Just to highlight the prevalence of myth in our society I will give a few examples from the present and not-too-distant past.
~ A big societal myth beloved of the political/money-making establishment is that if policies favour the rich becoming super-rich they will invest their money in factories etc. and the poor will eventually benefit because the economy will improve sufficiently to give everyone jobs. This economic paradigm may have some credence in respect of the middle and working classes but has little or no effect on the Focus Group.
This myth is promoted because it suits the corporate world.
~ The argument is often made that prison is not a very good method of ensuring that we will have less crime in society. (Indeed it has often been called a University of Crime). However vast amounts of money are expended on prisons so someone obviously believes that by spending money on prisons we are, somehow or another, doing something to reduce the incidence of crime in society.
Those who make the former argument would probably regard the latter belief as a myth.
~ A well publicised myth (that I remember anyway) occurred in 1980 when Lord Denning, in England, stated, when commenting on the actions of the West Midlands Police, that the Birmingham Six could not be innocent because if they were it raised the appalling vista that the police were guilty of beating confessions out of them – and this could not happen – therefore they must be guilty. (The Lord reportedly retracted his comments in later life).
Adherence to the myth of police-good-behaviour trumped the reality of hard evidence.
~ There are two posts in the website that describe invention of myths to control the past. This is done in the knowledge that if we do that we can manipulate history and control the present and future to suit our agenda.
Firstly, in this post cruel and callous imperial conquest is linked to sport, an activity that most people feel promotes positive values, and secondly (and closer to home), this post promotes the myth that violent struggle against oppression – where terrible and cruel deeds are carried out – is honourable and dignified only if it is initiated and led by people of importance in society.
~ Adherence to myth is exposed in the well-known folk tale The Emperor Has No Clothes, where an emperor rode on horseback down a public street, naked. When a young boy in the crowd expressed some surprise at this spectacle he was told to shut up by adult onlookers, who really needed to believe that the Emperor was, indeed, fully clothed.
The above are fairly obvious (as are all the examples that I gave in the post on corporate closedness) but I include more subtle myths below. I include five – I could come up with many more – examples that I have had direct experience of, and/or may be proposed by people desperate to come up with solutions to seemingly impossible situations.
Once again – my principal concern is families in the Focus Group.
Examples Of Myths
And, while I am on the subject, what I might call a million-€-myth!
Consider the urban regeneration of so-called disadvantaged areas.
The idea that spending millions knocking houses that have been allowed fall into disrepair by people who haven’t got the skills to keep a house in proper order, and building more for the same people without a long term developmental plan for the people themselves is surely one of the most expensive myths of all.
This a very good example of the quick-fix, top-down solution that 1): ignores the potential and innate wisdom of ordinary people 2): supports the we’ll do it for you not with you thinking 3): disregards the need for longevity in respect of human change and/or development, and 4): totally misunderstands the complexity of the problem.
And to finish this post, let me stress that I am not campaigning for change in the examples described 1 to 7 in the Table above. I mention them to encourage you to raise your awareness of myth in the helping industry.