The Power of the Myth

An address by John Eaton - a member of the Church, recorded on Sunday, 17th February, 2019 in the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide. John draws on the book "Sapiens" by Jewish historian, Dr Yuval Noah Harari to show how homo sapiens has expanded from the village "gossip group" of 150 people to cities, nations and civilisations of many millions. This has only been made possible through mythologies about which there is common agreement. John looks at the mythologies of religion, the divine right of kings, economic systems - including money - even the mythology of science. He suggests that the anthropocene - the era of the human plague and human-induced global warming exacerbated by the excesses of capitalism and its bedfellow, conspicuous consumption has created an angry planet. If sapiens is to be saved from extinction, we will all urgently need to reject the myth of capitalism, remove national and global inequality, thereby reducing our population and relace it with new and powerful myths that repair and conserve the web of life that sustains us. He suggests some simple, practical ways in which we can all begin to repair the planet.