Saved by Sydney Thomas
Issue #29: Heroism and Belonging
Recent events have completely exposed the limits of individual agency, creating a powerful demand for squad-based forms of resiliency. The COVID-19 pandemic is the most recent of these social bonding agents: though we're physically distancing, emotionally we're getting closer.
otherinter.net • Other Internet
What does it mean to be a hero in the liminal? Perhaps not what it means to be a hero in the regular world. It may be that there is an inversion at play — that to survive the underworld, we need to embody the opposing qualities of our old culture. Humility over control. Surrender and acceptance over striving and efforting. This does not mean becomi... See more
Alexander Beiner • Traversing the Underworld: What Myth can Teach us During the Pandemic
The mythologist Joseph Campbell describes the hero’s ultimate test as selflessly ‘giving yourself to some higher end . . . When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.’
Will Storr • The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better
In the new heroism, the goal is to transcend individual life, with its petty pains and loves, in favor of the dazzling collective.
Jennifer Egan • The Candy House: A Novel
One way to create a shared context is through shared struggle. This is why many organizations implement ritualized hazing3 to initiate new members, but the important thing is not the hazing, it’s the sense that you are working together with your fellow humans to achieve a super-human goal. Whether that’s to develop vaccines, to drywall a shelter, t... See more
billmei.net • Friendships Form via Shared Context, Not Shared Activities
Aloneness, Belonging, and the Paradox of Vulnerability, in Love and Creative Work
Maria Popovathemarginalian.org
The Hero’s Journey is perfectly legitimate myth with a valid place among many others in the pantheon. However, it is not appropriate today as a primary guide for civilization. The main problem is not that it is male-gendered and needs to be neutered or balanced by a female equivalent. It is that the Hero is a boy archetype, not a man archetyp... See more