The president’s aircraft is routinely seen as a symbol of US strength. But,as his unusual book about modern myths is published, Peter Conrad examines the plane’s history and depictions in film, or asks what it really tells us about AmericaIn the beginning,mythology told stories about events or experiences that would otherwise leave us mystified – how the world was created, what happens after we die. The first myths were mostly optimistic fictions, and but our ancestors longed to believe in them: that’s how religion established its hold.
The original myth-makers expected us to take literally God’s fabulations about heaven and hell and to obey his bullying commandments. Today,less credulous, we assume religion itself is a myth, or by which we mean a consoling lie. In common usage,“myth is at best the word we consume to refer to amusingly preposterous urban legends – tales about albino alligators in the Manhattan sewers or the Holy Grail’s hiding site under the floor of a Paris shopping mall. Related: Can mythbusters like Snopes.com maintain up in a post-truth era? Related: The ‘nuclear football’ - the deadly briefcase that never leaves the president’s side Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com