Myths america lives by. Myths America lives by : white supremacy and the stories that give us meaning (Book, 2018) [georgiajudges.org] 2019-01-10
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Myths America Lives by
I have nothing against Christianity or Christians- but keep your religion out of my history book, thank you very much. Myths America Lives By provides a brief historical account of five foundational American myths: the Myth of the Chosen Nation, the Myth of Nature's Nation, The Myth of the Christian Nation, The Myth of the Millennial Nation, and the Myth of the Innocent Nation. There are some inherent problems with the above theory, but the most apparent one should be obvious: If America were truly a Christian nation, how could the institution of slavery survive? Richard Hughes thinks hard and listens even harder to the historians, the scholars and, most of all, the prophets who understood the malignancy of white supremacy long before he did. In the white imagination, the America chosen by God was not black America or red America but white America. .
Hughes's updated text and new introduction investigate past and present intersections of white supremacy with our shared American mythology. This is the irony that lies at the heart of American history, as Reinhold Niebuhr pointed out many years ago. Dissenting Voices When whites argued that America was a Christian nation, African Americans knew better. These calamitous policies have far too much support among the American people in general for us to so easily and totally blame them on such a sorry lot of pseudo-intellectuals as the neoconservatives. He has taught at Pepperdine University, Abilene Christian University, and Messiah College, and is currently scholar in residence at Lipscomb University.
Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning by Richard T Hughes
Hughes shows white supremacy as the enabler of each of the other myths, unifying them, giving them a bedrock basis, and framing American values completely at odds with its own estimation. I am--like most Americans, I just can't believe it because I know how good we are. Getting to know one another as people is a good start. And this book is not easy to read or the perspectives easy to hear, Hughes admits, because it unsettles the comfortable and those who believe America to be unequivocally compassionate and generous. Yet, that period also saw the greatest breakthroughs in modern physics and social science.
In other words, a nation that was a Christian nation, following the God of Scripture faithfully, and nature's nation, following the natural order of things, would by extension have the right to extend its influence not only by example, but also by force. Hughes says at the outset that his primary goal is to open up our understanding of U. Based on the cynical response, if a collective group of Americans detested to the stories that hold America together and concluded that they were false, our nation would be in danger at that point. Hughes then addresses what I believe to be significant weakness in the book, the mythic dimensions of American capitalism. Recommends This Book The American Dream is White Supremacy This second, expanded edition of Myths America Lives By came about because author Richard Hughes was on a panel one day, and one of the panelists told him his book had missed the biggest American Myth of all — White Supremacy. There are no lessons to learn, no education that can be beneficial. Although the absolutist response tries to affirm the American creed, it undermines it at the same time.
Myths America lives by : white supremacy and the stories that give us meaning (Book, 2018) [georgiajudges.org]
That ought to be a wake up call to the Christian church. I completely agree with Hughes's conclusion about this myth - it has absolutely no redeeming value. Drawing on a range of dissenting voices, he shows that by canonizing these seemingly harmless myths of national identity as absolute truths, America risks undermining the sweepingly egalitarian promise of the Declaration of Independence. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Notes 61. Equality was not perceived in the minds of such individuals as John Winthrop, John Adams, and James Madison, and as a result, their significant accomplishments towards.
It is rooted in all the other myths, making it very powerful. In my opinion, many like those myths because,even though they are myths, they are tangible myths. There are no lessons to learn, no education that can be beneficial. While I find significant achievements in his book, I also have reservations about it from both editorial and organizational points of view. Hughes, a Distinguished Professor in the Religion Division at Pepperdine University, has written a critical study of foundational American myths. The absolutist response, on the other hand, claims to the righteousness of America and supports the actions pursued by our nation in tumultuous times. One of the most creative sections of the book is a look at the American attempt to escape history by postulating a golden age of the past and a millennial future, as manifested in the Mormons and the Disciples of Christ.
That is the trick they play on the dead. Apart from the Myth of the Innocent Nation, which deludes Americans into thinking they can transcend the complexities and burdens of history, he finds value in the other four foundational myths. The E-mail message field is required. Yet Hughes does give a particular and often provocative twist to his version of an often-told tale, emphasizing the religious background to American mythology and employing minority voices as a critical chorus puncturing the self-congratulatory understanding of the white majority. But when it implies receiving license that makes one fundamentally better than others, it becomes dehumanizing. Six myths lie at the heart of the American experience. This essay describe about human nature, people often picture what they want or make an illusion about others and they are afraid if they throw away their illusion they will not like each other anymore.
Myths America lives by (Book, 2003) [georgiajudges.org]
This is a very fine book, offering both a searing critique and a summons to embrace our common humanity. There is the myth of liberty—and the dictatorship of public opinion; the myth of economic liberalism—and the big companies extending over the whole country which, in the final analysis, belong to no one and in which the employees, from top to bottom, are like functionaries in a state industry. Hughes identifies the five key myths that lie at the heart of the American experience - the myths of the Chosen Nation, of Nature's Nation, of the Christian Nation, of the Millennial Nation, and of the Innocent Nation. It emphasized to keep behavior in line with the teachings of Christ. I do not think Hughes goes far enough repudiating the chosen nation myth. This is a profoundly disturbing book because it begins with the very foundations upon which America is built and survives, and scrapes those bones for the reality of our existence. The market can and will work equitably, and with complete economic and political freedom churches can work to improve social issues in ways no government could ever accomplish.
