"Ideology and Myth," A Brief Summary of Ch. 22 from On Symbols and Society

22.“Ideology and Myth," Accent 7 (Summer 1947): 195-205.

Ideology is to myth as rhetoric is to poetry. Just as rhetoric and poetic aren’t separated, neither are ideology and myth. Both adapt both for their resources.

Ideology, like rhetoric, “gravitates to the side of ideas,” while myth/poetry gravitates toward image and imagery.

We often use ideological terms when talking about things that are not real to us or that we can’t experience firsthand. [Burke talks about experiencing things through radio and television, but I’m sure this also applies to the internet. Ideology sounds to me like the semantic perspective or semantic meaning on page 196.]

The issue here is identification again. It’s as if Burke is again talking about the shepherd qua shepherd quote in RM, but using a different metaphor (here it’s the interests of nation and money on page 197). Then he talks about identification and religion on 197-198.

Stewart’s Myths of Plato, which treats “myth in terms of the traditional battle between Faith and Reason” (198). Plato’s dialogues have 2 parts: the myth and the dialogic conversation (which conversation is “ideological,” since it considers ideas in themselves).

For Stewart, “the highest purpose of poetry” is “the communication of ‘transcendental feeling,’” which Burke says is oneness with the universe. Faith comes from this vital force. Our innate desire in nature implies that life is worth living. The Good is the term for things that we desire. In other words, The Good is The Desirable.

So, where is the line between myth and ideology?

Political and social motives can’t be ultimate since they’re grounded in something other than political and social (199). Myth may be cultural manifestations of ideologies. Anywhere. [I’m suddenly thinking of Ironman and Batman and other superheros and popular culture. Also zombies. How do these things express our cultural ideologies, or zeitgeist, the spirit of the times?]

When people wanted to say that human beings were essentially something, they just had to say that the first people was something. If "man is essentially competitive," then we start by saying that the first men were always at war with each other. Starting points direct the attention.

Virgil’s Aeneid is a fitting prototype for the ideal myth. Burke cites Mackail’s The Meaning of Virgil for Our World of Today. Twelve points:

1.   National poem

2.   Interconnectedness of city to state/nation

3.   Links to Greek civilization and its greatness

4.   But emphasizes people as distinct

5.   Historic conflict

6.   Celebrate feats of heroes, etc.

7.   Romantic spirit, love and adventure

8.   Human interest, heroes

9.   Story connects with laws of nature, decrees of fate, workings of Providence

10.Exalts new regime

11.Ideal ruler

12.Touches deepest parts of religion and philosophy

Burke’s counterpoints for today—a new epic would do the following:

1.   Transcend nationalism

2.   Establish and vindicate cult of the region

3.   Establish interconnection between modern world and universal past

4.   Modern world not superior, but as containing motives which confront all ages

5.   Concerned with the momentous conflicts that center in technology and property

6.   Celebrates feats of heroes

7.   Love and adventure with modern psychology

8.   Heroic

9.   Connect figures with larger and more august issues: keeping in mind the general as well as the individual

10.Looks as towards a Savior or Messiah figure

11.Draw lineaments of ideal citizen

12.Think of human motives in the “most incisive and comprehensive terms, as regards both conscious and unconscious orders of experience” (205).