American Mythology
Is the United States a prisoner of its own mythology? Tom Zoellner looks at “A Great Disorder” by Richard Slotkin.
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Is the United States a prisoner of its own mythology? Tom Zoellner looks at “A Great Disorder” by Richard Slotkin.
October 8, 2024 @ 10:24 am
An interesting read. If you’ll allow that a myth is a people’s vision of their history and a legend that mythology transferred onto the future as an expectation it would be very interesting to see what this group of thinkers might present concerning the terribly diverged visions of the future held by the various factions of modern Americans. The only thing that can compete with a myth in terms of a people’s self understanding is a legend.
I would posit that if the myth matches the legend the society described will, at a minimum, remain internally stable. On the other hand, if the myth does not match the legend things will inevitably degrade as the culture shifts along the break line between.
This is very much the terrain of a working CT, in terms of political manipulations these forces play large in any effort to shift a cultures basic trajectory. Thanks for introducing me to this author… I’ve learned something, I can go home now (grin). /