Mythos and Logos

"We are myth making creatures and, during the twentieth century, we saw some very destructive modern myths, which have ended in massacre and genocide. These myths have failed ... They have not been infused with the spirit of compassion, respect for the sacredness of all life, or with what Confucius called 'leaning'. These destructive mythologies have been narrowly racial, ethnic, denominational and egotistic, an attempt to exalt the self by demonising others. Any such myth has failed modernity, which has created a global village in which all human beings now find themselves in the same predicament. We cannot counter these bad myths with reason alone, because undiluted logos cannot deal with such deep-rooted, unexorcised fears, desires and neuroses. That is the role of an ethically and spiritually informed mythology.

• We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national and ideological tribe.
• We need myths that help us to realise the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive of efficient in our pragmatic, rational world.
• We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness.
• We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource'.

This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet."

Karen Armstrong (2005) A Short History of Myth, Canongate, Edinburgh, p.142-143.