Jessie_5_I

I believe that telling stories to influence people has to be the most frequent use of a story. If it isn't the most frequent, it is certainly the use that has the most impact. In Mein Kampf Hitler used personal narratives of how he never met a Jew until he came to Vienna as an adult and was, at first, very liberal and tolerant. He gradually reveals the reasons he came to distrust and later hate them as a people. Warren Jeffs convinced his followers that he knew the path to salvation not by standing up at a pulpit screaming to the heavens that he knew what was right. He did it by weaving hypothetical stories and examples of "good" behavior and the rewards and consequences associated with that behavior. The use of influence isn't all bad though. In Sunday Schools all over the world little children are not taught values through "because I said so!" They are taught through the use of parables and other stories from the Bible.

To me most storytelling can be boiled down to the need or desire to influence others. Good or bad there isn't really any denying that the use of story can be a powerful tool, maybe the most powerful tool available to us as humans.