Many civilizations have come and gone through the ages. There are many reasons a social structure can flourish for centuries only to collapse after making contact with a rival culture. What are the factors that can cause a culture to decline or collapse? Is it possible to halt the decline of an established culture, or is it simple the way things are? Is our modern society actually in danger of collapse, as many now say, or are we merely experiencing the growing pains of becoming technologically advanced. Which of the many social structures on this planet would be the first to collapse and why? There is a veritable storm of conjecture surrounding these and many other questions on the subject of social viability. For the purposes of this paper, I intend to assume that contemporary social commentary is accurate and that collapse is possible, but not necessarily inevitable and that creative reasoning may be able to offer an alternative to the darkness of the coming chaos, so many foretell.
I have spent weeks searching through libraries, viewing movies and wading through online resources only to find that there is a pronounced spin on the idea of what a myth is supposed to be. Most consider myth to be little more than lies intended to lead the reader astray into ancient pagan beliefs rather than the currently held, supposedly correct beliefs in vogue today. One need only turn on the television to get a clear understanding of the state of current mythic structure in modern society. Everywhere, there are glaring examples of radical fundamentalism in modern religious belief systems. Mnay of these belief systems are mostly, if not completely devoid of any form of ritual experience and contain only the narrowest view of accepted mythic beliefs. Many modern belief systems actually go so far as to teach that it is now right and approved by God himself to kill anyone that is an unbeliever.
It seems that almost every system of belief has fallen to the same level of hatred as all the rest. The so called religions of brotherly love, want nothing better than to have a clear mandate from the God they worship, to be able to go out and murder anyone they disapprove of. Centuries of teachings of tolerance and kindness are being swept away by the break down of the structure of the belief systems that most of the world hold to for spiritual guidance. While it is true that no religion has ever really been accepting for the beliefs of outsiders, it appears that the lack of the presence of mythic structure in modern society has weakened the structures of the societies of the modern world to a great degree.
We live in a world where almost all forms of myth have been removed by the desire for intellectual advancement in modern society. As we grew to understand the world around us, we believed that we nolonger needed to maintain the myths of our ancestors; the result has been the breakdown of social order and family structure. It is the belief of many authorities that if we continue down this path without recreating some form of myth structure and mythic support, society and family order as we have known it will continue to decay to the point where all respect for life will cease to exist and lawlessness will be the order of the day.
Already, it is possible to see entire regions of the world where this is evident. Some people are far more sensitive to the effects of the loss or even the disrespect of traditional myth and ritual than others. For example, the civilizations of the Middle East are in chaos merely because western civilization introduced foreign ideas into a belief structure held by people known to have a tendency for violent rhetoric. This verbal sparring was once an artful form of combat practiced by the tribesmen of the middle eastern nations. Westerners, with their penchant for taking threats too seriously, acted as if these flamboyant threats, were in fact action, rather than part of the posturing game played out in middle eastern conflict, somewhat like a game of “gross out” played by adolescent boys on almost any school yard. The game is still being played by the strict rules of the tribes, but blood has been spilled and that changes everything. Ritualized verbal combat of this kind had been played out for centuries among the many tribes of the desert regions as a form of “one-ups-manship. Westerners on the other hand, foolishly believe everything they hear stated as a threat is “credible” and will often-times shoot first and regret it later. Clearly, an understanding of cultural differences and a knowledge of middle eastern ritual structure could have saved countless lives.
In another example of the detrimental effects of removing the mythological underpinnings of any culture, one need look no further than the indigenous peoples of the North American continent. European explorers had an opportunity to study true stone age cultures first hand. Instead, history shows that entire civilizations were exploited and hunted, in some cases to the actual extinction of an entire civilization. The survivors were not allowed to revive the practices of their past. Instead, they were forced to assimilate into their conquerors cultural practices, resulting in the complete or near complete loss of true personal, cultural identity.
