Mythology and Social Change, A Starting Point

I’ve received some thoughtful emails with great questions about cultural mythology and the idea of a “mythic perspective.” Questions, answers, reflection, discussion- this is what I hope we will do, collectively, with this site. So I encourage you to post questions as comments so that other readers can weigh in!

In that spirit, here are some thoughts and questions from a recent email that I want to address in the public forum of this post:

“I certainly agree that our failure (is it inability at this point, or just stubborn refusal?) to acknowledge and wrestle with the inherent complexity of issues like freedom, race, economic status, etc handicaps us; after all, without substantive discussion of these issues, how can we hope to achieve any real change?

I'm interested in your suggestion that the loss of myth is in part responsible for our current social ills, and that the formulation of myths around social issues would allow for a depth of substance that cannot exist in our current, 'ideological,' discussions.

So what would a successful mythological treatment of an issue look like? What's an example of a myth - current or historical - that has/had the ability to make more complex, productive discussion possible? In other words, how can myth facilitate social progress?”

There is not one answer or even approach to the issues raised in the above comment, which speaks beautifully to one purpose or source of significance in a mythic perspective, that of improving our society or enhancing the quality of life. As many of you know, I have been an activist since I was in high school, although my vision of what constitutes positive change has changed, over the years.

I will return again and again to these themes- let us develop them together- but here is a starting point. We have not “lost” myth. We live in a mythology, we interpret the world through this mythology, BUT we are largely unconscious about both the content and the activity. So step #1 is to understand that we are not debating facts so much as ideologies, and those ideologies reflect an underlying mythology. Honestly made, this move creates space, softens the “I’m right and you’re wrong” opposition that makes most debate these days impossible.

When we take what we “believe” and what we “know,” and reflect on the language, on the rhetoric and metaphors that are used and the story (commonly called facts) that must exist to support that belief, we find what is often called “the story behind the story.” This process is similar to “reading between the lines,” being alert to the unspoken, the nuances.

To find that background story or identify the unspoken, to put it into words, one finds parallels, often in narratives or stories that we identify as mythology. For example, I consider the phrases “bailout” and “too big to fail” and see the Titanic, and behind that the Greek Titans, the original model for hubris.

Why do that? What does it add to the discussion? In the above example, the mythic image of the Titans and the problem of hubris could give us a deeper understanding of the root problem. Is bank deregulation the cause of the current debacle, or is the deregulation indicative of something else, something in the culture, endemic to our collective fantasies? There’s greed, yes, but that is a multifaceted phenomenon, it has different causes and objects. And was it greed that motivated the person who bought a home that he or she really could not afford, not an investment, a home, in an overheated market, with the advice and encouragement of lenders?

I think the hubris and raw power and unbounded, unlimited drive of the Titans, the individualism and the disregard for consequences, is an integral part of American culture and self-image, that play itself out over and over again in a myriad forms. For example, I think it fuels the chronic over consumption that characterizes the United States today and is an unacknowledged shadow of the American Dream.

I can’t provide an example of a mythic analysis bringing about social change in today’s world because we must first create the context (my mission). I invite others to volunteer such examples or offer their opinions about fruitful mythological lines of inquiry. I will post more about the Titans and the titanic because I believe that viewing our society through this myth would have a profound impact and lead to new values and meaning as well as action.