The stories that we tell — going back to those acted out in caves next to roaring fires by early humans and stretching all the way to modern-day tales playing out on the screen — are what influence and instruct our reality. Modern-day storytelling has become a vehicle for advertising and the proliferation of propaganda that keeps our hierarchical systems in place. And they are used well for those purposes. When you tell a story long enough, it will become real, or at least aspirational — no matter how unrealistic or unattainable it is.