Mythology Disussion: Respond to two other students, sociology homework help

I need some help responding to the two other classmate’s posts. The only requirements are: 150 words (each), substantial, thoughtful, creative responses to the posts of other classmates. Basically, just something that adds to their discussion posts. Their discussion posts are below:

1. “There are many implications of myth upon how people live today. These myths help society understand the world and a person’s place inside of it. Myth can also lead a culture to behave in a certain manner. I do feel that myth has a positive impact cultural values. That battle of good and evil is a story that plays out among several religions and cultures, but is very evident in the Abrahamic beliefs. Several movies have had battles between characters that are similar to Christ and Satan (Porter, 2013). Movies like Terminator 2, The Matrix Trilogy and The Dark Knight show villains that have satanic traits and show character development that portrays that people should avoid these villains and that they should be defeated by the “hero” that has Christ like characteristics (Porter, 2013). It is character and story arches like this that shape the minds of a culture and how people should react to “evil” that disrupts the cohesion of a culture. This is embedded in the minds of children and adults on how to handle situations that will come at them through life and approach them with a healthy mindset that will cultivate a sense of thriving rather than just surviving through difficult times.

I know that in my own life that these Hero’s in movies where characters that I could associate with. To make a long story short, my father was abusive to my mother, my sisters and myself. My Mother passed away when I was a child and I had to live in an abusive household until I was an adult and moved out on my own. As a child I craved the good versus evil myths because at a deep level I could feel it in my life. Deep down I knew that I had a choice to either become like my father by lashing out at the world for causing this to happen to me, or I could rise above it and become someone that looks out for others that are hurting. Today I am a leader and mentor for young men and women from middle school and high school. Looking back at those stories of defeating the satanic characters gave me hope that one day I could do it. There is something powerful in going through a perceived evil and coming out thriving compared to just surviving through it. Through my time mentoring I see these stories encourage youth to stand strong during hard times in life, so I know that these myths are making life lasting impacts on culture today.

Reference:

Porter, A. L. (2013). Satanic but not Satan: signs of the Devilish in contemporary cinema. Journal of Religion & Film, 17(1), 37.”

2. “When considering the impact of myths on society, Marija Gimbutas brings up an excellent point by discussing the transition from the psychological-matriarchal age to the patriarchal world. This transition was so significant that Gimbutas explains that one cannot distinguish the traces of the old due to their distortion and earliest European civilization was savagely destroyed by this element. As myths play a significant role in influencing cultural values, I find that although there are many positive myths that have helped cultural values, the level of destruction has outweighed the positive influence in my opinion.

Although there are many myths with good intent to guide ones standard for character, many popular figures have manipulated the communities reliance on these myths to fulfill personal and economic agendas that have been destructive and overwhelmingly hypocritical of fundamental core values. More specifically, we can consider the concept introduced by Karl Marx which explains that ideology was invented by the ruling class to maintain it hegemonic position. When considering the use of the Swastika, this was originally a symbol of wandering clans for the native americans and a sacred image that represented peace, life and good luck (Wikipedia, 2016). Despite the positivity of this myth, presently this is a worldwide icon of hate and destruction due to the significant impact that this image played by encouraging and justifying the mass genocide of jewish people in Germany and Poland (Goldstein, 2010).

In a more personal example, we can also consider the role of myth and the impact on the African American community. As the concept of racial superiority riddled the American ideological standpoint, this has concept has influenced African American access to resources and has influenced our social structures so significantly that African Americans have not only been told that they are inferior but housing conditions and post slavery laws such as jim crow have made African Americans feel the realities of being the minority population. Myths suggesting this inferiority such has the idea that African Americans are lazy and not utilizing the fruits of the American dream has confused the present generations and overshadowed the facts that African Americans have bee marginalized historically and the current realities of those that aren’t economically successful is the direct result of communities being held back at every point of progress. The myth that black students don’t value school stems from this concept of laziness but many fail to consider the effects of district boundaries and housing and how particular school districts often rely on property taxes to fund their district schools. With lower income properties being the source of funding for schools, it’s then obviously why certain school districts have such a discrepancy in learning resources which makes it difficult to learn and stay up to date with current educational standards (Turner, 2016).

Overall, myths have played a vital role in establishing healthy cultural values but when considering many present realities, they have been more destructive than productive in their role in society due to their elasticity in interpretation and the influence of hegemonic position.

References

Wikepedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “Swastika.” 2016. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika (Accessed 1 Dec. 2016).

Goodstein, Laurie. 2010. Swastika is Deemer Universal Hate Symbol. NY Times. Retrieved on 1 Dec 2016 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/us/29hate.html

Turner. Cory . “Why America’s Schools Have A Money Problem.” NPR. NPR, 2016. Web. 02 Dec. 2016 from http://www.npr.org/2016/04/18/474256366/why-americas-schools-have-a-money-problem “