The Theft of the Myth of America

elder999

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A self-described “right winger” often visits the gym at the lab when I work out. “Fred” (not his real name) and I maintain a cautiously friendly relationship, and when my lunchtime workout coincides with his, we sometimes politely spar about the issues that face our society and the world. During one such repartee, as I was questioning some of Fred’s beliefs about the motives of our country’s government, he suddenly asked me, “Do you hate America?” I can’t say I was surprised at the question; I’ve heard the accusation of anti-Americanism used often in recent years to quiet dissent. Yet it was the first time I’d personally been confronted with the thinly veiled accusation.

In my view, Fred (like others) is moved to try to stifle disagreement by his amazement, and fear, that I would have the audacity to disagree with many assumptions most Americans hold about their countryÂ’s culture and political motives. After all, there was widespread shock when celebrants of Columbus Day learned that other groups of Americans, namely the original ones, intended to protest the glorification of that manÂ’s legacy, using his own records to prove his greedy intent and murderous actions.

The subject here is myth, which according to Dr. Rick Wheelock, professor of Southwest and American Indian Studies at Fort Lewis College, is not just for small indigenous groups anymore. Myth might be defined as a traditional story or set of stories shared and accepted by any group of people to explain their worldview and justify their actions. In a Fulcrum Press anthology tentatively titled Destroying Dogma, Professor Wheelock instructs that “in each aspect of America’s development, a lasting, larger than life theme emerges to support the identity of a steadily progressing nation.” The compilation of these themes is what Dr. Wheelock calls “The American Story,” carefully edited in our nation-state’s history into “master narrative” form: the account of America’s successful rise to glory.

Like Columbus’ hero image, myths can often be easily disproved or discredited, which is not to say they die easily. Because myth lives in the incredibly powerful emotional and subconscious spheres of its adherents, mere fact does not automatically displace the preferred belief. In fact, accurate information is often bent in order to preserve what Wheelock calls “the basis for group actions and solidarity of purpose among the American people.” (With apologies to other inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, “America” will be used to refer to the United States. )

If the actions of the American citizenry — through a tacit responsibility for their government’s actions — toward, for example, elected governments in South America or civilians in Iraq turns out not to match the popularly held notion of a just and caring society, that information is suppressed and the messenger vigorously attacked. Witness the clamorous denouncements of France, the United Nations and anyone else pointing out the illegalities and immorality of the unilateral attack on a sovereign nation. The specific points of reason behind any such “insults to America,” whatever their merits, were conveniently lost in the furor and did not see the light of day. At least — and this should alarm us — not in this country.

There are many instances of the myth of America obstructing our reasoning, leading to denials that permit and even dictate wrong action. Why, if a sacred part of Our Story is the overthrow of monarchical rule in favor of an egalitarian society, do we still strive to “live like kings,” feeling that we as Americans (at least some of us) have the unique right to that lifestyle, regardless of the cost to other peoples and the wealth of the planet?

Now we have turned over leadership of our national government — and many local and state institutions as well — to men whose greatest, perhaps only, talent is knowing how to use The American Story to fulfill their ideology. They know that the great Americans in the history books never suffered self-doubt and that to admit mistakes is weakness. They are acutely aware of the reverence with which military heroes are held and how, in America, the concept of the self-sufficient individual, though in fact a bygone phenomenon, can be easily twisted to mean “devil take the hindmost.”

I am not suggesting we scrap our myths, even if we could. Rather, let us truthfully reexamine them in public dialogue. As a multicultural society, we will surely discover useful ideals in the myths of others among us: tolerance for the ways of others; the solidarity that comes with understanding that offense to one is offense upon all; maybe even a long-lost tradition of self-restraint. Ancient stories can serve us well in facing the challenges of the 21st century.
 

BlueDragon1981

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You make a good arguement. I read books that deal with the sole called history of the U.S and many of them are misquoted and tell heros tales instead of what really happened. This is not unusual. It is said that the victor writes the history books.

I have two books now that actually deal with putting some of what history text books claim into the perspective or close to what really happened. Much of it deals with early american history.
 

still learning

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Hello, The American government is not perfect, and is run by human beings whose backgrounds are all different.

Man make the laws...man can change them too...? The way you were raise and taught in your schools(including church) will influence your thoughts and feeling of what is right or wrong.

If you were taught that not to eat meat and this is bad for you...than you will most likely grow up this way and your kids too. While your neighbor believes in eating meat and does all the time, most likely his children will eat meat too.

