From my old notes that touched on the power of myth:
The age of gods and heroes result from the creative acts of “imagination,” while the age of men stems from the faculty of “reflection.” Nations were “poetic in their beginnings,” and their history can be understood through the study of their fables, myths, the structure of early languages, and the formation of polytheistic religions.
Summa of the ideas of Giambattista Vico, author of Scienza Nuova Prima (1725/1744)
First off, let me thank your for this; it is a thoughtful article and brings much to the table. However, I do take issue with a few points, respectfully.
“…the first Christians who were energized by the failure of their myth to come to pass.”
True, I suppose. But nowhere did Christ say when and where he would return. Only that he would. Yes, the early Christians thought it would be during their own lifetimes. But Christ said only that he would come back ‘like a thief in the night.’
Also, Christians, and their religious beliefs (the Ten Commandments, love thy neighbor as thyself), are the glue that holds this society together. Granted, that glue is disintegrating as the numbers of Christians have dried up. But they are the only bulwark that I’m aware of against the other myths now corroding the land—the unmoored hate-filled liberals, the communists (they think they’re socialists), the Muslims, and the racialists (Black Lives Matter, La Raza). They are all salivating over their myths and not only that, working tooth and nail to cement them into place.
‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ So far, our side is exhausting all the mechanisms put in place by our Founding Fathers to maintain a ‘government for and by the people.’ Hopefully if we can get our champion (Trump) back in the white house, he can start ‘draining the swamp again.’ But if Trump is somehow banned from running, or defeated by massive voter fraud, then we the people still have one remaining tool in our belt, as awful as it is to contemplate that.
“He (Trump) is probably loved more today by those people than Jesus.” As a Christian and an ardent Trump supporter, I don’t believe this. Trump is my champion. He’s on the white horse, taking the slings and arrows, urging us on. But I’m a Christian, not a fanatic. And I know that Trump is just a man, like all of us. ‘Chosen by God,’ we Christians believe, but NOT God.
So what will happen? “Make America Great Again. But is this enough?” You want myth? How about Trump pulling the sword from the anvil? How about Trump going on an epic journey/struggle and finding the ‘golden brick,’ the Constitution, which was stolen away from the people, the result being that the Republic descended into hate and chaos. Trump and his valiant men and women find that brick and place it back in the wall of Law and Order. Now men are free again. Yes, the future is unknowable, and would be if we win, but at least with Trump and ‘Make America Great Again,’ we would be free men and women could choose again, instead of being ‘commanded’ by the amoral political elites.
I disagree here, “Either (Trump) is a myth, or above the law—and who else is above the law but the sovereign?”
If anything, we all know Trump is NOT above the law. Because the law has been perverted. What we do know is that Trump is ‘Below the Law.’ Every businessman in New York City knows that, and they’re looking for an escape as they could be next. The corruptors even invented new laws to charge him with. The ‘law’ as it stands today is not law; it is corruption, political playdough.
“They have taken the most powerful, SECURE, self-running political machine in the history of the world—liberal democracy—and in a single generation have managed to squander it.”
‘I don't believe a repressive unfair system of government can be ‘secure?’ History is full of examples of how insecure despotism is, in the long run.
I agree with your conclusion. The election outcome will signal a new beginning of… something. At present we seem increasingly like the boys on that island in Lord of the Flies. As order and law dissolves, chaos grows. Then disintegration. And they are saved only by the arrival of a man (not a boy) on the beach.
I pray to God that we and our champion will prevail. If not, our American civilization could disintegrate and would likely face a long, 75 year or more slog through the desert, much like the Soviet citizens of yesteryear.
Then there is that promise of Christ’s, that when least expected, he will return like a thief in the night. We will never know the hour. But still we believe it will come.
Once again, thank you for a very thoughtful and impressive article!
I agree. Myth must be a command to create a potential future. It’s not enough to recall the past. There must be an animating vision and goal. My pagan science fiction novel have one called the Seedbearer Imperative “to plant the sacred fire of our fathers on the million worlds”. It focus creative energy and drive to daily make the myth real. There is no long a question of truth or cost or profit, only the will to make it true. That explains the myth of Manifest Destiny of old West and the failure of NASA since 1969. People focused on the money, not the vision.
Manifest Destiny was a powerful myth that drew on Christian eschatology. While America had it, America was basically invincible. It can never come back now, but a new myth is still possible. Inevitable, really.
He failed at everything he did because of his own corruption and incompetence.
Politics makes him seem larger than life, but history is going to see him as just another in a line of failed American leaders. Whether he was a Republican or Democrat will be trivia. His conviction will be as remembered as the Teapot Dome scandal.
It's not so much a question of him being effective as it is a question of "politics can never go back to before Trump". He failed to do basically everything he set out to. But now the house is on fire and nothing can put it out. That is a big deal.
I agree it's a big deal, but watch how Trump won't be given credit for it. It'll be like Game of Thrones. People will know what you're talking about but it won't be talked about. Trump himself will be as culturally irrelevant as his evangelical supporters.
This Substack is criminally underrated.
