The weaponisation of myth:
When memory dies a people die.'
But what if we make up false memories?'
That's worse, that's murder.' 1
What are myths, but the false memories of mankind? But do myths desensitise us against reality or do they keep alive a half-remembered reality? How have the myths of the past affected us, how are they being generated today, and how will they influence our descendants? We can see this in four areas: Counterknowledge, finance, religion and climate change, before seeing how future myths could destroy us.
Counterknowledge:
I was reading a book called Counterknowledge' by Damian Thompson in which he argued against the spread of pseudoscience and pseudo-history being presented as fact2. Just recently, the myth that the Large Hadron Collider would create world-engulfing black holes caused a girl in India to commit suicide3. The 2012 myth is also a case in point mixing in the Mayan's end of their Great Cycle in that year with the predicted lining up of our solar system's planets; a coincidence that consumes a great deal of people's time in imagining the end of the world in some gravimetric cataclysm. But so it was with the previous Millennium Bug scare and tales of rampant nanotechnology grey goo. The Moon Landing, Princess Di, and 9/11 conspiracies and myths, though debunked by insiders and common sense, have continued to grow and become part of the fabric of history.
Such myths, if left unchecked, could undermine and destabilise whole communities and industries. Never happen? Then just look at the current financial crisis and the loss in belief in the myth of money.
The myth of money:
The value of money is based upon the mutual trust and belief that a piece of paper or metal has an intrinsic worth, so everyone believes that $1 equals whatever the powers-that-be says it does. The current global financial crisis reflects this with perceived values of companies, stocks and currencies plummeting, because the trust or faith in the monetary system collapsed. Myth can perpetuate belief; myth can destroy value. The myth of money construct was broken, because irregularities, bad practices, and management policies caused the breakdown in the myth that money was a constant valued and flowing commodity. Money can't just disappear from the system; its liquidity should ensure that it stays somewhere in the system, but the value of money can depreciate through sheer loss of confidence. The myth is so strong that when you hear the experts' speak, their pessimism seeps out and they have talked' themselves into a recession; they believed the myth that money has such overwhelming value and shared meaning, but if others do not share that belief then there will always be problems. Such wobbles will stay in the system for some time.
The myth of money is well known; whether it is the root of all evil or that it will never make us happy, but the myth will eventually bounce back because the myth of money is better to believe in than having no system at all; better the myth than anarchy; capitalism over egalitarianism. So you just don't need money to make money, you need the myth to believe that money has worth. Listen to the language of the experts' in the coming months and as it becomes more positive, so the myth of money will be reinforced and economies stabilise.
Religion:
Events from the bible have surely passed into myth, no matter how real they were in the past. It is the nature of oral and written traditions through the generations to change, be embellished, and accepted as fact. Just as events from a few decades ago have been spun into near mythicdom' with a myriad of theories and strands (e.g. Kennedy's Camelot and assassination, the moon landings, British Monarchy intrigues), the further back we go to Robin Hood, King Arthur, Jesus, Troy, Jericho, and the Garden of Eden, the less we know as fact, even through archaeological, historical and other scientific endeavours.
Intelligent Design (ID) has become the new myth to spin its way from religion in that it purports to be a science, yet uses none of the basics of science to prove itself. It's a theory' based on faith and in the myth of the Blind Watchmaker. The myth of (the one true) religion reveals itself in the fact that there are hundreds of religions with different interpretations of the same omnipotent being, yet there is no way to test to see which religious hypothesis' is correct (unless all but one religion dies out due to war, out-breeding, conversion, etc). So the myth becomes pseudo-fact and/or faith, which strangles reality into second place, even when proved otherwise (e.g. the Shroud of Turin, the Flood, and Noah's Ark on Mt. Ararat, etc).
The belief in the hereafter is also a powerful concept; people die for it. You won't see many scientists today on the parapets willing to sacrifice themselves for a scientific principle. But all the same, such faith and religious concepts are a suspension of reality; a mythality'. To believe in a life beyond reality is a myth. However, just as religion is myth writ large, science is just as mythologically inclined. It can take nature away from man so that man neglects and destroys the environment around him in its pursuit of technology and progress. Scientific myth can obscure one's conscience, create its own dogma, and turn as inward as religion.