So what is right or wrong will be base on the way you were brought up. No two people will agree on everything. I prefer fish over meat...because we live near an ocean and where brought up on fish.

The death sentence,abortion rights, right to live....among the other thousand of things in our lives are influence by our parents,teacher,role models, that help us form our personalities.

What is right for one person may be different for the next. There is so many different models of cars, colors and shape..everyone has a perfer model. NO right or wrong here.

Study this.....your belief's will always differ... except mines...it stays the same? except on tuesday, thrusday, monday,saturday,wednesday,sunday and friday. ...........Aloha ( I reserved the right to change my mine).
 

bushidomartialarts

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i feel about america the same way winston churchill is said to have commented about democracy.

it's a terrible system, a terrible society. simply awful. corrupt, arrogant, self-deluding and rapacious.

it does have one advantage: it's an order of magnitude better than anything else we've come up with so far.

and we appear to be progressing.
 

Flying Crane

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bushidomartialarts said:
i feel about america the same way winston churchill is said to have commented about democracy.

it's a terrible system, a terrible society. simply awful. corrupt, arrogant, self-deluding and rapacious.

it does have one advantage: it's an order of magnitude better than anything else we've come up with so far.

and we appear to be progressing.

I can find a lot to agree with in what you say here. I do think that it is important to examine what is wrong with our nation however, because without that it will not progress. I also believe that many people are unable/unwilling to see the flaws in our nation and that is what I find disturbing. If our population would wake up to the corruption and problems that our nation has, and take a collective stand that we will not tolerate it, our nation could be much greater than it is.
 

heretic888

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elder999 said:
A self-described “right winger” often visits the gym at the lab when I work out. “Fred” (not his real name) and I maintain a cautiously friendly relationship, and when my lunchtime workout coincides with his, we sometimes politely spar about the issues that face our society and the world. During one such repartee, as I was questioning some of Fred’s beliefs about the motives of our country’s government, he suddenly asked me, “Do you hate America?” I can’t say I was surprised at the question; I’ve heard the accusation of anti-Americanism used often in recent years to quiet dissent. Yet it was the first time I’d personally been confronted with the thinly veiled accusation.

In my view, Fred (like others) is moved to try to stifle disagreement by his amazement, and fear, that I would have the audacity to disagree with many assumptions most Americans hold about their countryÂ’s culture and political motives. After all, there was widespread shock when celebrants of Columbus Day learned that other groups of Americans, namely the original ones, intended to protest the glorification of that manÂ’s legacy, using his own records to prove his greedy intent and murderous actions.

The subject here is myth, which according to Dr. Rick Wheelock, professor of Southwest and American Indian Studies at Fort Lewis College, is not just for small indigenous groups anymore. Myth might be defined as a traditional story or set of stories shared and accepted by any group of people to explain their worldview and justify their actions. In a Fulcrum Press anthology tentatively titled Destroying Dogma, Professor Wheelock instructs that “in each aspect of America’s development, a lasting, larger than life theme emerges to support the identity of a steadily progressing nation.” The compilation of these themes is what Dr. Wheelock calls “The American Story,” carefully edited in our nation-state’s history into “master narrative” form: the account of America’s successful rise to glory.

Like Columbus’ hero image, myths can often be easily disproved or discredited, which is not to say they die easily. Because myth lives in the incredibly powerful emotional and subconscious spheres of its adherents, mere fact does not automatically displace the preferred belief. In fact, accurate information is often bent in order to preserve what Wheelock calls “the basis for group actions and solidarity of purpose among the American people.” (With apologies to other inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, “America” will be used to refer to the United States. )

If the actions of the American citizenry — through a tacit responsibility for their government’s actions — toward, for example, elected governments in South America or civilians in Iraq turns out not to match the popularly held notion of a just and caring society, that information is suppressed and the messenger vigorously attacked. Witness the clamorous denouncements of France, the United Nations and anyone else pointing out the illegalities and immorality of the unilateral attack on a sovereign nation. The specific points of reason behind any such “insults to America,” whatever their merits, were conveniently lost in the furor and did not see the light of day. At least — and this should alarm us — not in this country.

There are many instances of the myth of America obstructing our reasoning, leading to denials that permit and even dictate wrong action. Why, if a sacred part of Our Story is the overthrow of monarchical rule in favor of an egalitarian society, do we still strive to “live like kings,” feeling that we as Americans (at least some of us) have the unique right to that lifestyle, regardless of the cost to other peoples and the wealth of the planet?

