Religion and Mass Media
- Religion is the most conservative feature of any society
- Epic poetry crystallizes religious values in the popular imagination
- Epic poetry is the most powerful brainwashing media of the ancient world
- Without epic poetry, religion becomes merely a topic that can be debated
- The mass media that replaced epic poetry did not deal with religion but with politics, the economy, wars, inventions, crime, etc
- The mass media that replaced epic poetry frequently created strong beliefs among the public (similar to religions) but transient beliefs
- Epic poetry was a self-sustaining cycle of generally static beliefs, each poem perpetuating and enhancing the religious values embedded in the previous ones
- Epic poetry cooperates in shaping myths, does not compete
- The mass media that replaced epic poetry compete for attention and cannot create the same uniform set of beliefs
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