THE RETURN OF MYTH
The contradictory processes of de-mythologization and re-mythologization are
not unknown to ancient civilizations, in which the old myths are sometimes
destroyed (demythologization) and replaced with new myths (remythologization).
In other words, herein are the processes of de-mythologization and
re-mythologization mutually caused and interdependent processes. They do not
call into question the very basis of traditional mythical community; moreover,
they are maintaining it current and alive.
Myth, namely – except in special cases of extreme degradation and
secularization of tradition and culture – for us, is not a fiction of primitive
people, a superstition or a misunderstanding, but a very concise expression of
the highest sacred truths and principles, which are “translated” to a specific
language of earthly reality, to such an extent which is practically possible.
The myth is sacral truth described by popular language. Where the presumptions
for its understanding are disappearing, the mythical content must be discarded
to let in its place another one.
The dangerous intuitions
Myth is, in traditional cultures, a great antithesis as well, where, as it
was shown in the capital work of J. J. Bachofen, Mother Right: An Investigation
of the Religious and Juridical Character of Matriarchy in the Ancient World,
the two major and irreconcilable principles are confronted: uranic and htonic,
patriarchal and matriarchal, and this is projected to all second modalities of
state and social order through to the arts and culture.
With the advent of Indo-European, patriarchal invaders on the soil of the
old, matriarchal Europe started the struggle
of two opposite principles what is highlighted in Bachofen’s study. In the
given case, the old matriarchal myths and cults turns patriarchal, through the
parallel and alternating processes of de-mythologization and
re-mythologization, and traces of this struggle are also found in some mythic
themes, which can be understood as a very brief religious-political history,
the way Robert Graves interpreted them, in his book The Greek Myths.
In contrast, in Greece ,
a process of demythologization which reaches its peak after Xenophanes
(565-470) is complete and radical. This is not followed by any process of re-mythologization,
it is a consequence of a total process of de-sacralization and profanization of
the culture, which results in the extinguishing of mythical and awakening of a
historical consciousness, when man stops seeing self as a mythical, and begins to
understand self as a historical being. This is a phenomenon that has analogies
with the two moments in history: first, with a process of de-mythologization
brought by early Christianity. To the first Christian theologians, myth was the
opposite of the Gospel, and Jesus was a historical figure, whose historicity
the church fathers proved and defended to the unbelieving. As a contrast there
is the actual process of re-mythologization of the Middle Ages, with a whole
series of examples of revitalization of the ancient mythical content, often
conflicting and irreconcilable, from the Graal myths and the myth of Friedrich
the Second, to eschatological myths in the epoch of Crusades and various
millennium myths. It is, without doubt, a much older re-actualization of mythic
content and its “dangerous intuition”, which surpasses its causes and it serves
as an evidence of the presence of mythic forces of the historical world, which
no process of de-mythologization is able to destroy or extinguish.
The consumer mythology. The midnight of history
Another example of radical process of de-mythologization is
de-mythologization that begins with the epoch of enlightenment to its peak
experienced in the “technological universe”. It is (as above) direct expression
of degradation and decline of modern man, who is no longer a mythical or
historical being, but a mere “consumer” within the “consumeristic and
technocratic civilization” or simply a plug to the technological universe.
Heroic impulse of man as a mythical, and historical being, was burnt out.
Destructive forces of de-mythologization constantly clean and remove the
mythical ingredients from the area of consumeristic civilization and human
memory in general, exterminating “dangerous intuitions” that are contained in
them.
Within the technological universe, which is only a final stage of the
fall of (modern) man, the humane horizon is finally closing, because here man
has only one power and only one freedom: power to spend and freedom to buy and
sell. This freedom and this power, testify about the death of man (known by the
myth and history), because within the universe of technology and consumer
civilization, anything that transcends this “animal of consumption” simply can
not exist. “The Death of Art” spoken about by the historical avant-garde is a
simple consequence of the death of man, first as a mythical, then as a
historical being.
Of course, the process of de-mythologization can never be completed, for the
simple reason that destruction does not touch the very mythical forces. They
continue to appear and return through history, whether under the guise of
“historical”, or as something that is opposed to history. This is also true for
one-dimensional universe of a technocratic utopia. As a result, the consumer
civilization real mythical contents are replaced by the mythical simulacrum:
wild-growing sub-cultural ideologies and myths, or consumer mythology, whose
heroes are comics’ figures such as Superman.
