#individual foundations

An ethos --- a character or moral fiber --- geared toward the progressive enhancement of capacities for creative expression does depend, to some extent on embracing a mythos. Personal meaning cannot be forged by fiat from out of a cultural-historical vacuum. Individuals need to draw from the mythic structures of living traditions, and the archetypes that sustain these structures on the level of the collective unconscious. But ethical conduct always involves a situational adaptation and appropriation of this heritage, not a subservience to it that is tantamount to a tyranny of the past over present and future generations.