The Influence Of Myths In Today's Society

Whenever we make judgements, give opinions about something, or engage in discussions, we easily assume that our ideas and values are formulated purely by ourselves. What we are overlooking is that in actuality, our ways of thinking are heavily influenced by myths. I believe that myths of different kinds, such as the myth of the model family and the myth of education, have been present for centuries and have been subconsciously affecting our behaviour and philosophy. Most of us are just ignorant of the existence of such myths, because in most cases, we take those "myths" for granted, as if they are perfectly natural. I would further argue that myths, whether they were formed in the past or recently, are still influential in today's society;

I will first start with Trump. I would basically characterise the emergence of Trump as the revival of a myth. Coontz, in "What we really miss about the 1950s", claims that while families in the 1950s had a predictable future and confidence, there were some serious underlying problems regarding racial tensions and sexual discriminations (33, 37-38). I would argue that the opposite situation is happening today; the aforementioned problems are of less seriousness, but the future is more unpredictable, and people are losing confidence. For so-called "white working-class men", they clearly miss the 1950s and the myth of the model family at that time, because they simply did not have to worry about those "problems" (remember that they fall into the category of "majorities" as opposed to minorities) while still could enjoy a secure future. Trump, recognising this fact, cleverly set up a myth, "Make America Great Again", which implies that America was once "great" in the past. This is essentially a revamped version of the myth of the model family in the 1950s. Again, whether the myth is true or not is completely irrelevant. His purpose of setting up the myth is crystal clear: to manipulate people to think that the "myth" in the past wasn't a mere myth, and that he

From the exit poll data provided by CNN, a majority of white (57%) male (52%) who are 45 and older (56%), have married (52%) and have not graduated a college (51%) voted for Trump. All factors except the education can be explained using the Trump's revived myth of the model family, and in my opinion, the factor of education can be partially explained using the myth of education and empowerment. If they had challenged the myth provided by Trump, they might not have easily accepted his myth as the only truth. Using the myth that education makes people thinkers, it is quite possible that those who have received some kind of higher education were able to "critically think" whether his myth is reasonable or not. Indeed, they could have chosen either to accept or reject his myth. Conversely, this might imply that those who did not receive higher education were more likely to simply accept his myth rather than to make their own judgements. However, it is too premature to assume that the myth of education and empowerment explains everything. The income (which pretty much correlates to the social classes) is a contradicting factor; while those who earn under $50k favoured Clinton (53%), those who earn between $50k and $100k preferred Trump more (49%), and those who earn more than $100k equally supported Trump and Clinton (both 47%). This contradicts the myth that social classes define the level of education. This can be interpreted in many