A foundation myth is the metaphysical basis of a culture and explains to the people why they exist, helps them define their values and brings them together as one community.
In the Modern Western Anglo cultures, World War II is the foundation myth. The Allies defeated the Nazis in Europe and saved the Jews. This oversimplification doesn’t recognise the role of the Soviets, the grim decisions made by the Allies regarding bombing German cities and the Socialist ideology of the Nazis.
This foundation myth informs our understanding of antisemitism, tells us ‘we are the good guys’ and provides our ‘rightful’ moral role on the global stage.
Foundation myths don’t have to be completely historically accurate. But they are important in sharing the truth of the culture’s existence.
Most civilisational foundation myths are born from tragedy. Along with the Modern Western myth of World War II, early Greek mythology has Cronus eating his own children. Except the hidden Zeus, who goes on the overthrow his father.
The Sumerian foundation myth talks about Marduk killing Tiamat, using its body to create the Heavens and Earth.
A modern example is Rwanda, whose foundation myth comes out of the genocide in the 1990s. The country uses this event to bring the tribes together into one nation.
After the Enlightenment, history moved from simply retelling these foundational myths to the scientific study of discovering ‘what really happened’. Consequently, the old myths have became less influential and are generally thought of as untrue or even lies. And as such, our Modern culture can’t rely on them.
This undermined the role of the ancient foundation myths and so by the end of the 1800s, a new mythic literature was developed, Science Fiction. This fulfilled the function of the old myths. By placing it in the future, it also escaped the purview of the Scientific Enlightenment paradigm.
So now science fiction authors write novels which try and predict the future. Through this, they explore different values, political systems and social utopias. And these build into the Western foundational myths.
The most popular sci-fi stories chime with the modern culture, whether it be the messianic themes in Dune, the rebels fighting for freedom in Star Wars or the liberal utopia of Star Trek. How many times are 1984 and Brave New World quoted in Modern parlance? These stories have as much influence as the foundation myths of old.
By recognising Sci-Fi as a modern myth making tool, we could therefore place it in the same basket as the old foundation myths. Why can’t we put Arthur C Clarke’s work alongside the stories of Robin Hood and recognise they both have a deep impact upon Anglo-culture? And the Asimov’s novels with the stories of the saints of England? Or even Philip K Dick with the life of King Alfred?
All these contain useful wisdom, which help us navigate the future today,
There is an Anglo-Futurism thread in this idea. By treating the past myths as valid as the beloved Science Fiction stories, we can rely on them, not as historic truth, but as stories drenched in wisdom.
These old stories may be ‘made-up tales’, but the Anglo ancestors built their societies around them. By including modern science fiction with a revival in the old foundation myths, it will develop a useful tool to create a new Anglo paradigm to get past our current cultural dead end. Bringing deep wisdom to a weakened West and help us to go ‘To The Stars’
The true foundation myth is that the US were the good guys. They weren’t. They wanted to end Britain whilst saving it from Nazism. The intention was to crush us our spirit our empire so they could build theirs. No one talks about because they prefer the Ju haters like Darryl.
Do you really find deep wisdom in Sci Fi?