Think of a story as a series of observations tied together into a plot, a narrative. Quantum theory says, among other things, that observation creates reality. So, stories create reality. You know this from your experience with different types of stories: far-reaching, complex stories around which worldviews and cultures are built; personal narratives that create identities; stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it. You know that sometimes the observer’s reality can override objective reality.

Even stories written as fiction have a way of working into our realities: think Horatio Alger, or Big Brother. (But fiction also reflects reality…so, a circle of influence.)

For those storytellers with a megaphone, just one careless story can create the most dismal of realities, pulling all of us entangled citizen-particles into that parallel dystopian universe….