Ben Okri: Why do we tell children stories?

08To poison a nation, poison its stories.

A demoralised nation tells demoralised stories to itself.

To poison a nation, poison its stories.

Ben Okri continues his campaign for us to recognise the true importance of stories and storytelling. “Why do we tell children stories?” he asks throughout this video. From an oracle in ancient Greece telling the people to whisper stories in their children’s ears to save their civilisation to re-routing our psychological hardwiring with stories, Okri guides us through his personal philosophy of stories. “Anything that affects our perception of the world usually comes in the form of a story. Be aware of the stories that we imbibe. Question them.”