Maps of Meaning

Religion and myth?fill a gaping hole in the human psyche.

For millennia, humans lived in a world of myths. Religion was the equivalent of today’s science. With the age of experimentation and its emphasis on empirical observation, a new world emerged that seemed to?sideline?old myths and faith in God – rendered naive?by the new elite, even as they clung to a moral code based on Christianity.

“If the structure of culture is disrupted, unwittingly, chaos returns. We will do anything – anything – to defend ourselves against that return.”

Science leaves much unexplained. Into the void rushes rationalism and associated ideologies. Intellectually, fascism and communism should work, yet such logical, secular systems invariably fail quickly, often after subjecting millions to their horrors.

People need more than facts to nurture their souls. All nations and cultures have developed similar mythologies to explain the unexplainable and to use as a foundation for their?morality, values and meaning. These universal myths feature Carl Jung’s archetypes: the Great Mother, who represents the unknown and uncharted; the Great Father,?who represents?the known and safe (rules, culture, wisdom, and the like),?and the Divine Son, the hero who bridges the world of the known and unknown. The hero represents the vanguard of the culture who “faces the dragon”?on behalf of?the?people and returns with experiences and information that rejuvenate and fortify culture and society.

“Our great rationalist ideologies…fascist, say, or communist – demonstrated their essential uselessness within the space of mere generations, despite their intellectually compelling nature.”

Since archetypal myths cut across people and cultures, these stories offer insight into the common meanings, motivations, morality and actions – good and bad – that drive human beings.

In the absence of respect for mythology and?religion, morality disappears and excess rationality emerges. Leaders tap the mob mentality, sometimes leading to totalitarianism and immoral acts –?including genocide. Here, leaders grow too certain of human knowledge. Absent of empathy, they develop arrogance. If individuals rise to challenge the tide, they can avert such horrors. To avoid tyranny, communities should acknowledge and promote the supremacy of the individual. They should encourage people to follow their conscience – to stand up to the crowd when it breaches the norms of morality.

People create narratives to explain the unexpected occurs, whether negative or positive.

People constantly see, do and experience things that are new,?at least to them. They remember the actions that work in such?new contexts. They observe others’ successful behaviors and make sense of it all by weaving patterns of successful responses and behaviors into stories and narratives designed to get them where they want to go. Over centuries, such tales combine to take the form of history and culture.

“The appearance of the unexpected pops us out of unconscious, axiomatic complacency and forces us (painfully) to think.”

When experienced or observed successful behaviors don’t work, people adjust their narratives, goals and plans to accommodate the new information. In response to something mildly unexpected, people adopt?new actions or behaviors. Yet, when the profoundly unexpected happens, undermining all beliefs, people need to rebuild their narratives, plans and, ultimately, culture, from the foundations.

“Rituals designed to strengthen group identity hold chaos at bay but threaten individual identification with the exploratory hero – an identity upon which maintenance of the group ultimately depends.”

Even in dire, negative circumstances, people tell themselves a story, set new goals, adjust their expectations and find new meaning. In circumstances as harrowing as Nazi death camps, for example, a move from a particularly notorious camp to a less lethal one?could evoke prisoners' hope and joy.

“The incautious, imaginative (and resentful) can easily use their gift of socially constructed intelligence to undermine moral principles that took eons to generate and that exist for valid but invisible reasons.”

Perspective matters. A glass of water, or even the promise of one, takes on far more meaning when you suffer from acute thirst. Goals and drives often compete. Having to take food away from?a starving person might mute your hunger. Here, you balance and moderate your drives and goals using higher-order thinking and new narratives to overcome contradictions in meaning and motivation.

Humans and animals share an innate?negative response to the unknown and strange.

Many people?prefer?to exist within the protected domain of the known and expected – the culture, or Great Father, which people?imitate through “allowable behaviors.” People also remain acutely aware of the unknown, represented by the Great Mother. When the unknown appears, it shakes you out of your slumber. The brain attempts to classify the novel experience and determine the best response. Emotions, such as fear and uncertainty, combine with curiosity and interest, the latter permitting growth, learning and adaptation. Ultimately, the brain interprets and converts the new experience, with all?its imagery and illogic, into a rational story, transforming the “mysterious unknown into the desirable and predictable.” The new story joins others to form each person’s “map of meaning,” which then provides his or her?response to similar things or experiences in the future.

