Why are we not as unified as we seemed in the past?
What is your ‘big story’? PICTURE: Samantha Sophia/Unsplash
French sociologist Émile Durkheim argued it is a community’s shared overarching stories that defined a society; quite literally the stories constructed society. If we all have the same story – The Exodus, Dreamtime or Easter – we have the same values, dreams and ambitions.
With globalisation, the explosion in technology, social media we no longer have one story as a community. Indeed, we now find the story that best fits, sometimes one from the dark web.
There’s no going back to the ‘old days’ of homogeneous societies. But we do have to find stories as a nation, state, humanity that are big enough to define how we live together successfully.
What is your ‘big story’? Is it big enough to include others, include all? Worth considering.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au
