numb3r_5ev3n (
numb3r_5ev3n) wrote2025-07-22 09:45 pm
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Myth And Meaning.
This post is mostly in response to this video.
When Post Modernism and the remnants of the the Enlightenment declared the cultural myths of our collective past anathema or meaningless, those of good faith abandoned it all, and left it lying on the battlefield; obsessed with clinging only to what was verifiably true or verifiably real in "real reality."
"We've left myth and superstition behind," they congratulated each other, with relieved smiles that were also maybe a touch too smug and self-satisfied.
But they left myth and meaning on the battlefield for Gmork to seize. For Fascists to pick up and use. And the Nothing grows stronger.
We should have learned this lesson 80 years ago, but we ignored it. We let it slip through our fingers. And now it's begging us to listen, to pay attention, and to understand.
Now, the reactionary creeps imagine themselves to be the defenders and gatekeepers of myth, and they've exploited the mythic image of the Golden King in order to seize control of the world. But *myth* is all the reactionary creeps have. People of good faith at least have Verifiable Truth, which is something that the reactionary creeps will never have. So they fight for myth and symbolism as if it's the only thing worth fighting for - because it represents the totality of their reality and experience.
But now, women and girls, and young people of color, or people with their gender in transition, are finally seeing themselves represented in our modern myths as protagonists, as more than secondary characters, or villains, or cautionary tales, or comic relief, or prizes to be won. And the reactionary creeps wail and shriek in weepy, snotty, indignant outrage that they're being robbed, because myth is literally all they have.
They could just shrug, and return to their own gallery of pleasing, ego-soothing Heroic/Solar-Phallic myth-images; because despite their wails, they are still represented in a pandering majority. But they can't let anyone else be seen or heard or represented, because myth is literally all they have.
The winning move is not to leave myth behind. For people of good faith need to take it back, to reclaim it. Because when we take it from reactionary creeps, they won't have anything left but the hollow reality of their own empty souls, their own barren constructs; voids containing nothing but cheap, cracked mirrors designed to reflect their own warped self-images back at them. Only then will they *have* to face reality for what it actually is.
When Post Modernism and the remnants of the the Enlightenment declared the cultural myths of our collective past anathema or meaningless, those of good faith abandoned it all, and left it lying on the battlefield; obsessed with clinging only to what was verifiably true or verifiably real in "real reality."
"We've left myth and superstition behind," they congratulated each other, with relieved smiles that were also maybe a touch too smug and self-satisfied.
But they left myth and meaning on the battlefield for Gmork to seize. For Fascists to pick up and use. And the Nothing grows stronger.
We should have learned this lesson 80 years ago, but we ignored it. We let it slip through our fingers. And now it's begging us to listen, to pay attention, and to understand.
Now, the reactionary creeps imagine themselves to be the defenders and gatekeepers of myth, and they've exploited the mythic image of the Golden King in order to seize control of the world. But *myth* is all the reactionary creeps have. People of good faith at least have Verifiable Truth, which is something that the reactionary creeps will never have. So they fight for myth and symbolism as if it's the only thing worth fighting for - because it represents the totality of their reality and experience.
But now, women and girls, and young people of color, or people with their gender in transition, are finally seeing themselves represented in our modern myths as protagonists, as more than secondary characters, or villains, or cautionary tales, or comic relief, or prizes to be won. And the reactionary creeps wail and shriek in weepy, snotty, indignant outrage that they're being robbed, because myth is literally all they have.
They could just shrug, and return to their own gallery of pleasing, ego-soothing Heroic/Solar-Phallic myth-images; because despite their wails, they are still represented in a pandering majority. But they can't let anyone else be seen or heard or represented, because myth is literally all they have.
The winning move is not to leave myth behind. For people of good faith need to take it back, to reclaim it. Because when we take it from reactionary creeps, they won't have anything left but the hollow reality of their own empty souls, their own barren constructs; voids containing nothing but cheap, cracked mirrors designed to reflect their own warped self-images back at them. Only then will they *have* to face reality for what it actually is.