Elfland and Bad Myth: (Ethics of Elfland)

 

Myth is important to many people and societies. G.K. Chesterton was no exception. In the Ethics of Elfland, he expressed admiration for myth as it can carry values and messages that can be passed from generation to generation without dramatic changes to what the society believes. While Chesterton poses this as a positive, let’s talk about the dark side of this that may occur for the sake of discussion. We talked a little bit about “bad myth” and arrived at a consensus that it is myth that perpetuates harmful mistruths. What if some of the myths we have been brought up are harmful? An example of this could be myths about racial inferiority that allowed for oppression across the globe. Good myth could be used to subvert this by expressing the need for equality or other values to cause change for the better. 

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