Narrative Make Us

Robert James Bidinotto has an excellent post on the relationship between narrative and one's world view that I think is quite insightful. Children do absorb their world in a quite direct fashion -- due to the presence of such high numbers of mirror neurons in the human brain. Further, it is similar to the anthropological/evolutionary psychological theory of narrative as providing a stage for alternative scenarios to be tested out in a safe play space. If we read stories that comfort us into believing that a certain world view is in fact possible, then we will be comfortable allowing or even directly working to create that world. I agree with Bidinotto that stories are central to the way we think and to our world views. We are the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves as well, so stories are central to our very identity. What does this have to do with Austrian economics? Well, Bidinotto is an Objectivist, as he makes abundantly clear in his post, and Rand made it clear that Mises was the economist she considered most accurate. Also, the points Bidinotto raises also raises questions for fiction and poetry writers influenced by the Austrian school regarding what we should be doing, and the importance of it. Of course, the most important thing is to be good and interesting, or else the world view we want to communicate to others will not be so communicated.