Small nation, large myths
Small nation, large myths

Summary/Abstract: Tell me what myths you believe in and I will tell you what kind of person you are. Myths make life fun. You just have to learn to live with them. The key is not only to know them but to know their nature and, if possible, not get them mixed up with reality. To be more precise: we should not proclaim them as reality, rather as most certain reality. This is difficult, if not impossible. An old or ancient myth is alive, operational, and considered to be true in the environment it inhabits, even though its veracity is more than impossible. It is an invention, far from the truth, yet seen as reality. And, as Jonathan Swift1 pointed out, intellectuals have often been complicit in the propagation of myths. “There is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosophers have not maintained for truth,” he wrote.[...]

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