Climate Change:
The latest myth to haunt man is climate change. To some, the myth is whether it is actually happening, while to others it is how it can be resolved. In the larger picture, the fight against climate change perpetuates the myth that mankind is the pinnacle of evolution and cannot be destroyed, because of some divine right or fluke that led to our emergence. In the smaller picture, the preferred solution is based on (carbon) taxes and the perpetuation of the industries that caused the problems in the first place. Denial of climate change provokes counter accusations against the sceptic myths, both sides unwilling to bend their myths or meet halfway. The great myth of the 21st century is upon us; it's the classic grassroots campaign that turned into a global phenomenon, bordering on religious fanaticism, with the high priests of the IPCC pontificating to us, the congregation, on how to lead greener pious lives.
So is climate change the myth to forever enrich a green industry and scare us into submission? What if the techno-economic fix fails (due to exorbitant costs or general antipathy), but mankind survives (because there was nothing wrong in the first place or we just adapt to the changes)? The green industry wins either way. And we might never know how much time, energy and money was wasted in combating the green myth. The world would go on, but wouldn't such myths destroy humanity a little bit at a time? As people say: the bigger the lie; the more believable it is. Can the whole world really be duped into believing a myth just because we were told the world might end? Haven't we heard this before? Can we afford not to believe it? That is the power of myth.
The future:
So, to the future; what will myth bring to mankind? With all the myths and pseudo-histories going around now that people absolutely believe in, suppose in fifty years time when we are more technologically connected that a myth so strong sweeps through the human interlinked system, like a virus, and wipes us out? Such a weaponised' myth could be more potent than any epidemic or war, as belief is often stronger than fact. So we must beware the virus myth; the spread of unbelievable truths that threaten to destroy us. In a hundred years time, will people hear myths about the Unabomber and think that while he was crazy and violent (if that is not written out of history), he was correct in his thinking that man was moving toward a technological abyss and away from an organic relationship with the environment. Will our future delinquents see him as an eco-warrior' and flawed hero to be emulated? Our times are ripe with myths and our descendants will have a hard time picking out the truth from the myth.
The reality of myth:
While some myths are positive; reinforcing certain cultural tenets, all too often they will perpetuate a falsehood and a suspension from reality, whether in religion, economics, science, politics, and culture. What?' you say. That's the basis of civilisation?' Ah yes, myths are the very stuff of civilisation. Myth underpins everything we believe in, extrapolates from life's experience (e.g. entertainment, education, fashion, etc), colours our views (e.g. racism, stereotypes), brings war (The Nazi Aryan myth), creates belief systems (e.g. Judeo-Christian-Muslim, scientology, etc), and even reaches beyond death (e.g. heaven, hell and reincarnation). Myth lets man and civilisation cheat death, by believing in life after death or by perpetuating the ever-increasing mythologised memory of them.
Myth, unchecked, is the harbinger of death, a weapon of utter mass destruction. If we were told non-mythic news about the world, our lives would be irrevocably changed. Myths keep man in check. But with myth so intertwined in our lives, how can we survive its pervasiveness and destructive qualities? Well, first off, we can't (or is that a myth?). All we can do is limit our exposure to our modern myth-centred Babel and begin to think for ourselves. As a telly addict, an avid reader, and an infovore (a seeker and lover of knowledge for knowledge sake) that is hard to do. But I think; I think about things that may not seem connected, but are (as I'm into the myth of social physics), and I root those things in reality by asking questions; being the devil's advocate, and then writing it down for the whole world to see and question, to criticise or praise, to ignore or disseminate the myth of the myth. Myth is an equal opportunity creator of order and chaos, so where you choose to place yourself on the myth-believing scale will influence its affect.
If truth is beauty; which is in the eye of the beholder, anything in that subjective realm is open is myth. Any truth, therefore, is susceptible to myth. Is ignorance bliss? Should we believe in the myths that order our world? Do myths make us happy or oblivious to the real world? Myths may be necessary to make humanity appear progressive and alive, while actually protecting us from the scary reality of reality? Our lives are myths within myths and the entangled web myths weave leave us trapped in a nether world of pseudo-realities. So, live the myth; but be aware. It is the danger inside us that we must keep in check, lest it destroy us all in a fit of epic proportions.
References:
1. Sivanandan, A.1997. When Memory dies. Arcadia: London, p.235.
2. Thompson, D. 2008. Counterknowledge. Atlantic Books: London.
3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7609631. stm