Thanks fam, growing by the day.
From my old notes that touched on the power of myth:
The age of gods and heroes result from the creative acts of “imagination,” while the age of men stems from the faculty of “reflection.” Nations were “poetic in their beginnings,” and their history can be understood through the study of their fables, myths, the structure of early languages, and the formation of polytheistic religions.
Summa of the ideas of Giambattista Vico, author of Scienza Nuova Prima (1725/1744)
First off, let me thank your for this; it is a thoughtful article and brings much to the table. However, I do take issue with a few points, respectfully.
“…the first Christians who were energized by the failure of their myth to come to pass.”
True, I suppose. But nowhere did Christ say when and where he would return. Only that he would. Yes, the early Christians thought it would be during their own lifetimes. But Christ said only that he would come back ‘like a thief in the night.’
Also, Christians, and their religious beliefs (the Ten Commandments, love thy neighbor as thyself), are the glue that holds this society together. Granted, that glue is disintegrating as the numbers of Christians have dried up. But they are the only bulwark that I’m aware of against the other myths now corroding the land—the unmoored hate-filled liberals, the communists (they think they’re socialists), the Muslims, and the racialists (Black Lives Matter, La Raza). They are all salivating over their myths and not only that, working tooth and nail to cement them into place.
‘For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ So far, our side is exhausting all the mechanisms put in place by our Founding Fathers to maintain a ‘government for and by the people.’ Hopefully if we can get our champion (Trump) back in the white house, he can start ‘draining the swamp again.’ But if Trump is somehow banned from running, or defeated by massive voter fraud, then we the people still have one remaining tool in our belt, as awful as it is to contemplate that.
“He (Trump) is probably loved more today by those people than Jesus.” As a Christian and an ardent Trump supporter, I don’t believe this. Trump is my champion. He’s on the white horse, taking the slings and arrows, urging us on. But I’m a Christian, not a fanatic. And I know that Trump is just a man, like all of us. ‘Chosen by God,’ we Christians believe, but NOT God.
So what will happen? “Make America Great Again. But is this enough?” You want myth? How about Trump pulling the sword from the anvil? How about Trump going on an epic journey/struggle and finding the ‘golden brick,’ the Constitution, which was stolen away from the people, the result being that the Republic descended into hate and chaos. Trump and his valiant men and women find that brick and place it back in the wall of Law and Order. Now men are free again. Yes, the future is unknowable, and would be if we win, but at least with Trump and ‘Make America Great Again,’ we would be free men and women could choose again, instead of being ‘commanded’ by the amoral political elites.
I disagree here, “Either (Trump) is a myth, or above the law—and who else is above the law but the sovereign?”
If anything, we all know Trump is NOT above the law. Because the law has been perverted. What we do know is that Trump is ‘Below the Law.’ Every businessman in New York City knows that, and they’re looking for an escape as they could be next. The corruptors even invented new laws to charge him with. The ‘law’ as it stands today is not law; it is corruption, political playdough.
“They have taken the most powerful, SECURE, self-running political machine in the history of the world—liberal democracy—and in a single generation have managed to squander it.”
‘I don't believe a repressive unfair system of government can be ‘secure?’ History is full of examples of how insecure despotism is, in the long run.
I agree with your conclusion. The election outcome will signal a new beginning of… something. At present we seem increasingly like the boys on that island in Lord of the Flies. As order and law dissolves, chaos grows. Then disintegration. And they are saved only by the arrival of a man (not a boy) on the beach.
I pray to God that we and our champion will prevail. If not, our American civilization could disintegrate and would likely face a long, 75 year or more slog through the desert, much like the Soviet citizens of yesteryear.
Then there is that promise of Christ’s, that when least expected, he will return like a thief in the night. We will never know the hour. But still we believe it will come.
Once again, thank you for a very thoughtful and impressive article!
I agree. Myth must be a command to create a potential future. It’s not enough to recall the past. There must be an animating vision and goal. My pagan science fiction novel have one called the Seedbearer Imperative “to plant the sacred fire of our fathers on the million worlds”. It focus creative energy and drive to daily make the myth real. There is no long a question of truth or cost or profit, only the will to make it true. That explains the myth of Manifest Destiny of old West and the failure of NASA since 1969. People focused on the money, not the vision.
Manifest Destiny was a powerful myth that drew on Christian eschatology. While America had it, America was basically invincible. It can never come back now, but a new myth is still possible. Inevitable, really.
He failed at everything he did because of his own corruption and incompetence.
Politics makes him seem larger than life, but history is going to see him as just another in a line of failed American leaders. Whether he was a Republican or Democrat will be trivia. His conviction will be as remembered as the Teapot Dome scandal.
It's not so much a question of him being effective as it is a question of "politics can never go back to before Trump". He failed to do basically everything he set out to. But now the house is on fire and nothing can put it out. That is a big deal.
I agree it's a big deal, but watch how Trump won't be given credit for it. It'll be like Game of Thrones. People will know what you're talking about but it won't be talked about. Trump himself will be as culturally irrelevant as his evangelical supporters.