Authors and avid readers share a love of story, and when reality reads like fiction, they have an advantage over those not familiar with story. People who read a lot of books also share certain traits, three of which are enhanced empathy, open-mindedness, and emotional resilience. Those qualities are enhanced by reading because reading is like living many lives. Each story is the story of someone’s life, and we may read about people that are vastly different to ourselves, making us more able to accept with empathy different viewpoints. These are very important qualities to have, particularly in the context of our present shared story.
But beyond the research which has shown what those shared traits are, I can add one more: authors and avid readers know the importance of stories and what makes a story. And those who read historical fiction know that we live stories that are presently being written. They know that one day our children and grandchildren will read our unfolding story, and they will see heroes and villains, allies and enemies, and the plot that creates the conflict that keeps us all rivetted to the story. Most importantly, they will be able to see what we cannot – the end of the story of this seminal time in world history.
Though the shared story of humankind continues throughout the millennia, there are periods in history that are stories within the overall story. For instance, here’s just a few picked from history:
- The Rise & Fall of the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) – The transformation of Rome from a republic to an empire.
- The Spanish Conquest of the Americas (1492–1700s) – The fall of the Aztec and Inca civilizations.
- The English Civil War & The Glorious Revolution (1642–1688) – The struggle for political power in England.
- The American Revolution (1775–1783) – The birth of the United States.
- The French Revolution (1789–1799) – The overthrow of the monarchy and the rise of democracy.
- The Abolition of Slavery (19th Century) – The end of the transatlantic slave trade.
- The Industrial Revolution (18th–19th Century) – The transformation of society through technological advancements.
- The American Civil War (1861–1865) – The battle over slavery and the preservation of the Union.
- The Fall of the Qing Dynasty & The Rise of Modern China (1911) – The end of imperial China.
- World War I (1914–1918) – The first global war.
- The Russian Revolution & The Rise of Communism (1917) – The Bolsheviks overthrow the Russian monarchy.
- The Great Depression (1929) – A worldwide economic collapse.
- The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany (1930-1945)
- World War II and the Holocaust (1939–1945) – The deadliest war in history.
- The Atomic Bomb & The Cold War Begins (1945–1991) – The U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms race.
- The Civil Rights Movement (1950s–1960s) – The struggle for racial equality in the U.S.
- The Vietnam War (1955–1975) – A defining conflict of the Cold War era.
- The Fall of the Berlin Wall & The End of the Cold War (1989–1991) – The collapse of the Soviet Union.
- The Rise of the Internet & The Digital Age (1990s–Present) – The revolution in communication and technology.
- The September 11 Attacks & The War on Terror (2001–Present) – A defining moment in modern geopolitics.
- The Global Financial Crisis (2008) – The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
- The Arab Spring (2010s) – A series of uprisings in the Middle East.
- The COVID-19 Pandemic (2019–2023) – A global health crisis that reshaped societies.
- The Russia-Ukraine War (2022–Present) – A significant conflict in global geopolitics.
These stories, woven from lived experience of the historical events, form the tapestry of human civilization. They have shaped cultures, defined ideologies, and influenced the world we live in today. Each story represents a turning point, a lesson, or a struggle that continues to echo through time.
How words and stories can be twisted
The stories about these events can be told from many points of view: the king, the traitor, the tyrant, the hero, the slave, the merchant, the worker, the sage, and so on. And the stories told by the victors in battles may be very different to the stories told by those who lost. The victor tends to rewrite history to make them seem like the hero, but if you read the stories of the vanquished, you may discover that the victor was, in fact, a villain.
Words, as all authors know, can be used to give readers a particular feeling about a person, place or event, so someone they want people to see as a villain could be called words like evil, malevolent, warped and so on.In this way the story changes depending on who tells it and what language they use.
Words that originally mean something positive can even be used in such a way that people come to see it as negative.
A good modern example is the word Woke.
What does woke really mean?
The term woke originally emerged in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and meant being aware of social injustices, particularly racism. The phrase stay woke (as in stay awake) was used as a call for vigilance against racial injustice and oppression. It expanded beyond racial justice to include broader social issues such as gender rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and economic inequality.
As progressive movements gained traction, conservative commentators and politicians began using woke as a derogatory term, framing “wokeness” as excessive political correctness, virtue signalling, or even an attack on traditional values. The term woke was then politically weaponised (notably by Donald Trump) to criticize progressive policies, branding them as radical or harmful.
