How our storytelling goes back centuries where ‘the economy’ does not
Productivity. The bane of many a human’s existence. We’ve grown so accustomed to working for our needs that we easily forget that back in the cave days, community was all that mattered and our needs were met without payment. There wasn’t even a word for productivity.
Intead, we left our stories on walls. We hunted for and gathered our food. We sat around the campfire with our family, keeping each other warm and safe.
That’s the true, original human existence.
Fast forward a couple hundreds of thousands of years and homo sapiens is currently reading a story on a screen from a fellow homo sapiens who lives thousands of miles away.
Modern times bring great things – the global village being one -, but also some nasty stuff. And it leads to you and I feeling absolutely shit about ourselves.
Because a thing called the economy is now A Thing. Capitalism, productivity, salary, currency, words our ancestors would raise an eyebrow over.
And yet here we are. Feeling bad that we can’t contribute to this world by working 9-5.
Instead, we love to tell stories.
No Wand
So let me remind you how much telling stories actually connects us directly to our ancestors around those camp fires, telling stories of their presence alone, of their hunting and of their families.
We cannot wave a wand and make the modern society we live in go away, and so will not easily feel fine about not being as productive as others our age.
But we are human. Our love of storytelling is proof of that.
So next time anyone makes you feel bad about your illness preventing you from working in an economically productive way, remind yourself of those cave paintings and who the truest human really is.
Our ancestors will be proud of us. After all, as writers we’re continuing that purely human experience.
Sandra Postma
Posted on 29 November 2025 on Substack
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