Now we have turned over leadership of our national government — and many local and state institutions as well — to men whose greatest, perhaps only, talent is knowing how to use The American Story to fulfill their ideology. They know that the great Americans in the history books never suffered self-doubt and that to admit mistakes is weakness. They are acutely aware of the reverence with which military heroes are held and how, in America, the concept of the self-sufficient individual, though in fact a bygone phenomenon, can be easily twisted to mean “devil take the hindmost.”

I am not suggesting we scrap our myths, even if we could. Rather, let us truthfully reexamine them in public dialogue. As a multicultural society, we will surely discover useful ideals in the myths of others among us: tolerance for the ways of others; the solidarity that comes with understanding that offense to one is offense upon all; maybe even a long-lost tradition of self-restraint. Ancient stories can serve us well in facing the challenges of the 21st century.

Well said. An excellent description of the mythological worldview, specifically manifested in what sociologist Robert Bellah called the American Civil Religion.

This reminds me of something I just said on another thread:

heretic888 said:
The characteristic feature of the mythological worldview (what philosopher Jean Gebser described as 'mythic-membership') is an intensified sense of sociocentrism (or enthnocentrism), xenophobia, and in-group status. What unites all "fundamentalists" --- whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or what have you --- is the defining belief that they are the "right" or "chosen" or "saved" people, that all others (while they may be "nice" or "good" people) are "wrong", and that all those "others" are going to be punished by "their" god (whether in afterlife or at the End of Days).

In this context, of course, the "god" in question is the God of America.

Laterz.
 

heretic888

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still learning said:
What is right for one person may be different for the next. There is so many different models of cars, colors and shape..everyone has a perfer model. NO right or wrong here.

The moral relativism you are invoking is a performative contradiction of itself: Relativist Fallacy.

Laterz.
 

still learning

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heretic888 said:
The moral relativism you are invoking is a performative contradiction of itself: Relativist Fallacy.

Laterz.

Thank-you ...if I didn't than that means I could.....Always trying to have the same difference here. No two look alike..unless mirror in the mirror.

Oneness is almost nothing....does it have an equal?

Life is short...if you live to a hundred years....looking at someone...long ago.

That is why if George Washinton was alive today? ...he will be known as the oldest man on earth.................Aloha
 

heretic888

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still learning said:
Thank-you ...if I didn't than that means I could.....Always trying to have the same difference here. No two look alike..unless mirror in the mirror.

Oneness is almost nothing....does it have an equal?

Life is short...if you live to a hundred years....looking at someone...long ago.

That is why if George Washinton was alive today? ...he will be known as the oldest man on earth.................Aloha

What.... the.... hell???? :idunno:
 

Kacey

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The thing to remember about myths and history in this context is that history (that is, the "official" story) is written by the winners in any contest - that is, the person or persons who end up in power. No matter how fair and balanced they may try to be, their own perceptions will color which details they choose to include or delete. Myth, in this context, is written by the putatitive losers - those who do not end up sufficiently in power to be writing the history books.

The internet has had both positive and negative effects on this process. Information from all sides of an issue are freely available - to the point that the amount of information is available on any particular issue is overwhelming. In addition, information travels quickly and freely around much of the world - so quickly and freely that fact and fiction become inextricably intertwined, and true fact becomes difficult to discern. Someone receives an email from someone they trust, and send the 'facts' on... copy errors may occur, or someone may add to or subtract from the 'facts' they send on. This practice occurred prior to the internet as well, and the error rate was, in many ways, even higher (consider the old party game "Telephone", and how quickly the original statement was garbled) - there is less detail drop out in forwarding email, but the dissemination of myth and error far outstrips the correction rate.... but the process, while modified, is still the same as it was 100, or even 1000 years ago.

And now that I have rambled long enough (having been to grad school tonight) I am off in search of less cerebral topics... especially since the class topic this evening was "counseling students who have lost a family member to murder".
 
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elder999

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Kacey said:
And now that I have rambled long enough (having been to grad school tonight) I am off in search of less cerebral topics... especially since the class topic this evening was "counseling students who have lost a family member to murder".

How miserable...having taught some...interesting topics myself, I still can't imagine how one would go about "teaching" such a thing-if you're up to it, I'd be really interested in knowig how that discussion went.....
 

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If you like, refer said right-winger to this URL...

http://monotheism.us

...where a goodly number of right-wing myths about the supposed religiosity of the Founding Fathers are debunked by quotes from those self-same honored personages.

Gan Uesli Starling
 

Xue Sheng

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This is entirely out of context, but it was mentioned in the original post.

The best thing I have heard from the American Indians about Columbus discovering America was "What did he discover, we knew where we were"
 

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