Thanks for the response.

I don’t get too Freudian or Campbellian. I take Campbell’s point that myths of some sort, including Santa Claus, are part of the human experience because whatever the Truth may be, it’s probably bigger than us poor humans can handle, especially as children. We need some way to grow big enough to assimilate more truth.

I complain that I felt lied to when I was young, including all that Yankee-Doodle-Dandy stuff, that it seemed adults told me more for their benefit than mine.

Yet I agree with neo, that it’s important to have some reverence for one’s country, especially a country as great as America.

I’m not sure how to handle reverence and warts at the same time. The solution today is to forget reverence and get into the warts.

But emphasizing the warts is another set of lies told to benefit a different set of adults.

And I’m so old I remember reciting the pledge without the “under God” because it hadn’t been added yet, and then I remember when they added it. I was very very little, but I still remember.

One reason for reading a lot of American history was thinking the country was great and good. If the schools and the general culture teach you that your country is something to be ashamed of, you probably won’t bother with either history or civics. If you’re taught that the Constitution was the product of old White male slaveowners, you probably won’t want to learn much more about it than that.

I believe that the only way to prevent a hot civil war is a wholesale return to federalism, and an extension of the concept to even the smallest political unit. Right down to city councils and local school boards.

From your link: ” … In deference to Róheim, who defined myth as a mechanism for satisfying the universal human desire to return to the infant’s safety with its mother…” Is this Freudian psycho babble or real belief among current therapists, et al.? [I have never taken a formal course in psychology.] Presumably most of us went through the adolescent stage of moving away from parental control to self independence, away from infantilism, etc. Most achieve this responsible separation by age 18 to 25 or so. It may occur gradually and not all at once, and may be thwarted by bad parenting or educational abuse. Is that the ” pouch or “second womb” stage being referenced above?

Essentially, aren’t myths “explanations” to get around ignorance of reality, whether paleolithic, Egyptian, Greek, or 21st century [AGW]? Even an ugly truth is more beautiful than an artful lie, per Ode to a Grecian Urn. I agree there are age appropriate limitations that should be respected: no or limited sexual topics before 8 or 9; maybe even avoiding deep history and civics before 8 or 9 except for a mild form of social indoctrination. Some of the principles and ideas are rather abstract and the child needs some experience of the world to truly comprehend them, as do all too many adults. Prodigies can handle math or music, etc. at younger ages, but may need sheltering in other areas.

I think we are in basic agreement, but I felt the need to respond.

I complain, but I’m older than that now.

To some extent the young must start with a simplified “Santa Claus” world to understand. Training wheels.
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[In “Bios & Mythos”] Campbell invokes what was to become one of his favorite images for the function of myth: that of the marsupial pouch, the second womb. Here, more than elsewhere in his work, Campbell emphasizes myth as an intermediary aid that the individual can outgrow.

https://www.jcf.org/works/quote/human-adulthood-is-not-achieved-until-the-twenties/
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That’s what’s at stake today.

Who will provide which myths for the young to outgrow?

–neo

Agreed.

However, it seemed to me I was taught to idolize America above all else without question and it kinda went into the BS hopper of stuff I was supposed to nod along to, like the perfection of the Catholic Church or the indisputable evil of marijuana.

I felt like adults, near and far, were constantly lying to me, and I couldn’t figure it out beyond I would have to figure it out for myself.
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When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder I can think at all
And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none
I can read the writing on the wall

#KODACHROME Paul Simon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HA9eOv7LGw