Joseph Cambell & Our Lack of Myth

A detailed Summary of Joseph Cambell & Our Lack of Myth

Are we becoming grandmothers and grandfathers to a legacy of faceless nobodies who will one day populate this post-modern vacuum of human isolation? Do myths have the power to halt this cycle we've been sucked into? Are they a way of rekindling that fascination about life that the future is draining us of? Joseph Campbell would argue in the book The Power of Myth that yes, with a psychological interpretation of myths we can find meaning in our lives, or even more so, the experience of living. Myths are important to the betterment of society because, according to Campbell, they bolster the rituals that define it.

Campbell says initiations and rituals are necessary to make one feel like part of a great social order. And what if that great order included everyone, if we were all a part of it? Then would we not all feel like a part of nothing? What good is it to be part of a club if everyone is in it? Campbell would argue that that is the lack of myth speaking. A unified world would be a "club" in the sense that it is a privilege to be a part of it. But with all of us in it as one, we are not all on the same level. Rites serve as a way of "promoting" us and defining our position in society. Without myth it is as though we are

...kids have their own gangs and their own initiations and their own morality, and they're doing the best they can. But they're dangerous because their own laws are not those of the city. They have not been initiated into our society (9).

...the maturation of the individual, from dependency through adulthood, through maturity, and then to the exit; and then how to relate to this society and how to relate this society to the world of nature and the cosmos...But the society that it's got to talk about is the society of the planet. And until that gets going, you don't have anything (40).

Campbell's biggest claim is that man finds life meaningless because he lacks myth. After having reading The Power of Myth I discovered it is a hard case to argue against. The patterns that exist between myths, between cultures, between global problems, and between people themselves are too obvious to ignore. And the patterns of how our culture has developed show a blatant breakdown in the foundations of our systems: myths. Myths give us rituals and rites of passage, which in turn shape the given society. Until we can accept the basis of our civilization as global truths, we may see more water pulsing from the cracks.

With this statement in mind, having myth in society would provide stability and structure to the way we live. No matter how socially heroic we may seem, everyone takes the same internal journeys, struggling spiritually and psychologically. We share that "collective unconscious." Through reading the stories of heroes, we experience their journeys and conquests and in turn grow through them. Myths set guidelines on how we should go about living, as a community and as individuals. They give us a place and purpose in the world and teach us to live with dignity and com

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Approximate Word count = 1203
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History