Signals for what’s next – and what matters
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Hey Reader,
When a tradition, such as ours, is failing to get its message across — when its mythology is no longer fully functional — terrible things can begin to happen. The mythic structure of the society no longer supports the psychological development of the individual. (Joseph Campbell Myths of Light).
In age of collapse, the only way to survive is to live mythically.
Myth conjures up images of Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, but it is far from that.
It is the only way to organize, collaborate and coexist that makes a hopeful future possible.
Without myth, we have no North Star. We cannot navigate polarities and embrace complexities.
Without myth, all that’s left is ideology and identity.
Without myth, tribalism trumps meaning.
Apathy and cynicism naturally arise in the vacuum of prior myths now hollowed out. They are dangerous conceits precisely because they deny meaning to our lives. They are fundamentally anti-hope.
From there it is a short trip to nihilism and despair.
The new Gilded Age is not simply between the have’s and have not’s. It is those who can craft meaning versus those who cannot. Between those buy into false myths, even as they crumble – technology as the sole marker of progress, money as God – and those who can craft new mythos to speak to the current moment.
They say we live in an era without heroes.
No, we live in an era without myth – the background narrative that makes heroes even possible.
Living mythically is learning to carry the sacred when the world has gone cynical.
It may be the most important thing we learn to do as a civilization.
Of Myths and Meaning
We buried myth under algorithm irony and hustle.
And then we act surprised when we can’t love, laugh and live the way we want.
We have lost our shared story that binds us together. And so we have turned against each other.
But myth is more important than ever, not for its description of the outer world (science has that jurisdiction ) but its exploration of our inner worlds. As Yiannis Gabriel writes
Thinking mythologically helps us make sense of some of the troubles and challenges of our post-truth times for which scientific explanations fall short: environmental degradation, mass migration, war, inequality, exclusion, authoritarianism, and perplexing technological possibilities.
Myths also help us understand our inner world – our struggles for identity, our fears of aging and dying, our tendency to vilify the Other, our craving for powerful leaders, our frequent inability to distinguish between reality and delusion.
By addressing timeless questions about the human predicament, myths, as Freud and Jung recognized, have a therapeutic power – they help us endure the uncertainties, anxieties and troubles that life throws at us. Even in an age when science provides her own answers, our need for myth persists.
The beauty of myth are in two features that can help us rehabilitate our society:
- it is not about literal truth but metaphorical ones. This allows us to escape the tribal battles over “alternative facts” that has riven modern discourse. Myths are about meaning, interpretation and lessons – those are debates worth having.
- they can cultivate virtues not ideology. Myths teach us about reverence, the transcendent, purpose, what is beautiful and what is worth sacrificing for. Those are powerful concepts that have largely been replaced by technocratic language or the lexicon of the market as the primary metaphors of the day. They have garnered us wealth for sure but we have discounted the deep costs of such a transactional way of viewing the world.
Of course, with any tool or narrative, it can be weaponized for harm, greed and power. Trump, Putin, Orban, and Kim Jong Un are classic examples of this.
The only way to respond is to have a counter myth, one grander but more intimate, aspirational but emotionally resonant.
You don’t fight (would be) authoritarians with might and military alone. You work to revamp the cultural myths that make people like them obsolete.
The New Gilded Age
Convenience may be the ultimate narcotic of modern times. Our ever present, Netflix x Uber x TikTok scrolling world, seeks stimulation but no soul.
We have a shiny consumer culture masking existential despair.
A world optimized for convenience but stripped of meaning.
We are living mythically in the wrong way.
- The myth of endless growth persists, even as collapse accelerates.
- The myth of personal optimization persists, even as our systems crumble.
- The myth of individual salvation through technology or wealth persists, even as communal bonds fracture.
These are false myths — shiny, hollow stories built to keep the Gilded world humming.
Meanwhile, the deeper true myths — about belonging, sacrifice, courage, initiation, love, mortality — have been forgotten, outsourced, or mocked.
Depth, not dopamine, is the ultimate competitive advantage precisely because it is difficult.
It’s time we cultivate a world that ignores surface level dwelling for true residence. Think roots not just leaves.
Mythic Life 2.0
We need to learn to mythically. How? I’m no classics scholar but here are tips that can help us all. And no, they don’t need a wikipedia level knowledge of ancient Greek (or African or Indian…) tales.
But speaking of which, one of the reasons Stoicism has resurged in popularity along with modern re-tellings of Othello and the Odyssey is because they return us to the time of myth and still remain relevant. There’s a lesson in this.
- Don’t force believe – cultivate reverence. We all live behind digital avatars and text chains and memes. We have devolved human life into mere pixels and thoughts. But wonder, awe, reverence – these are unifying traits that cut across tribes and ideologies. Nature, music, human fellowship – these are the most direct portals to a sense of something greater than you.
- Reclaim Ritual – When I was a younger man, I had a disdain for ritual, ceremony and theatricality. It seemed so.. performative and disingenuous. In reality, that was probably my isolation and trauma speaking. Yes, rituals are inherently meaningless , but that remains they are blank canvasses that can allow us to create meaning. They provide structure, direction, purpose and beauty especially at threshold events. Light candles, pray, dance in your kitchen (as one of my PEX co founders recently did!) , and teach your children to do the same. The obsession over morning rituals of the world’s successful and super fit l is a sincere or misguided attempt to reclaim the power of ritual. Myth lives in repetition with reverence.
- Embody your Archetype – I’ve always been drawn to urban warriors like Batman or Daredevil who wanted to remake the world born of pain and seeking sacrificial purpose. (I may have some anger and matyrdom issues…) Others may see themselves in Beowulf or David or Apollo or Arjuna or any number of characters. Call it out. Maybe you are the Hermit, the King, or the Fool. What spirit seems to embody your life? That recognition crafts an arc to your life journey by the characters of history and literature that have walked a similar path. This is an act of symbolic living.
- Share your Path – For some reason, it really is only during college graduation speeches when our society transmits wisdom to younger generations. I’ve never understood why, but it may explain why some speeches have gone viral including that by Steve Jobs.Your life can be a source myth for others.
- Public Art – Art is inherently rebellious and iconoclastic because it is done for its own sake as opposed for transactional purposes. It’s why society has never known what to do with poets and painters. They howl at the moon, sing lyrical notes, and craft strange and compelling stories that make us weep but we don’t know why. No more than ever, we need art to move us into public spaces for communion. The most popular recent example to do this? The hip hop musical Hamilton – it reinvigorated a type of civic engagement and national discourse that cut across political lines.
- Your One (Sacred) Thing – One place in your life should remains un-ironic, un-negotiated, and whole. This can’t be for optimization, to do lists, or for status. It has to be emotional, intrinsically motivated, and authentic. That one thing becomes your North Star whether its prayer, poetry or a pilgrimage.
Postscript
Joseph Campbell argued that the hero’s journey is not just a story. It is the structure of transformation itself.
And transformation is the very thing our society needs.
All the pain, anger, and ennui cannot be ignored or dismissed. But it can be redeemed.
Living mythically is the most courageous act of rebellion in a time of transitions, take-downs, and terminations.
It may also be the last one.
Tomorrow can’t wait,