The loss of cultural identity has resulted in generations of destitute indigenous North Americans who are now prey to government agencies set up to dole out meager benefits to the survivors of attempted genocide. Many have fallen to drug and alcohol abuse in an attempt to soften the anguish caused by the loss of self. Others have turned to bilking Anglo-Americans out of their money by assuming the trappings of shamanism and making a pretense of spirituality. I have witnessed this fall from pride and self-reliance by many members of my own family. In a twist of irony, many tribes have gone so far as to adopt the practice of owning casinos and selling liquor and tobacco to the very people that once hunted and exploited them. The destruction of the Native American peoples would have been successful too, had it not been for the efforts of academics like Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung whose studies of myth and symbolism created a new interest in the once pitiful cliché that the proud Nations of America had become.
In particular, Joseph Campbell made a career out of the study of the myths and symbols of many cultures, but especially the Native American people. From an early age, Joseph Campbell was fascinated with Native American culture and mythology and would come to be an expert in understanding the systems of beliefs of many cultures. Campbell pointed out the need to have ritualized rites of passage in the structure of our society during his interviews with Bill Moyers in the Power of Myth Series.
Increased interest in Native art and culture had to first go through the tourism phase and evolve into an academic interest over the course of time; thankfully this interest has given rise to college programs studying the lives and culture of the indigenous peoples of this continent. Along the way, a rival of sorts has begun in the interest in Native philosophy, which has had the added benefit of increasing favorable academic attention. Attention from the academic community has extended to the study of ritual structure and practice. The revival of ritual thus far has had a beneficial effect on many nations.
Websters dictionary defines a myth in these terms; A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical.
Websters dictionary defines a ritual as a set of actions, often thought to have symbolic value, the performance of which is usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community by religious or political laws because of the perceived efficacy of those actions. A ritual may be performed at regular intervals, or on specific occasions, or at the discretion of individuals or communities. It may be performed by a single individual, by a group, or by the entire community; in arbitrary places, or in places especially reserved for it; either in public, in private, or before specific people. A ritual may be restricted to a certain subset of the community, and may enable or underscore the passage between religious or social states.
I have spent the last eight weeks digging through various academic text only to come away with the conclusion that a large part of the problem with the loss of myth in our modernized industrial society is that few if any “so called” credible authorities consider the lack of myth to be a contributing factor in the apparent break down of modern social structure. I could go so far as to say, that I could find very few individuals that really understood the term “myth”. This is where the conspiracy theorist jumps up on his soap box and expounds the notion that the ills of our social structure are being cultivated by interested parties that smell the opportunity to make a profit. Whether that is actually true or not will be a source of conjecture for as long as there are at least two people drawing breath.
It seems that the presumed definition of a myth is that of a lie or complete fabrication, which could not be further from the truth. This misconception was promoted by a group of people bent on conquest, working to tear down the mythological constructs of people they intended to subjugate. This was once a common practice in the world; when a people loose a conflict and surrender, the conquerors will sometimes do everything in their power to destroy the culture of the defeated people, including the destruction of the myths of the loosing side. Most notably, the early Christians used every trick at their disposal to win the minds and sometimes the hearts of their followers. In order to gain power over the “Wild Pagans” of Europe, the emerging Catholic church changed the meaning of many common terms, for example: villain, which referred to village people, became evil doer to those living in the country, and the term pagan, which once meant someone that lives in the country, came to mean people that followed strange ways and had strange practices.
Having once been the spiritual arm of the Roman Army, the Roman Catholic Church saw no reason not to use the Roman military tactic of divide and conquer in the pursuit of spiritual power. Even the word heathen, which once described people living in homes carved from chalk hills in Turkey, which were first discovered by crusaders on their way to war in the Middle East, came to mean ungodly or non-believer. In this way, the monks seeking to extend their influence began the creation of their own version of mythology. They also went so far as to change the meaning of the term myth itself, to mean lies and falsehoods, ironically, the very thing the monks themselves were guilty of.
