In my experience, the more hierarchical an organisation is, the more likely it is that myths will prevail.
On the surface the reason for this would seem to be a fear of challenging someone in power, fear of losing out on promotion or losing one’s job etc. etc.
However in addition to fear there are very powerful unconscious group dynamics at play that promote the ‘we all know what should be done but none of us will stand up and say so’ type of thinking. This is a very common feature of the way humans behave in groups, and I have referred to it elsewhere.
Now, in respect of downward causation, when it comes to the family, some of our most harmful myths concern violence. I will focus on some of them here.
Take, for example, one of the more explicit hierarchies, the military. The great armies of the world who terrorise entire countries would not want prospective recruits in their countries, who might be considering the military as a career, to be aware of what war does to children. They wouldn’t fill half a page of broadsheet with a picture of injured children crying for their dead mother and ask do you want to be part of this?
Instead of showing the reality of war, and telling the whole truth they portray a myth, that military life is a positive and adventurous experience where one can learn new skills, travel the world and do some good.
This, of course, is linked to another great myth – the one that we humans are safer and will enjoy more long term security for our children and families when we are in a state of preparedness for fighting than when we are cooperating.
Some years ago a terrorist organisation in the Middle East used beheading to punish people that were guilty of – from their point of view – crimes, and, of course, to shock the Western World. Virtually all media commentators rightly considered this to be cruel and pitiless.
But Saudi Arabia, who do a lot of lucrative business with countries in the Western World use beheading as a method of execution of their citizens who are found to be guilty of certain crimes. Doing business with them doesn’t seem to be inhibited by the harshness of their punishments.
And Henry the Eighth of England used beheading to terrorise those who got in his way (including his own wives) in England in the 16th century. The French Revolutionaries terrorised their opponents the same way. Oliver Cromwell was ruthless and merciless in his pursuit of his goal of getting rid of the Catholic Irish.
All above are remembered with some admiration in their respective countries. Should not their terrorism (or in Cromwell’s case, ethnic cleansing and war crimes) be loathed by all so-called right-thinking men and women?
Yet in the town of Ely, in England, Cromwell is noted as a man who had many positive attributes, and was tenth on the list of the 100 Greatest Britons in a poll in 2002. And the anniversary of the very violent French Revolution, (14th July) that led to the Terror, where beheading was the principal method of getting rid of opponents, is now a national holiday in France.
And we do not need to look abroad. Already I referred to our own well-promoted myth that the Old IRA were noble and the New IRA were bad (which I also mentioned halfway down the last post).
But surely the greatest and most harmful myth of all is that we think that we are somehow special – and immune from extinction.
But life, as distinct from human life, has a resilience all of its own. Gaia hypothesis implies that the planet will get rid of anything that threatens life – not human life per se. In this thinking, the human species is expendable.
Virtually all Governments everywhere, while promoting themselves as democratic independent entities guarding the people’s welfare, have (as we have seen in the Sub-Chapter on Power and Control in Society) almost always been supportive of the corporate establishment, which, in turn, has usually been indistinguishable from royalty – or the Politburo in the Soviet Union or the People’s Congress in China – which passed (or pass) for a kind of royalty in those countries.
Community workers need to remember that there is a direct link between the preservation of myths and the view that prevails in every country of the world that keeps people helpless, powerless and poor.
The feeling of being entitled to more has always been a feature of those who have the wit to dominate others. This filters down the line to the people at the bottom rung of the income and status ladder, who, to paraphrase the footballer, pundit and writer Eamonn Dunphy from his highly entertaining book ‘Only A Game’ are entitled only to be fodder for the needs of the corporate world.
So it is important when we focus on design that we challenge what we believe are myths because there is a direct link between myth and energy.
Myth dampens enthusiasm, causes cynicism and distrust of institutions, and ultimately assists in keeping people in their place.
Imagine, if you can, all the energy that would be unleashed in society if we believed reality instead of myth, if we were true to ourselves, and if common-sense instead of non-sense prevailed.
Being true is a gift we give ourselves ……. and we deserve at least that!