In political myths, unlike folk tales, “evil” is often disguised as “good” and “the good” is presented as “the great evil”. For many times, in such myths, the greatest “ogres” come to be called “Princes Charming” or “heroes”, or even “saviors” even if in reality they committed crimes against humanity as, for example, in the Ukrainian localities of Bucha and Irpeni. How and why such metamorphoses happen in the case of political mythology, but also what are its origins, manifestations and effects throughout history and in today's time were among the subjects discussed by the experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Political mythologies in history and in actuality”.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan said that, currently, the myths are fanciful explanations of social events and phenomena. Previously, myths were the folk tales about legendary gods and heroes, about the origin of the world and life on earth, which convey people’s ideas about the world and the humans’ place in it. “The purpose of myths is to create collective fantasies, conceived by human consciousness as completely real. Subsequently, their myths, motifs and images often served as a source for works of fine art and artistic fiction, while nowadays for political manipulations. A political myth is an artificial worldview construct that replaces verifiable facts about politics with fiction, legends, symbolic images, and serves manipulative purposes. Currently, the problems of myth creation are becoming more and more relevant,” he stated.
“The use of myths to influence voter behavior is one of the ways to achieve political goals. Myths are actively used in ideology and propaganda, in social communication and advertising, in manipulation. Mythologization techniques are used to shape the consciousness of the masses. In modern society, a new direction of mythology is emerging – political mythology. “The political myth is a transformed form of political consciousness in which knowledge and understanding of political facts is replaced by images, symbols, fiction, legends and belief in them.”
Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, PhD in History, an associate professor, head of the Contemporary History Department of the Institute of History of the Moldova State University, said that in the notion of “myths” he sees particular social phenomena that involve, first of all, the element of faith. “A myth becomes faith when a certain community, society assumes this representation as a belief or invests faith in a history or legend, or in a discourse. And then this myth exists in collective consciousness. It is often not so personified and there is no person who bears responsibility, but it is somewhere in this collective consciousness like a nebula. When critically addressed, political myths begin to be debunked and disappear because they are myths with negative, destructive connotations. But there are also myths with positive connotations which are capable of contributing to edification, not destruction,” said the doctor of history.
For example, argues Virgiliu Bîrlădeanu, democratic societies are also willing to believe in an individual, a person who is creative and response and on whom the fate of society and their own future depend. “This is not necessarily a myth based on falsehood. Myths very often also have elements of reality. Currently, a number of studies that treat and analyze the phenomenon of mythology and collective mentality in a very broad context have appeared. At the same time, often, researchers, referring to myths with negative connotations, to falsehoods, talk more about mystifications,” said the historian.
Cristian Manolachi, PhD in History, of Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, said that both previously and now, political leaders take on the role of “saviors” and “Princes Charming” in order to gain the sympathy of the people. Th these populist leaders are basically build a bridge between a falsified past and an idealized future, a utopia. But history has shown that these beautiful ideal stories of the future society are nothing but dystopias or the opposite of utopias. In this sense, there are the totalitarian examples of the 20th century, when both communism and fascism failed to deliver what they promised to the people. “Most myths serve as the basis for projects in which populist politicians tried to reform the man himself. These populist leaders argue that new people are needed, which is people different from those who actually exist with so many differences and even with so many flaws. This is what the communists and fascists promised, and they equally failed to reform the man,” said the doctor of history from Cluj-Napoca.
“There is also the myth of unity. As a rule, populist leaders call for unity, national unity, for example. It’s just that this myth of unity doesn’t exist. To think and feel alike is wrong and democracy, the principles of liberalism deny this uniformity of population. This myth of unity implies that, for example, all Romanians are united and have the same goal, and they all want to recreate “the society of the past that was an ideal one”, but this to be recreated in the future. For the purpose, it is only necessary for the people to be united, to believe, to fight and to trust a leader. History has shown that this myth of unity is also false.”
The public debate entitled “Political mythologies in history and in actuality” was the 35th installment of the series “Impact of the past on confidence and peace building processes”. IPN Agency carries out this project with the support of the German “Hanns Seidel” Foundation.
