Singing of Chains
Making Myths and Making Wales
From Planet 238
by Ted Parry
As we face new pandemics and perils, Ted Parry identifies the most powerful stories, imagery and ways of being as relayed through Welsh history that can be drawn upon to inspire support for an independent and socialist Wales.
On the contemporary left, and amongst ‘liberal left’ thinkers, myth is despised: though ‘narrative’ is common. But myth has the power of implicit and immediate understandings, bypassing conscious argument. With the rise of both right-wing populism and actual fascisms there’s a need for ferocious motivating images superior in power, speed and agility to those manufactured by the right and the British unionists.
Merely ‘critiquing’ right-wing myths with sense or fact can cause their hydra-headed multiplication, for example through provoking social media reaction which spreads the contagion further. We’ve left the age of reason for the age of re-enchantment: the arms race of myth.
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