Before answering the question, Dalton does have a point about how the myth should be buried. It doesnt nessecarily do any good, although, it doesnt nessecarily do any bad either, and therefore it is pointless to bury it, seeing is there aren't that many people who truly buy into it anyway- at least, i dont think there are.
However, going along witht he idea that it should be buried; the only way to bury it is to create a new myth in its place. This is difficult, but see, the problem is, you can't disprove it, because not only is that particular myth impossible to disprove (there are always exceptions to everything), but also, there is no way to simply wipe it away. If that were to happen, the memory and the essence of it would still exist and therefore the myth itself would still exist, no matter how many people stopped talking about it. And anyway, what is the point of trying to wipe out a myth? if it is universally understood that it is a myth, who really cares? Back to the original point, though, the only way to get rid of a myth is to replace it with a new one- which would do nothing to better society, unless the myth were a little more "true" (as oxymoronic as that sounds).
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Tina-
I do not completely agree with your viewpoint about the Horatio Alger myth. However, I do agree with what you said about getting rid of the myth. I do not see the myth as being bad, and I believe it is still true today so why bother getting rid of in the first place. You and I come to the same conclusion, just in different ways.
If I did want to totally wipe out the myth, I would have to go along with your idea about “issuing” a new myth to replace the old one. I had not even thought of that as a possibility and it’s a good one. You also talked about how it is impossible to wipe out from everyone’s minds since it is so wide spread. I equated the myth to a rumor. Both of which cannot be stopped once they are started even if they may be entirely false. In essence, this American Dream will be with us forever whether we like it or not.
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