Corporations, Myths, and American Culture
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2020-04-28
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Abstract
Since its inception, the U.S. has supported a tension between protecting the interests of the individual and agrarian community versus promoting the financial and industrial agenda of the corporate world. While corporations have always played an important role in American culture, the twentieth century has seen an unprecedented expansion in the role of corporations in American politics and in American culture. At present we as a nation see this same tension, this same division, in our values and in the narratives, the myths, that explain those values. Religion, spirituality, and patriotism are but a few of the concepts used in the narrative of our culture to develop the myths that shape our lives together. Myths provide the cohesion that holds culture together by giving its people shared traditions and shared beliefs. Often, myth is seen as static archetypal symbol reflecting, while at the same time shaping, the values of a culture. However, cultures change just as the U.S. has changed, and myths change to support those cultural changes. In this paper, we will demonstrate how myths within the current narrative may be unnecessarily divisive and how we may replace them to move toward more robust, inclusive, and truthful narratives.
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