This is a beautiful and illuminating article. Perhaps because you maybe assume it's too obvious you don't say very much about the dangers of being subsumed by mythology, what Jung called inflation of archtyles where individuals are possessed or seized by and identify with the mythic and the integration of the self is prevented. Sorel has it right when he criticized Bernstein for 86’ing the myth of the revolution, because the workers’ socialist movement needs that utopian Telos and elan vital. The history of the left has often shown hoowever how the essential goal of democratic socialist transformation has been waylaid by fanatics who mistake the shell of the myth for its meaning.
Pre-emptively acknowledging this comment is dumb as hell:
My favorite computer game of all time is a real time strategy game called "Myth" (made by eventual "Halo" developer Bungie). It has been very annoying over the years to tell that to people and have them say "you mean Myst?" Sure, Myth has a subtitle I could use (full title "Myth: The Fallen Lords") but c'mon. It's unwieldy, and if I meant Myst, I woulda said "Myst"!
Pretty low on the list of ways myth is disrespected, probably. But still.
(For the record, the core "myth" of the game is that the great hero who defeats the ultimate villain returns, a thousand years later, as the new ultimate villain, who must be defeated by a new hero. I think there is real insight into civilization in that. I'd say that's more a loose allegory, not an actual myth as you describe in the piece. It's a good title though.)
I'm obviously not a philosopher, but what came to mind for me is that we each have our own myth, built from experience as we perceive it from the time we are born.
I appreciate the profundity and integration of a variety of materials in discussing the meaning-making-of-reality power of myth making. I am working on some thoughts about metaphor in a similar vein and could now view metaphor as mini-myths. I also see meaning derived relationally. We humans are not just filters for a separate reality but co-create it, so it is in many ways an artistic, creative, and interactive endeavor. A sandcastle doesn't exist because you add sand and architecture and the laws of physics--the elements are inextricably intertwined. Relative to politics., and in consideration of the Trump administration today, the lies perpetrated are pseudo myths--yes myths, but designed not to reveal a genuine and connected understanding of life. Just like someone could pretend to love someone else. In our lived experience we have the capabitlity of distinguishing, often by felt-sense, between scary hallucination (as in psychosis)--an out-of-touchness--and the myths of connection and co-created reality. As you said, no supra-consciousness exists to define any alternate view.
This is a beautiful and illuminating article. Perhaps because you maybe assume it's too obvious you don't say very much about the dangers of being subsumed by mythology, what Jung called inflation of archtyles where individuals are possessed or seized by and identify with the mythic and the integration of the self is prevented. Sorel has it right when he criticized Bernstein for 86’ing the myth of the revolution, because the workers’ socialist movement needs that utopian Telos and elan vital. The history of the left has often shown hoowever how the essential goal of democratic socialist transformation has been waylaid by fanatics who mistake the shell of the myth for its meaning.
Pre-emptively acknowledging this comment is dumb as hell:
My favorite computer game of all time is a real time strategy game called "Myth" (made by eventual "Halo" developer Bungie). It has been very annoying over the years to tell that to people and have them say "you mean Myst?" Sure, Myth has a subtitle I could use (full title "Myth: The Fallen Lords") but c'mon. It's unwieldy, and if I meant Myst, I woulda said "Myst"!
Pretty low on the list of ways myth is disrespected, probably. But still.
(For the record, the core "myth" of the game is that the great hero who defeats the ultimate villain returns, a thousand years later, as the new ultimate villain, who must be defeated by a new hero. I think there is real insight into civilization in that. I'd say that's more a loose allegory, not an actual myth as you describe in the piece. It's a good title though.)
I'm obviously not a philosopher, but what came to mind for me is that we each have our own myth, built from experience as we perceive it from the time we are born.
I appreciate the profundity and integration of a variety of materials in discussing the meaning-making-of-reality power of myth making. I am working on some thoughts about metaphor in a similar vein and could now view metaphor as mini-myths. I also see meaning derived relationally. We humans are not just filters for a separate reality but co-create it, so it is in many ways an artistic, creative, and interactive endeavor. A sandcastle doesn't exist because you add sand and architecture and the laws of physics--the elements are inextricably intertwined. Relative to politics., and in consideration of the Trump administration today, the lies perpetrated are pseudo myths--yes myths, but designed not to reveal a genuine and connected understanding of life. Just like someone could pretend to love someone else. In our lived experience we have the capabitlity of distinguishing, often by felt-sense, between scary hallucination (as in psychosis)--an out-of-touchness--and the myths of connection and co-created reality. As you said, no supra-consciousness exists to define any alternate view.