Michael Hemmer: The Lack of American Myth

       This blog post is primarily born out of a reflection on this course and modern events. One of the greatest threats to America is the growing polarization between citizens. There are a number of reasons for this polarization such as political rhetoric and the fertile breeding ground of extremism that is social media, but I want to focus on another potential factor. The lack of shared myth in America. 

      There is a small handful of American myths, such as the stories surrounding Paul Bunyan or John Henry, but these stories receive little attention today. Rather, due to the lack of historic myth, we have invented myth's of our own. Perhaps the most truly American myth originated with the comic book and the super heroes that were born out of the comic book industry. Of course more recently, these myths have been adapted by Hollywood. However, I view these as entirely insufficient. The biggest problem with using film as a method of demonstrating myth, is that for most mainstream films, the actual story being told takes a back seat to things such as special effects, novelty, and subversion of expectations. This can be seen throughout Hollywood epics from the MCU to Star Wars. Rather than a unified mythos, we see limited story-telling and minimal character development for the majority of characters we encounter. Perhaps this decline in quality is due to the monetization of myth in America, in which the purpose of myth-making in the mainstream has been changed from a focus on communicating truth or presenting real stories, to making money. In America, any myth we produce has largely turned into distractions rather than anything meaningful or worth deriving meaning from. 

    This lack of shared myth, I think, has pushed people into mythologizing politics, which contributes to the polarization we see today. It is common to find people who are ideologically possessed by their political mythos they subscribe to, which fuels the division in America. In the past, most Americans held strong religious beliefs, which helped form a basic shared mythos that helped keep the country unified. With the erosion of religion in America, where does the individual turn for meaning? And if half of the country turns one way, and the other half turns the opposite way, at what point does it become unsustainable. I think these are questions that lots of people are asking these days.