What our society suffers from most
today is the absence of consensus about what it and life in it ought to be; such
consensus cannot be gained from society’s present stage, or from fantasies about
what it ought to be. For that the present is too close and too diversified, and
the future too uncertain, to make believable claims about it. A consensus in the
present hence can be achieved only through a shared understanding of the past,
as Homer’s epics informed those who lived centuries later what it meant to be
Greek, and by what images and ideals they were to live their lives and organize
their societies. Most societies derive consensus from a long
history, a language all their own, a common religion, common ancestry. The myths
by which they live are based on all of these. But the United States is a country
of immigrants, coming from a great variety of nations. Lately, it has been
emphasized that an asocial, narcissistic personality has become characteristic
of Americans, and that it is this type of personality that makes for the lack of
well-being, because it prevents us from achieving consensus that would
counteract a tendency to withdraw into private worlds. In this study of
narcissism, Christopher Lash says that modern man, "tortured by
self-consciousness, turns to new therapies not to free himself of his personal
worries but to find meaning and purpose in life, to find something to live for".
There is widespread distress because national morale has declined, and we have
lost an earlier sense of national vision and purpose. Contrary
to rigid religions or political beliefs, as are found in totalitarian societies,
our culture is one of the great individual differences, at least in principle
and in theory; but this leads to disunity, even chaos. Americans believe in the
value of diversity, but just because our is a society based on individual
diversity, it needs consensus about some dominating ideas more than societies
based on uniform origin of their citizens. Hence, if we are to have consensus,
it must be based on a myth--a vision about a common experience, a conquest that
made us Americans, as the myth about the conquest of Troy’ formed the Greeks.
only a common myth can offer relief from the fear that life is without meaning
or purpose. Myths permit us to examine our place in the world by comparing it to
a shared idea. Myths are shared fantasies that form the tie that binds the
individual to other members of his group. Such myths help to ward off feelings
of isolations, guilt, anxiety, and purposelessness--in short, they combat
isolation and the breakdown of social standards and values.
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