Lecture I.1.4 - New Horizons
By Joseph Campbell
Date: November 16, 1961
TRACK 4: Society’s Choice: Tradition or Truth?
Now this is a very serious affair. It is serious because these symbolic worlds were the supports of the civilizations, of the moralities of the civilizations, of the self-confidence of the civilizations, of the vitality and creative power of the civilizations. And with the cutting down, the frustrating of the self-confidence that derives from images of this kind, there is a disequilibrium within the society itself.
And everyone is challenged in his loyalty — are you going to be loyal to the tradition, to the form, to the morality and myth of your society, or are you going to be loyal to truth? They are two different things. This is the problem in teaching; this is the problem in bringing up your children; this is the problem that was beside me there at the lunch counter.
The parents — and the teachers in those cases — were on the side of society: of the past, what has been achieved.
And I think one can say that it is the tendency of society in general to take the position of re-asserting its authority, even against the truth. Societies that have chosen this pattern — they are the more numerous in the world. They are distinguished by the positions, liquidations, annihilations of all who speak out the truth is a crucial problem.
And one just has to know how far the truth goes; one has to realize how far it goes in shattering — it shatters the whole thing. The myths are myths from top to bottom—they are in terms of the fact world, untrue.