But the exhaustion of long and destructive processes of de-mythologization
does not mean a return to the mythical time.
“We are standing in the midnight of history, the clock struck twelve and we
look ahead into the darkness where we see the contours of future things. This
view is followed by fear and heavy premonition. Things we see or think that we
can see still do not have a name, they are nameless. If we address them, we do
not affect them accurately and they escape the noose of our governing. When we
say peace it could be a war. Plans of happiness turn into murderous ones, often
through the night. ”
In short: “Rough incursions, which in many places convert historical
landscapes into elementary ones, hide subtle changes but of the more aggressive
kind” (Ernst Jünger: At the Wall of Time).
At the dawn of history
The writing At the Wall of Time by a German author Ernst Jünger conveys
about the transition of myth into the history, about the moment in which the
mythical consciousness was replaced by the historic one. History, of course,
does not exist as long as man: historical consciousness rejects as non-historic
the vast spaces and epochs (“prehistory”), and peoples, civilizations and
countries, because “a person, an event must have very specific characteristics
that would make them historic”. The key to this transition, according to this
author, provides the work of Herodotus, through which man “passes through a
country illuminated by rays of dawn”:
“Before him (Herodotus) there was something else, the mythical night. That
night, however, was not darkness. It was more of a dream, and it knew about a
different way of connecting people and events of historical consciousness and
its selective forces. This brings rays of dawn into Herodotus’ work. He stands
on top of the mountain that separates day from night: not only the two epochs,
but also two types of epochs, the two types of light.”
In other words, it is the moment of the transition from one way of existence
into something quite different, that we call history. This is the time of the
shift of two cycles, which we can not identify with the change of historical
epochs – the issue in question is the profound change in the existence of man.
The sacral in the manner of previous epochs retreats, ancient cults disappear
and into their place come religions, which soon after, by themselves become
historical or anti-historical, even when they trigger events and historical
plots. Crusader wars, called on by the Western Church, deepened divisions and
schisms and eventually gave birth to the Reformation, which began with
religious enthusiasm and desire to return to “biblical beginnings”, and then
ended with the historical movement which opens the way to unhampered
development of industry and technology – unconstrained by the norms of
(Christian) tradition, and free of human hopes and desires.
The grimace of horror
World of History, outlines of which we can find in Homer, which were shaped
by Thucydides, and which experienced its zenith somewhere at the end of XIX and
at the beginning of XX century, with unclear boundaries in time and space, but
with a clear consciousness of its laws and regulations, started to collapse;
and the vast edifice of history becomes unstable, as a sign of penetration of
the hitherto unknown foreign forces. These forces have titanic, elementary
character, first seen in technical disasters, which affected hundreds of
thousands of victims and then, in the cataclysmic events of XX century, in the
world wars and revolutions, the millions were killed and crippled. The release
of nuclear energy, radiation and environmental destruction that enormous areas
were exposed to, the daily toll in blood, whether it is sacrificed to
“progress” in peacetime conditions, whether as a direct consequence of military
intervention and conflict, are something that comes out of the framework established
by the historical world. Of course, history does not end there, as expected, by
Marx or by Fukuyama .
What is more noticeable is the acceleration of historical time, which
concentrates events and reduces the distance between the key turning points of
history. What we are talking about is, however, that here are not only forces
operating that we call historical, and that the role of man in these events
fundamentally changed: he is no longer able to operate equally with the gods,
or to follow them, to stand against them or to even subjugate them, as was
represented by myth. He (man) is no longer an active participant in history,
guided by the passions or the will of its own, as it happens in mature
historical epoch. He becomes the plaything of something unknown, involved in
events that surpass him, against his will and outside of his ideas.
The expression of cheerful confidence is gradually replaced by a grimace of
horror. Man, who until yesterday considered himself a sovereign and master,
acknowledges his weakness. The means that were trusted show as weak or in the
decisive hour turn against his creator. Technological systems and social orders
have his other sides, his automatic schemes, which do not restrain but
encourage destruction, which place man in the position of sorcerer’s
apprentice, who released uncontrollable forces. Corruption, crime, violence and
terror are rather results than the causes. Political responses, regardless of
colour and sign, do not offer solutions but rather increase disintegration. If
he would not have found himself in the time of panic, man might gain at least
an awareness of his own decline.
