3/13/09

Myth vs. Logic

So there's a rumor out there that we are the myth-makers. It is up to us to create and maintain these myths. Some myths stem from a philosophical methodology, which in the case of Plato has snowballed into world-wide conflicts again and again in the form of organized religion. Myth is just as, if not more powerful than logic, especially when it exists as/for spectacle. As spectacle myth transcends logic in its ability to create masses. Logic dictates that we are all individuals that have subjective experiences coping with our limited time on this planet. But nonetheless will individually cease to be some day. The way in which we cope with such a concept has been studied, critiqued, re-defined, exponentially since the beginning of time. Historically, myth has sufficed as an unprovable and therefore undisprovable hypothesis. The main activity that has profited from this is the church. Plato, as mentioned, has had his work stretched to its very limits, and then doubled back on him. The notion that our being is fueled and birthed from conscious powers from above is most of what his idea was. This is a poetic expression of the Hegelian dialectic of power in its most efficient form (ie master/slave). The story of God is the story of opression, or the victor's history report, custom fit to perpetuate heterogeneous power. All of myth's power is in how it is more important to belong than it is to believe. Our connection with the absolute is one of the many ways in which our worth in society is gauged. Of course, one has to partake in the local absolute, because that's the true one.
Myth is capable of producing spear headed celebrity, but it is not condemned to it as is logic. Science speaks through one mouth piece, marines answer to one man, and crime to one body. Logic relies too heavily on the notion of genius. Sooner or later, this expert, professional genius is burdened by the details of leg work and can't let themselves focus on those aspects, so they divide the labor into individual components, thus creating more individuation. So maybe it's harsh to say that myth and logic create anything. They rely on each other and our collective knowledge to exist. But what perpetuates each is different: Myth is perpetuated by the masses, and logic by the individual. Or not.

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