...the Primer.

The Absence of Myth

In the third program of "The Power of Myth;" titled 'The First Storytellers;' Joseph Campbell states that for a myth to impact a people, it must be appropriate both to the historical time in which it develops, and to the level of consciousness of individuals in that culture.

In a more precise way, it's also necessary for the myth to be extendable to include possible future events, along with the incorporation of current events in the various fields of science, technology, etc. The primary difficulty here, is the rapidity with which these potentially myth-shattering events take place. By this I mean, it hardly matters whether the swamp should, or could be drained when you're up to your navel in alligators.

Personally, I sense a slowing in technology however, I have yet to hear of a story-teller who has successfully integrated anything. On a culture-wide basis, we are left with governmental influences for the life of our psyche, which unfortunately is based o n the mythical life of monetary units in conjunction with utilitarian principles. Abstractions both, neither of which bear up the psyche in times of existential turmoil.

Culturally, we all suffer the resultant disasters. One has only to read any of the m ajor news sources to discover the extent to which we have fallen prey to the abstraction called egalitarianism. After all, equality isn't simply a graph with the peaks and the valleys lopped off. Instead, we have a lop-sided way of thought that ultimate ly caters to the more powerful sectors. The squeaky wheel gets the grease; more money means a larger megaphone for the squeaks to be heard.

On an individual level, Thomas Hobbes' statement, "...life would be nasty, brutish, and short," becomes the norm due simply to the modern religion of, 'the one who dies with the most toys wins,' or 'the one who dies with the most toys, still dies.' Neither of which solves the problem of angst since both portray to the individual, an undue importance to acquisitiveness.

The realization that none of us are going to get out of this alive doesn't help here, since without a god in the classical sense, the allowance is one of greater freedom to acquire in increasingly more vicious ways. Laws are passed that allow for the amassing of great wealth without the sense of responsibility toward one another, or the environment.

Right and wrong are not within the scope of law, only what is legal or illegal; lapses in ethical judgement aren't met with reprisals unless the individual can't afford a good lawyer.