Friday, February 24, 2012

On Mythology

And so I waste too much time on Facebook. Lots of that time is spent talking to genuine, real-life friends, basically using it as something like AIM with a message board. But one of my other voyeuristic habits is reading friends' political debates. I can't help it. I am a post-modern Jimmy Stewart from Rear Window.

And the conclusion I've came to is this: there should be a new discourse called "American Mythological Studies." Now America, as is often pointed out, is not an old country. The one time I was in England - specifically Oxford - I remember often thinking: "this Church is older than my country." But at the same time, countries aren't people, so perhaps the metaphor of growth is problematic. For example, I don't care how old Germany is/was, Hitler was not a good idea. (And damn you Heidegger for complicating my philosophical career.)

Okay, but my point. Our mythological creatures are often referred to as "Founding Fathers." These are our Greek Gods. I guess Jefferson might be Zeus. And let me be clear, I think the greatest and coolest thing about our country is that we are the only country - I think - that was founded by intellectuals. I mean that's really fucking awesome.

However, they were not Gods - they were men. And they were men with interests. Now if they are Gods, then by definition whatever they say is true by fiat. So it's popular in political debate these days to just quote a founding father and using that as evidence that you are correct. This is insane, obviously, because it assumes all the founding fathers agreed on everything. But worse than that it's problematic because it assumes that didn't have real, serious problems.

I think it was Jay, though it might be Madison, that said (I'm paraphrasing from memory) "The people that own the country should run the country." That's not democratic. Obviously everyone knows about the owning of slaves. Now, let's be fair, i.e., respect, revere the brilliant things and dismiss the backwards ideas. But let's admit it's insane that there was ever a time when people in power did not want to keep their power.

The latest and most interesting example is Ronald Reagan. He's become a mythological figure in 30 years. Usually that takes many hundreds of years. I guess technology has sped up everything so much that it has caused dromoscopic delirium.

Reagen the person simply isn't what's being referring to by the current all-too-popular conservative signifier "Reagan." That signifier has become totally post-modern, referring only to itself, not to anything in the world. I feel it's without point to push this argument - but if you disagree, look it up. I still believe that things happen in the world that can be described more or less fairly. If the world is nothing but rhetoric - and I'm getting a PhD in Rhetoric - then we are, to use a technical term, fucked.

Now every act is rhetorical - everything is a gesture - a way of making meaning, but that doesn't imply there isn't a world out there that we share. In fact it's the opposite: only because we share a common world can we gesture to each other in the first place. Communication assumes a common world. We share it and let's learn to share it more honestly.

2 comments:

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  2. It is interesting how mythologies form, rise and eventually decline within our culture (or any culture at that that matter).

    I can remember as kid sensing the cowboy mythology waning. It seemed to carry more significance to our parents/grandparents during the height of the TV Westerns. The mythos being that cowboys were these bold spirits, adventurers and tamers of the west. (Studying history later revealed traits more along the lines of thieves, cut-throats and conquerers). I suppose the rock-star mythos carried more weight in the 80's when I was growing up, but even that became shenanigans as the 1990's/2000's rolled around and pop music changed.

    I could be confusing what you're saying about American mythology and cultural icons, but I'd like to think they are the same. I do understand what you mean about the mythology of the founding fathers- we have to draw our roots somewhere. They do get abused in political rhetoric these days. Religious fundamentalism likes to argue the whole 'One nation under God', which, when misinterpreted, is silly since they weren't describing a literal Christian theology.

    Last year I heard Noam Chomsky's interview about the mythology of Reagan. It was eye-opening, because the reality of Reagan seemed to stand in stark contrast to the mythos.

    I wonder who our new mythological creatures will be in the digital age. If I had to venture a guess- tech-messiahs and hackers. Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Julian Assange may be the mythological beings in the future. You can already see it happening.

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