The Best of The Best Myths
As Munich freelance writer Klaus Manhart reiterates in his article, “Likely Story,” in Scientific American Mind, humans need myths. The “brain needs a story…” he writes, and the brain needs, once the story is told, to be able to “explain the unexplainable,” [as Manhart notes Joseph Campbell discovered] to follow through on its imperative to “impose order on the world.”
But while justified in why we need myths, we are also called to our accountability when it comes to potentially damaging myths. Enter the brilliant John Stossel, 20/20’s challenging reporter, to deconstruct the media-driven myths of 2005.
As reported by LBN (Late Breaking News), John Stossel will de-mystify his version of the best of the best of myths--numbers one through ten as follows (on ABC’s 20/20, Friday, January 6, 2006:
Number 10: Americans have less free time than we used to.
Number 9. Money buys happiness.
Number 8: Republicans shrink government.
Number 7: The world is getting too crowded.
Number 6. Chemicals are killing us.
Number 5: Guns are bad.
Number 4: We're drowning in garbage.
Number 3: We're destroying our forests.
Number 2: Getting cold will give you a cold.
Number 1: Life is getting worse.
Now granted, minds such as those belonging to Manhart, Stossel, and we who are reading this have to make sense of the world, have to find an explanation for the unexplained (or inane). But do we have to de-bunk all that keeps us going, in faith, in nihilistic determination and malcontented spite? And, further, hadn’t we gotten over numbers 2, 5, and 9 by now????!! |
