We Are All Myth Informed
With a start in life such as the Santa legend, where we come close to being bribed to pretend at least that we still accept the myth,if only for the sake of our younger siblings or our children at a somewhat later date, is it any wonder that urban myths abound in our culture?
Why should there be an abundance of myths out there when there weren't nearly that many in the days of old? I think it stems from the nature of myths in pre-industrial cultures when proof was self-evident when one became a little more mature. For example, myths about the swamp witch were undoubtedly designed to scare the daylights out of small children so that they would give the dangerous morass with its pitfalls of quicksand wide latitude. When children had reached an age when they were certain there was no witch that would devour them if they set foot into such an abominable place, they were old enough to navigate the perils of the swamp without danger.
In the modern world, we are reliant on information from outside our immediate environment. This gives the modern myth its credence and its longevity. In the case of Santa Claus, the rewards are so much greater than they are in the more, shall we say grown up myths. Children climb the learning curve when dealing with the Santa Claus rhetoric.
The reason that most urban myths survive is that they are accepted without rigorous examination by many of us and without any question by some of us. There is no incentive to do otherwise. Besides the myths are mainly benign.
Josh Billings, a nineteenth century American humorist, said it best.
"The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain't so."
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