Woke essentially means awareness of and concern about the issues that face modern society – surely not a bad thing – but right-wing voters use it as a derogatory term for what they see as excessive liberalism. One can have awareness and concern for people and not be excessive in one’s views, but this weaponisation of terminology brands people as this or that, either/or, not allowing for any middle viewpoint or gradient of views, and this is a major cause of the deep division in modern-day USA. It fosters the idea that if you’re not this, you must be that. If you don’t agree with me, you must be the enemy. There is no room for anything in between.
The advantage of recognising the stories in life
I suspect that authors and avid readers are more able to recognise their life as stories that we create as we live them than those who are not so familiar with the concept of story. I suspect they are more able to step back and see what’s happening around us today as a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and with a lot of conflict in the middle.
The ability to step back and see a situation as a story in time contributes to our emotional resilience. We can recognise the story and its elements, and we can step into the story and play our part and then step out to recharge our emotional, physical and spiritual batteries. This is very helpful for our health, both mental and physical.
What is the true story?
We can also recognise when others, though they share our time and place, see a very different story around the same events. The character they see as the saviour of the story may be the same one we see as the evil warlord.
When people take sides instead of listening to each other and finding shared meaning in an event, their view of reality can be highly disparate or distorted. When a lived story has two separate narratives running, how do we know what is true?
What is true is what actually happened without people’s opinion on what happened muddying one’s perception. But opinion is much more entertaining than straight fact. People enjoy the outrage. They enjoy hearing a judge being called a lunatic. That’s why they buy it. They buy the story because that’s the story they’re being fed, and if it fosters their own outrage, they become more invested in the narrative. Just like people need conflict to keep them invested in a novel or movie, many seek it in their lives as well.
Why do you think it’s so hard for most people to find peace? The first step in finding peace is to seek it over and above entertainment.
As for truth, if we are to have any meaningful dialogue, we may have to recognise that the only people who know what actually happened are those who witness events directly, those who were there. The rest of us just hear their stories and the stories others make about their stories. Like many novels, we may only know the truth when the story is finished. But some readers may get to the end without the truth ever becoming clear. As with peace, we will never find the truth unless we seek it over and above the entertaining lie.
Regardless of the reliability of the narrators of our present story, being able to step back and see present day events as part of a story is a very useful skill to have. We gain space from events that may otherwise overwhelm us with despair. When we recognise the story, we are more able choose the role we want to play, and all those stories we’ve read give us the knowledge that tyrants rise, and tyrants fall. Not just in fiction, but in life also. Nothing last for ever. Everything changes, and even an ordinary person, when they rise to the challenge foisted on them by circumstances, can become extraordinary. For sure, we all have a role to play, and in the story of our life, we are the main character.
What story are we living now?
My dear authors and avid readers, what story do you think we are presently living through?
Does it relate in any way to previous historical stories?
What genre would you call it? Dystopian, perhaps? Apocalyptic? Tragedy? Comedy? Farce?
What are your personal challenges in this story?
How might the story be titled for history lessons of the future? Perhaps something like ‘The Dismantling of American Democracy’? Or how about ‘The Rise and Fall of the USA.’ Or ‘The Failed Technocracy of the Early 21st Century.’ Or more chillingly, ‘The USA’s Transformation from Democracy to Technocracy.’ And if you’re living in Trumps dystopian society of the future it will, for you, likely be called ‘The USA’s Glorious Transformation to Technocracy.’ After all, dictatorships don’t like to remind their population of the freedoms they lost. And dictators tend to rewrite history to suit their narrative. I hope it won’t be called ‘The Triumphant Ascension of President Musk’. Countries outside the US wouldn’t call it triumphant, more likely just, ‘The Rise of Musk’s Fascist Regime’.
What plot do you see at work?
Who are the heroes and who are the villains?
How would you tell the story of your life from when Trump took office to now?
What role are you playing in all this?
Are you a hero? Or a villain? Or perhaps a scribe or a poet or bard? Are you an ally to your friends, one who would never betray them? Or are you one who betrays them for shiny golden coins? Are you a warrior? An organiser, an activist?
What role are you playing now? And what role would you like to play as the story unfolds?
How do you see the end?
What alternative endings might there be?
How do you hope it will end?
What ending would be the best for all sides of the conflict? Can you see a truly revolutionary ending where the best in the characters triumphs over the worst in them.
Remember that in the best stories, the characters grow. They change from how they were at the beginning to where they end up. Sometimes they win their fight and sometimes they fail, but either way they come out of the story having learned something and are hopefully wiser for their journey.
Think about this, and then write your answers down. And let me know in the comments below if seeing it as a story and writing it down helps you to process what’s happening in your world right now.
Is looking at the world situation right now as a story helpful for you?
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And if you need help with your story, do contact me. I’m here to help.
