JH Lillevik

In the beginning there was only the story told around the campfire about how humanity was made and chosen by the gods to do great things. It inspired mankind to take steps they did not think was possible. The gods guided humans through the ideas of storytellers, the events of the past and the behavior of those who came before. Stories then built societies.

Societies used stories to build even larger societies and drive mankind to do even greater things, but the larger they got, the fewer heard the story, the word that had driven humanity to greatness. Other stories took their place and groups split into smaller groups as no one spoke about the same meaning anymore. Strife replaced the story.

The story of strife drove groups against each other. Instead of taking the knowledge of the story, humanity used it to point at others, as a weapon. The heroes of the past became capes that leaders would drape themselves in, because they knew the power of stories, but did not take the storyteller’s responsibility seriously and the conflicts grew.

As the conflicts grew and war rode forth, thinkers thought and talkers talked about how stories had created this and that the word of the past was bad. To create peace, humanity needed to take power out of stories and deconstruct it to reveal what they saw as lies. Stories became products to sell and commodities for the market. The word became material.

All that matters now is material. There is no why, only how. Stories die in the lack of meaning and the structure grows weak as the story that binds us no longer has any value. The people suffer and they no longer know, they no longer hear. They only exist. In the end it will only be material, no word, no story, no why and then no how.