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A myth is a story that explains world and human experience and events that otherwise can’t be explained. The purpose of establishing a myth is to shape society and social behavior. When myths get established and adopted, they tend to be so strongly held that when anyone comes along and differs with and contradicts them they face the risk of being dismissed with no thought or consideration for the truth they may be telling.
Starting today I'm going to take the risk of such dismissal because it's so urgent and important to me that the myths I'm going to address(in separate threads) are deflated and the reality is recognized. So that way a correct perception of past and present can be examined for the sake of benefiting society.
Over the past nine decades there has been a drastic shift in the attitude and opinion of the public in relation to the role of individuals and governments in a society. The shift being from the belief in individual responsibility to a society in which the emphasis is on social responsibility and the government the protector of the individual.
In order for such a shift in public attitudes and opinions to occur, they largely have to be produced and reinforced by the development of myths about prior experience. I’m going to cover some of the myths which have caused the shift in attitude and opinion and are likely a part of your thinking if you’ve ever taken American history courses at any level.
The first Myth i'm going to confront is the robber baron myth. The myth that the 19th century was a time in which the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. The myth that it was a century of growing wealth inequality as a result of the free market system. That It was an era where rugged unrestrained individualism existed and as a consequence greedy monopoly capitalists exploited the working class and poor unmercifully.
That is the myth. So what is the reality? The reality is there is almost no other period in recorded human history which saw such improvement in the standard of living of the ordinary man and woman as the 19th and early 20th century did. That was a period when millions of people from all over the world streamed to America with nothing but the hope they could make a better life for themselves and their children and their children’s children. And they succeeded. Those of us in this forum are the heirs of that. We benefited by the virtue of freedom this country offered to our ancestors and by that virtue they were able to make a better life for themselves and us.
Do you suppose our ancestors came here to be oppressed and exploited unmercifully by greedy monopoly capitalists? No. If the myth were reality, then America would only have had an initial inflow of people who thought they were going to improve their living but ended up being worse off. They would not have been followed by their relatives, friends and fellow countrymen and women who were facing the same conditions in which they now knew could be improved in America and the continued inflow of immigrants seen wouldn’t have been sustained year after year.
This myth gets its appeal from the common fallacy that one person's gain is another person's loss. Which is a damning thought. While it is true many became wealthy during that time and robber barons exist. They still do today, They always have. People are people, majority have morals, few don’t, and the few who don't always seem to get more recognition, that is a part of the course of history unfortunately.
However, the moral of the story is that the same system which enabled a few to become extremely wealthy off their own ideas and innovations, was also the same system which provided the freedom and opportunities for millions of people to improve their lives and for very first time in many of their families history, presented the chance to become wealthy themselves. Everyone can benefit. The few who did become wealthy didn’t do so at the expense of others. But by developing revolutionary ideas which created those opportunities which didn’t exist for anyone before.
While it is true there are some people better off than others in America. When all is said and done, by and large even the poorest and most disadvantaged people in this country still have above the average standard of living of more than half the world’s population. Now this doesn’t mean we should be satisfied, we are a wealthier country and have and can be better, but we ought to have a sense of proportion when it comes to recognizing both the source and the problem.
Starting today I'm going to take the risk of such dismissal because it's so urgent and important to me that the myths I'm going to address(in separate threads) are deflated and the reality is recognized. So that way a correct perception of past and present can be examined for the sake of benefiting society.
Over the past nine decades there has been a drastic shift in the attitude and opinion of the public in relation to the role of individuals and governments in a society. The shift being from the belief in individual responsibility to a society in which the emphasis is on social responsibility and the government the protector of the individual.
In order for such a shift in public attitudes and opinions to occur, they largely have to be produced and reinforced by the development of myths about prior experience. I’m going to cover some of the myths which have caused the shift in attitude and opinion and are likely a part of your thinking if you’ve ever taken American history courses at any level.
The first Myth i'm going to confront is the robber baron myth. The myth that the 19th century was a time in which the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. The myth that it was a century of growing wealth inequality as a result of the free market system. That It was an era where rugged unrestrained individualism existed and as a consequence greedy monopoly capitalists exploited the working class and poor unmercifully.
That is the myth. So what is the reality? The reality is there is almost no other period in recorded human history which saw such improvement in the standard of living of the ordinary man and woman as the 19th and early 20th century did. That was a period when millions of people from all over the world streamed to America with nothing but the hope they could make a better life for themselves and their children and their children’s children. And they succeeded. Those of us in this forum are the heirs of that. We benefited by the virtue of freedom this country offered to our ancestors and by that virtue they were able to make a better life for themselves and us.
Do you suppose our ancestors came here to be oppressed and exploited unmercifully by greedy monopoly capitalists? No. If the myth were reality, then America would only have had an initial inflow of people who thought they were going to improve their living but ended up being worse off. They would not have been followed by their relatives, friends and fellow countrymen and women who were facing the same conditions in which they now knew could be improved in America and the continued inflow of immigrants seen wouldn’t have been sustained year after year.
This myth gets its appeal from the common fallacy that one person's gain is another person's loss. Which is a damning thought. While it is true many became wealthy during that time and robber barons exist. They still do today, They always have. People are people, majority have morals, few don’t, and the few who don't always seem to get more recognition, that is a part of the course of history unfortunately.
However, the moral of the story is that the same system which enabled a few to become extremely wealthy off their own ideas and innovations, was also the same system which provided the freedom and opportunities for millions of people to improve their lives and for very first time in many of their families history, presented the chance to become wealthy themselves. Everyone can benefit. The few who did become wealthy didn’t do so at the expense of others. But by developing revolutionary ideas which created those opportunities which didn’t exist for anyone before.
While it is true there are some people better off than others in America. When all is said and done, by and large even the poorest and most disadvantaged people in this country still have above the average standard of living of more than half the world’s population. Now this doesn’t mean we should be satisfied, we are a wealthier country and have and can be better, but we ought to have a sense of proportion when it comes to recognizing both the source and the problem.