooperation would benefit everyone.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is led by an administration that does everything it can to defend our story, while Al Qaida, and the millions of Arabs who sympathize with it, does everything it can do defend the other story. History is often made by stories playing themselves out irrationally. The Nazis' rabid anti-Semitism, for example had no basis in fact, and yet whole nations defended a toxic myth to the point of total calamity. Similarly, the "workers paradise" under Stalin--or the "Islamic paradise" under the Taliban--was a story defended by fanaticism without a shred of realism to back it up.

Our government is so blocked by its own irrational story right now that a citizen has little power to stop it. For the time being we have to remember three things

1. We are not responsible for other people's stories, only our own.
2. We are not here to change their stories, only our own.
3. The healing of negative stereotypes begins at home.

No one can predict if the outcome of two clashing stories will lead to calamity or only prolonged tension, but whatever the outcome, at least as parents we can teach our children that stories must be carefully watched and winnowed from the truth.

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