All this was unthinkable in the ripe age of history because then, man still
ruled by himself, and thus history as well, and therefore history could have no
sense of direction other than the one given by man himself, his own deeds and
thoughts.
Each concept of “meaning of history” is the concept of beginning of man,
while in the classical historical time man is not created but he is. Question
about the “meaning of history” was a meaningless question, and it is indeed not
found in classical writers, from Herodotus onward. Question about the “meaning
of history”, which is always found outside of man, becomes possible only when
the history and the focus moves out of man, either in the social sphere,
whether in the sphere of technological relations.
Modern man is too late to reveal his own weakness, but his breakdown does
not accuse myth or history, but precisely the weakness and cowardice of modern
man. World of “civilized values”, the historical world in general, which he
himself had created, is showing much weaker than we used to believe –
structurally weak, spiritually and ethically. At the first sign of alarm, he
begins to shatter, exposing, in fact, internal readiness to capitulate modern
man.
This is a “midnight of history”, which will soon be replaced by something
different, and that moment is marked by the spread of titanic forces, requiring
the sacrifice of blood.
Towards post-history: The Awakening of the Myth
History, we should repeat it again, does not last as long as man on Earth.
But the consciousness about it occurs late in history, perhaps only at its end,
when the boundaries of time and space are changing: on one side, by discovering
distant past of man, with lost civilizations, then past of the planet and the
universe, and on the other side, with exploration of cosmic spaces, depths of
the oceans, or the interior of Earth itself, through the archaeological and
geological layers, in almost a Verne’s way. New perspectives cause dizziness.
Prehistory and post-history gain in importance only when history becomes a
crumbling edifice. But turning man from history to something that he has not
been able to determine yet or clearly perceive, now reminisce of the flight.
In one way or another, the technological universe and the consumer
civilization will come to an end, in the same way as classic historical epoch
ends with technocracy and with a totalitarian order in its complete form, which
arises neither from the courage nor strength but from cowardice, weakness and
fear. It is impossible to say how long this will take. It is irrelevant whether
this will happen due to an internal attrition, an overstrain or a disaster, or
with all of these together. But in each of these cases, the collapse is only a
consequence of man’s inability to further dwell within the historical world,
and to rule it as a sovereign-supreme being.
The return to myth, however, is not possible in terms of return to the state
of “pre-history.” Mythological forces remain present, as it was during the
entire historical period, but they can not establish a previous state because
it lacks the preconditions, in the first place, a missing “substrate”, a
fertile ground. Modern man is too weak for that, in the spiritual,
psychological and even “physiological” sense.
Together with the history, the culture gradually disappears as well, in its
current meaning, which is basically just an instrument of social engineering.
In a technocratic utopia (as opposed to the culture in the historical period),
mass culture is just one of the ways that channels the energy and drive utopian
fantasies and desires of the masses; the elite culture, which constantly
wanders between conformism and negation, between skepticism and denial, between
skepticism and irony, and back to conformism, essentially remains a tool of
de-mythology (or deconstruction of mythology) and destruction of dangerous
intuitions contained in myth, which allows more or less seamlessly integration
into the technological universe, with the illusion of free will. The appearance
and the awakening of dangerous intuitions and sleeping archetypes, on the
margins of the technocratic social mechanism, creates a situation of conflict
and leads to delays in its functioning.
In the region beyond the technocratic utopia, culture will need to take more
traditional role than the one it has in the consumer civilization. The
disintegration of the historical world in its late stage, which we are just
witnessing, allows us to see something of it.
For much of the historical period, culture is a privileged area of sacred
and mythical powers. This is one of the ways in which mythical forces again
penetrate into the world historically, realizing themselves in history, unlike
the technological universe, where they usually manifest themselves through the
uncontrolled elements of folklore subcultures, and often distorted to the
unrecognizable as simulacra of mythical, and not as his credible expression.
They more testify about the eternal and unquenched need of man for mythical
content, than they represent a sign of their real presence.
Culture in post-technocratic era will be very closely related to the
reestablishment of mythology, in terms of recognition and the awakening of true
mythical content, marked by innovation and revitalization of the ancient and
traditional form, rather than, as hitherto, their exorcism. Meaning and purpose
of the process of de-mythology, by contrast, must be limited to the one it had
in traditional societies: the cleaning of degenerate “folklore” mythical forms,
as to let into their place those who credibly represent the tradition.
Boris Nad
Translated by: Zinka Brkić
KOMENTARI