ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with changes in the mythical structure brought about both by changes in time frames and by metaphorical elaboration. Political myths, writes Murray Edelman, fall into a small number of archetypical patterns though they vary widely in detail. A panic at the stock market may follow, and free-floating anxieties may be focused on a mythical conspiracy of which the death of the president is only the first manifest example. The new “generation” has constructed different historical frames of reference; consequently this generation is less limited by the dominant myth. Churchill presents a nearly classical inventory of the themes that foster a mythical interpretation of conflicts of interest. Thus the anxiety created by domestic events—the observer is struck by the fear of a monstrous “conspiracy” on both sides—reinforced the mythical conception of politics that had become dominant after the war.
