Whose stories are we living?

Whose stories are we living?

Thoreau early on said that the human person "is the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself" (263). Now this "opinion" includes a variety of cultural stories which establish identity: "I’m an Iraqi," "I’m from Texas," etc. For the most part, we receive these stories from others and live our lives accordingly. That is, unless some action is taken to the contrary, people live out in their own lives other people’s stories, thus in a sense making their stories not their own.
But human beings, as O’Brien and Thoreau show us, can become aware of their stories, and they can ask: "Are these stories enlightening, compassionate, useful? Or are they more delusional, selfish, and ultimately to no good purpose? Are they of clear relevance to our lives now or are they outdated?"
And we might recall that in profound silence and awareness, the hold of stories can subside for moments, allowing fresh seeing and questioning to spontaneously happen.
This is no small matter. Humans are finite and fallible, but they tend to absolutize their stories. And T might want to ask us after World War II: "Are you comfortable turning your conscience over to someone else?" If you were German, how did absolutizing the State or the Church work for you? The largest Protestant church was taken over by Nazi Christians, and the Vatican had signed an official Concordat with Hitler giving the Catholic Church special privileges, and Pius XII never publicly denounced Hitler (Catholic Italy, of course, had gone Fascist under "Il Duce," Mussolini). The same kind of question would apply to Muslims and Jews, of course.
If people in different cultures live solely by their different stories and not primarily by a more universal story emphasizing what is common to us all (for instance: birth, suffering, love, death), then violence will be the inevitable result as warring stories compete for limited resources with which to act out their roles in the stories that are the dramas of their lives: Native Americans and European invaders, colonialists and black Africans, Palestinians and Israelis, Americans and the Middle East, ad infinitum — ad nauseum.
So, again, whose stories are we living? The fight for "truth, justice and the American way" (Superman), "the American dream," "You deserve a break today"? Are any of these benign and helpful? Are some destructive? A little of both? Do some support the universal common good (bonum commune), i.e., the good of the whole world, as Pope John XXIII asked (see his important encyclical Pacem in Terris [1963], n. 139)? Do other stories undermine the universal common good?
Select specific stories for discussion and comment.
Please be sure and address all aspects of this question, especially the last part on the universal common good. Is there such a thing? In what does it consist?

 
ORDER THIS ESSAY HERE NOW AND GET A DISCOUNT !!!

You can place an order similar to this with us. You are assured of an authentic custom paper delivered within the given deadline besides our 24/7 customer support all through.