Joseph Campbell is Right

Tonight I am watching another interview between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, recorded shortly before Campbell's death in 1987. Here's an excerpt eerily relevant to today.

Campbell: "The world changes, then the religion has to be transformed."

Moyers: "But it seems to me, that is what we are, in fact, doing, we're-"

Campbell: "That's in fact what we better do! But my notion of what the real horror today is what you see in Beirut, where you have the three great western religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and because the three of them have three different names for the same Biblical God, they can't get on together. They're stuck with their metaphor, and don't realize it's reference."

Moyers: "So each needs a new myth."

Campbell: "Each needs it's own myth, all the way: love thy enemy, you know? Open up! Don't judge!

I've been saying this for years, but almost 20 years on we're in the same mess, and I think it's more our fault than we care to acknowledge.