The Power We Don’t See: Stories That Shape the World
Yuval Noah Harari often writes that what truly sets humans apart is our ability to create shared stories. Not just to invent them, but to believe in them together. In many ways, this collective storytelling might be humanity’s greatest strength.
Stories allow us to build things bigger than ourselves. They help us unite around goals that go beyond individual needs or personal ambition. And it struck me recently that we tend to underestimate the stories we encounter most often in our daily lives—films, and the narratives carried by music.
Both have an unmistakably global reach. Their messages travel far, crossing borders with ease, becoming viral long before we had a word for it. A Michael Jackson song can be heard both in the United States, where it was created, and in a small hut somewhere in Africa. Its message—emotional, rhythmic, human—can be understood in both places. And with repetition, those messages settle in. Values that begin as local slowly become global.
The same is true for films. Movies don’t just entertain; they transmit ideas. Through the magic and emotional force of images, they embed those ideas deep in our minds. I sometimes think that films played a quiet but powerful role in the great migrations and social shifts at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. They carried promises of a better world, a better life. It’s hard to tell someone living in a war-torn region of the Middle East to ignore what they see on the screen and accept that it’s all an illusion. Just as it’s hard to convince a farmer facing drought that the lush landscapes shown in films aren’t real possibilities somewhere else.
The power of images, the magic of music, and their global reach make them forces far greater than we usually acknowledge.
This becomes especially interesting when we think about how superpowers are built—not only through economics or military strength, but through perception. Hollywood and American film productions have played an enormous role in shaping the image of the United States as exceptional, powerful, and central to the world’s story. In films, it’s the U.S. that fights alien invasions, makes groundbreaking discoveries, and takes on extraordinary missions. These narratives repeat themselves so often that they become familiar truths.
That’s why visiting places like New York, Chicago, or Washington can feel strangely emotional. We’ve seen them hundreds of times on screen. We’ve “been there” long before we ever arrive. These are global stories, planted in our minds in childhood, repeated and reinforced for decades.
And this brings me to Europe.
If we seriously think about building a stronger, more unified Europe—about a true “Europe First” mindset—it’s hard to avoid one conclusion: we need shared stories. We need common narratives that connect us as Europeans and project a sense of identity and purpose beyond our borders. We need places, systems, and creative forges where such stories can be born.
Because power today is not only about what you have. It’s also about the stories the world believes about you—and the ones you tell about yourself.