“At the end of this, the most cruel and bloodthirsty of centuries, we are in danger not only of failing to understand evil but of denying its very existence. Invisibility, however, is what the devil craves most.”

Across all peoples in a society, these responses, or allowable behaviors, form the culture: the way people do things. After centuries, people may not know the origins of these actions or why they do what they do. They imitate behaviors that?they survive the tests of time –?sometimes even?war. These behaviors?weave into a narrative that becomes the new cultural myth, the “codified religion” and the philosophy. They form into what Jung described as the collective unconscious?– transferred from generation to generation and across nations.

As a culture closes ranks against the strange, it becomes more rigid and?society grows tyrannical.

In a static culture, individual thought gives way to mass conformity. Society becomes stale and authoritarian, making it vulnerable to disruption, chaos?and collapse?and inviting atrocities.?To survive, cultures must demand enough adherence to the rules to support themselves while allowing enough deviation to respond and adapt to changes that would otherwise destroy them.

“Evil is rejection of and sworn opposition to the process of creative exploration. Evil is proud repudiation of the unknown and willful failure to understand, transcend and transform the social world.”

In mythology, by exploring the unknown, the fully-realized individual takes on the role of the hero – the Divine Son – who converts fear and uncertainty into new knowledge, and regains stability and meaning –?the hero who?turns “chaos into order.” The hero’s successful actions and responses modify the culture that guides people's thoughts, actions and behaviors.

Societies base culture on layers of paradigms to provide shelter from the unknown, yet anomalies emerge to disrupt them.

Paradigms that are accepted as universal truths?provide shortcuts. Cultural paradigms, like the existence of God, for example, influence the behaviors even of those who profess agnosticism or atheism. As Friedrich Nietzsche [1844–1900] observed, however, you ultimately can take nothing?for absolute truth.?A paradigm?prevails until new information – an anomaly?– challenges it.

“To…patriotically cling to tradition is to ensure that tradition will collapse precipitously – and far more dangerously – at some point in the not-too-distant future.”

Anomalous events, may occur naturally?through natural disasters,?events that can change and even destroy cultures before they can adapt. These events evoke similar fears to those that can also arise?from human-made anomalies, such as the threat of foreign ideas, people and culture. Strange people might act unpredictably. If they threaten a culture's?foundations, then the opposing cultures clash to resolve the unbearable discomfort induced by uncertainty.

“Failure to transcend group identification is, in the final analysis, as pathological as failure to leave childhood.”

Danger often arises when a new idea emerges – such as a simplistic and flawed, but intellectually appealing ideology – shattering the layers of an accepted truth or paradigm that underpins?the culture. People are naturally susceptible to the influence of ideas. Just one intelligent, articulate individual can use the power of words to disrupt long-held beliefs and morals. Where elements of the culture have eroded, such as the general abandonment of religion, new ideas find especially fertile ground. Hence, in keeping with Nietzsche’s description of a nihilistic Europe,?a few decades later came?the tumult of the 20th?century, filling the large spiritual vacuum left after the “death of God” and subsequent loss of meaning – a time in which incomplete and dangerous ideas flourished.

Adaptable cultures – those that place the individual ahead of society – tend to survive even swift and widespread change.

In common mythology, the usurper king presides over an arid, barren kingdom. The lost son and rightful heir, presumably killed in youth but secretly raised by others, endures a long struggle in exile. The son?returns, slays the king and takes his rightful place. Pleased, the gods restore the rains and the verdant kingdom returns.?Such myths reinforce the importance of cultural adaptation in response to paradigm shifts brought on by anomalies.

“The human purpose, if such a thing can be considered, is to pursue meaning.”

