The story of David doesn’t begin with him slaying the giant. It begins, like many heroic tales, with a failing institution. In this case it is the kingdom of Israel under King Saul, but it could just as easily be a modern democracy, a failed healthcare system, the business where you work, or the church where you worship. Giants come in many forms. In medieval tales, a dragon would paralyze the population with fear. In some stories, the king or leader has become sick and is no longer able or willing to do what needs to be done. The people can do nothing to restore the health of their land, they helplessly wait for some hero to emerge and slay the beast. Doing this will restore the institution back to its benevolent purpose. In the case of a kingdom or nation, the shift will be from hubris and militarism to justice and care for all of its residents. If the failed institution of the tale is a workplace, church, or community service, the life-affirming aspects of the organization are restored to their proper place, instead of being the forgotten jargon of the group’s mission statement.
Remember the 1980s comedic movie “Nine to Five,” with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton? In that heroic tale, the failed institution is the Consolidated Companies corporation, the dragon a misogynistic work culture, and the boss is so symptomatic of this sickness that he needs to quarantined to his bedroom in order to free the heroines to slay the dragon. The reason movies that follow this pattern are so popular is because our institutions, social groupings, and families repeatedly become infected with dragons that personify a systemic sickness. Often we are so embedded in the group-think that we lack the language to express our despair, let alone imagine how a heroic action would free us. This is why music, movies, and novels, such as George Orwell’s 1984 are so important.
(from a book that Bill Kemp is currently working on)