Culture and Mythos

Reinventing Civilization: An Exploration of Culture and Mythos

“I claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact.” – Claude Levi-Strauss

To explore mythos is to explore the social psyche of a culture. Mythos informs belief systems, worldviews, morals, and values.Beginning in February 2005, Praxis Peace Institute launched a 12-part series on culture and mythos. Our exploration offers a unique view into social cyclic patterns and puts prejudices and proclivities under a microscope. We are exploring the depths and origins of our cultural roots as well as tracking the emerging stories that are harbingers of cultural mutations — stories that offer new guiding principles for wisdom, partnership, and hope. Since initiating the series, we have decided to continue scheduling relevant programs on culture, mythos, and beliefs for the foreseeable future.

Key Objectives of the Forums:

  • To explore cultural myths and their impact on belief systems and social patterns.
  • To create an over-arching framework that identifies the emerging stories, ideas, and visions that support a holistic worldview.
  • To bring together experts on culture, myths and mythos in order to better understand our patterns and history. The goal is to understand how transformation happens and how we can become conscious agents of personal and social change.
  • To provide in-depth analyses of propaganda and demonstrate our vulnerabilities to it. To construct an immunization process to propaganda.
  • To offer workshops that deepen our explorations and understanding.
  • The Praxis book, Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism was a result of our explorations into myths in the culture.

In the winter of 2018, Praxis Peace Institute reenergized this track with new programs. The following program is part of the Praxis Think Tank program.

March 4, 2018
Jeremy Lent – Transitioning Culture: Understanding the Patterns and Reshaping Them for a Flourishing Future
Lent’s presentation took place on March 4, 2018 and ongoing workshops exploring this theme are taking place now. A report on these sessions will be released in late 2019.

Previous programs in this series:

  • Angeles Arrien – February 18/19, 2005 “Tracking the Emerging Stories” and March 2, 2007 – “The Braided Way: Universal Practices of Wisdom”
    • George Lakoff and Sam Keen – March 25/26, 2005
      “Cultural Framing: Language, Imagery, and Propaganda”
    • Tom Hayden – May 25/26, 2005 – “Mythic Tracks in American Culture”
    • Riane Eisler and Medea Benjamin – June 22, 2005
      “Empowering Women and Changing the World”
    • James O’Dea – December 18, 2005 – “In the Season of Light: Creation and Destruction of the World as We Know It.”
    • Richard Tarnas – February 19, 2006 – “Cosmos & Psyche: Intimations of a New Worldview” and October 8, 2006 for follow-up discussion.
    • Rabbi Michael Lerner – April 20, 2006 – “The Left Hand of God: Taking our Country Back from the Religious Right”
    • David Korten – May 16, 2006 – “The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community”
    • David Harris – June 29, 2006 – “Remembering the Sixties — and the Lessons We Still Have to Learn from Them.”
    • Anodea Judith – July 6, 2006 – “Waking the Global Heart.”
    • Arianna Huffington – September 30, 2006 – “On Becoming Fearless.”
    • Angeles Arrien – March 2, 2007 – “The Braided Way.”
    • Paul Hawken – May 10, 2007 – “Blessed Unrest,” (current social movements)
    • Sam Keen – February 10 and April 8, 2008 – “The Lasting Appeal of War and the Quest for a Moral and Erotic Equivalent.”
    • Stephen Ducat – June 17, 2008 – “Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity”
    • Barry Spector – April 26, 2011 – “Madness at the Gates of the City: The Myth of American Innocence”
    • “Hope remains only in the most difficult task of all: to reconsider everything from the ground up, so as to shape a living society inside a dying society.” Albert Camus