The hero lives at the edge of the culture. Heroes often appear?almost mad in their behavior because they have one foot in order (the way things are)?and another in chaos (the way things will be). They?detect emergent anomalies before anyone else. They visit that future – akin to a voyage to the underworld – and return with information vital to the revival or survival of their society. Yet, having touched the dangerous unknown,?the “contaminated” hero rarely receives a parade. Ordinary people?who fear uncertainty as they fear death, treat the hero?with suspicion and even hostility. Thus, the gifted hero, though a potential savior, often leads a difficult life.

Successful human development undergoes?three phases, each imperative for the survival of the culture.

Children?learn the culture under the protection of their parents, by observing them and other adults and then practicing through play. Then, as they come of age, adolescents require socialization – an apprenticeship of disciplined group conformity. For some, the journey ends here. Not everyone moves on to develop into mature, independent adulthood.

Many cultures practice similar rituals, particularly with males, as they transition from boyhood?to adolescence and then come of age. Often, the ritual includes some difficult, frightening passage through the unknown, putting adolescents into a condition in which they long for solid ground. A rebirth of sorts occurs, like a baptism. The group represents the safe shore.

Indoctrinated into a culture that they can’t consciously describe, most adolescents nonetheless conform, knowing that adherence to the common moral code leads toward their goal of finding a better place, whereas rebellion doesn’t. In healthy cultures, adolescent subjugation bolsters shared values and morals but doesn’t?suffocate the role of the hero, who, after an?apprenticeship, develops self-awareness, confidence and individuality. When necessary, the individual has the capacity to step forward to save –?or at least tweak –?the culture in the face of threats.

Within each person resides the hero and the antihero.

When anomalies appear and societies feel threatened, one of two types of person steps into the void:?1) the hero who confronts uncertainty and the unknown in the spirit of discovery,?and 2) the antihero who shrinks from change?and grows increasingly suspicious, intolerant?and insular.?Choosing the latter leads to?states of totalitarianism or decadence followed by totalitarianism. The fascist closes circles with the tribe, aiming to eliminate the unknown. The decadent devolves further into the self, head in the sand?and separate from the group, denying evil and essentially inviting a “wrathful God” through apathy and denial. “Failure to understand the nature of evil leads to its eventual victory.”

The hero?stands apart, refusing to go against personal beliefs for the sake of the security the group offers. Heroes?choose?meaning?above?safety, making their own lives?bearable, if often?tragic. Within every human exists the hero and its?“evil twin.” Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Idi Amin were as human as anyone, except they had the means to kill millions. Such evil springs from living in the “unbearable present,” self-hatred?and the need to make others suffer for it.?All humans have the capacity to commit unspeakable acts, but they have a choice. Evil comes from denying that choice;?ignoring the new,?unpredictable?and uncomfortable; and clinging to the known so much?that one will either commit or comply with mass murder to defend it –?ultimately hastening the destruction of all?one hopes to preserve.

Socialization?in adolescence is only an apprenticeship. Failure to transcend the group and become a true individual?renders people as grist for the mill of fascism or other ‘-isms,’ and condemns the culture to stagnate?– or worse. Only the fully realized individual can protect and further the culture by choosing to confront uncertainty when faced with anomaly, as opposed to denying it or resorting to tyranny to hold it at bay?fruitlessly.

Reject nihilism, accept responsibility and pursue your purpose. Such is the meaning of life.

Don’t lead the charge to kill the stranger, but don’t give in to nihilism either. Doing so represents a conscious, lazy and evil choice to avoid responsibility and?leads to decadence in which you?give up and give in, permitting the destruction of culture and society. Look to history for a?framework for meaning. Consult myths rather than Western renditions of history. Empirical history purports to state objectively?what happened, but myth derives from experience and “observation of behavior.”?It?boils down human experience,?explaining?why things happen and providing models to follow.

Don’t lie to yourself;?“serve truth.”?Do?unto others as you would have them do unto you. Acknowledge your?shortcomings. Realize that heaven is on Earth if only humans would see it. Remain willing to abandon the comfort and safety of the group – indeed, to invite its ridicule and contempt – in order not to sacrifice your uniqueness or convictions. Be courageous in confronting?the “terrible unknown.”?Find meaning in life by relentlessly pursuing your purpose – the unique way in which only you can advance culture and history.