if you want to control someone, give them a story to believe
if you want to get that person to take their own destiny into their own hands, given them stories of courage and heroism, overcoming insurmountable obstacles
If you want to demoralize and weaken them, give them stories of defeat, meaninglessness, nihilism, and worldly pleasures
in the information age, all economic data is digitized and near-instant. Thus, stories control the global economy. George Soros' theory of Reflexivity almost hints at this. Barnay's "Propaganda" also is a ruthlessly capitalistic (profit-seeking) form of the socialist mode of production.