Social Imaginary

I am reading a book by James K. A. Smith entitled "Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation". Part of what he is discussing in this section is what causes us act and make decisions the way that we do. He states that "what we think about is just the tip of the iceberg and cannot fully or adequately account for how or why we make our way in the world. There's something else and and something more rumbling beneath the cognitive that drives much of our action and behavior." He calls this "Social Imaginary". Another author, Charles Taylor, defines this as "the way ordinary people 'imagine' their social surroundings, which is not expressed in theoretical terms, but is carried in images, stories and legends."

More from Smith:

A social imaginary is not how we think about the world, but how we imagine the world before we ever think about it; hence the social imaginary is made up of the stuff that funds the imagination -- stories, myths, pictures, narritives. Furthermore, such stories are always already communal and traditioned. There are no private stories: every narrative draws upon tellings that have been handed down (traditio). So the imaginary is social in two ways: on the one hand, it is a social phenomenon received from and shared with others; on the other hand, it is a vision of and for social life -- a vision of what counts as human flourishing, what counts as meaningful relationships, what counts as "good" families, and so forth.

So, that being said, the logical question is: How are we helping our children form their "social imaginary"? What stories, narratives, etc are we sharing to create this? We have been given our children for a short time and it is critical for us to help them build this "vision of what counts as human flourishing, what counts as meaningful relationships, what counts as "good" families, and so forth."