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