Stories for the future — and the power of opposites

In this piece I look at the role of stories in social and political imagination, from analogy and metaphor to the universal patterns found in stories across the world. I suggest a common, paradoxical pattern in some of the most powerful progressive stories. These use what I call ‘generative opposites’. They combine a promise of both return (to an idealised past) and advance (to an idealised future). And they promise both short-term retreat, struggle and setbacks, and long-term triumph. Their emotional power comes from these tensions, which echo aspects of the human condition.

Why stories matter

Much of social change comes from shifts in metaphors, analogies and stories and anyone seeking to encourage progress needs stories as well as arguments. Stories are also essential to using evidence. Most of us find it easier to understand patterns using anecdotes and examples rather than abstractions or general theories.

It has probably always been part of our nature to understand things better with narrative arcs, than just with dry facts or theories. Perhaps this is even more true now, in an extraordinary time when we are surrounded by millions, even billions of stories, where even a few centuries ago most had access only to a few stories from their family, village, tribe or religion.

This explosion of stories has been both positive, giving voice to so many who had been silenced or excluded, and negative, in that it has allowed the spread of lies…