Myth Made Men

Over the last few days, I've been "under the weather". As usual, I use this as an excuse to impersonate my favorite vegitable, lie on the couch and watch TV all day. My choice of material this time was a biography of Winston Churchill followed by  World War II In Colour. I'm particularly interested in this extremely important period of history which lead directly to my own conception -- the joyful (then) union of a Canadian soldier and a British "war bride".All this material is fairly familiar to me, even though I was not (quite) born yet. However, this time around, I was struck by something new (to me anyway). This was the haunting parallels between the mythical thinking of the protagonists.

Lest you think that myth is all about "gods", I must remind you that the main theme of Biblical mythology is not so much "God" as the idea that the Israel is special -- "God's chosen people". This particular idea (and it's opposite) is still powerful enough to threaten the peace of the entire planet, but more on that later.

Common Name	Chosen People	Reference	Moment in History
Nazi Germany	Aryans	Hitler’s Mein Kampf	Auschwitz
British Empire	English Speaking People	Churchill, “History of the English Speaking People”	Dresden
The Japanese	Japanese empire	Culture	Rape of Nanking
America	Democracy	Philosophy of “American Exceptionalism”	Hiroshima, North Vietnam, Iraq

Anyone who has been paying the slightest attention will be familiar with Hitler's idea of the superiority of the  totally mythical "Aryan" race, which entitled it in his mind (and no small number of his followers) to destroy all other races. His ideas were well documented in advance in "Mein Kampf". It is important to understand that these ideas were not entirely original with Hitler, but were "in the air" in Europe at the time. They were the what we may call the "Aryan mythology", which still has the power to inspire otherwise malnourished minds to this day. Once we (yes WE) are convinced that we belong to a chosen people (God need not enter into it), we are entitled to ruthlessly destroy all those who are not "us". Of course the Bible (Old and New Testament)  is full of this kind of thinking and the associated atrocities (real, imagined and merely wished-for), but allow me to stick with the recent past.

Somewhat less familiar is the entirely parallel thinking of Hitler's nemesis (and our hero) Winston Churchill. He was convinced that there was a special role for the "English Speaking People". It was more than mere personal opinion -- he saw it as his reason for being put on Earth. He advocated using poison gas on the Germans but (overruled by his generals) settled for carpet bombing of civilians, most notably those living in Dresden, a target of zero military significance. In spite of the fact that he could see out his window that the English speaking citizens of London were not beaten into submission by the blitz, he somehow believed that the racially inferior German speaking enemy would throw into the towel when submitted to exactly the same tactic.

More recently, we have been treated to a ring-side seat as the mythology of American Exceptionalism has been inflicted on the world with particular focus on those who are not in a position to strike back (Vietnam, Laos, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan ...) . Most recently, anyone with a taste for irony would have noticed the bizarre logic that equated the deaths of some 4,000 people of miscellaneous heritage (but addresses in America) on 9/11 with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non-Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two pointless decades-long wars (still in progress as I write) were conducted in the defense of  "the American Way of Life" against those who "hate" it -- chiefly Muslims.

While Hitler trusted in the Luftwaffe, believers like George Bush and Osama bin Laden expected a significant   helping hand from the Almighty, but the historical phenomenon is the same: a clash of conflicting mythologies with both sides considering themselves as special or "chosen" while the "others" must simply be exterminated.

I hope that my reader will not get distracted by my insult to his or her own particular "spin" on history. The above analysis is sure to offend everybody, which is precisely my point.   "Mythology" is not confined to the Bible. We are all totally immersed in the mythology of our times. We are like fish who will never discover water until we are pulled out of it. However, even in those myths that inspire horrendous atrocities, there may be a core of truth that can give birth to new ways of thinking -- perhaps myths that do not require the extermination of the "others". Such inspiration  is to be discovered in the message of Jesus, which I will return to presently.