Barbara Rauscher Stanton

Short Paper #3
Dr. Paul Bruner / Time
March 6, 2005

Terror has lost its meaning. In the post 9/11 world we are fighting a global war on

terror. Never mind that today’s terror, like carbon monoxide, is odorless, colorless

and tasteless. We will none-the–less rout it out and extinguish it like so many evil

brush fires. We console ourselves with the smug assuredness that we have the

ability to shield ourselves from assault by unknown and irrational perpetrators.

The latter day Myth of the Righteous Warrior is celebrated daily as our

protectorate and moral messenger. The terror of today is personified by the threat

of unforeseeable eruptions of violent acts. But is this real terror? The terror of

mankind generated in our very soul, the innermost chamber of irrationality? Is

this the terror that Baudrillard describes as “the confusion of the real and the

rational”?

From the time of the ancients mankind has struggled to contain its terror by

externalizing it in concrete forms. The Greeks, as Bruner notes, employed the

Gods as interlopers and agents in man’s affairs to spare him from the

consequences of his own destructive demons. In Greek myth the actions of the

gods connected impulse and reason by manifesting man’s internal struggles to be

played out in the public arena. Externalization eliminated vagueness; the demon

was identified and so disabled.

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In a more general sense, myths emerged in all cultures as the concrete material of

narrative and art, serving to externalize the subjective experience. Myth in art

universalized the discontinuity of the inner and the outer realities of the

individual, serving as a basis for sharing experience of internal conflict. The role

of art was that of a vehicle for metaphor and identity. Art carried the burden of a

cultural raison d’etre. Myth in art embodied the rationale of society giving

meaning to the ‘who, what and why’ of our existence; carried from generation to

generation in paintings, sculpture and drama. Prevailing myths were continually

reworked in new versions to reflect the ritual and practice of each culture. As

societies changed so too did the popular myths that sustained a sensed of

community and shared experience. This we assume could continue ad infinitum

were it not for the advent of the modern man.

The Age of Enlightenment catapulted Western societies into the age of reason and

logic. Scientific progress and the external condition of man took the lead over the

spiritual condition. Mumford points to ‘technics’ as he called it in 1951, or

technology as we choose to call man’s mechanized toolbox, as a double edge

sword. While the scientific advancement of the last three centuries have given

man control to “direct the forces of nature for his own purposes”, it has at the

same time led him to a place of overdependance on external solutions. Events of

twentieth century history illustrate as Mumford shows, that the extension of

reason and scientific industry that resulted in the atomic bomb was of no

consequence in the restraint of internal impulses to use a weapon of such horrific

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magnitude. The confusion of impulse and reason brought man face to face with

the terror of his own making. Surrender (or more accurately, embracing)

technology has taken us beyond freeing the mind to controlling it. By the middle

of the 20th century we were no longer had the means to contain our terror.

Overdependance on the external, Bruner observed, caused myth and the inner life

to wither leaving us unable to reconcile our internal and external disconnect.