Contemporary myths, particularly science fiction and fantasy texts, can provide commentary on who we are as a culture, what we have created, and where we are going. These nine essays from a variety of disciplines expand upon the writings of Joseph Campbell and the hero's journey. Modern examples of myths from various sources such as Planet of the Apes, Wicked, Pan's Labyrinth, and Spirited Away; the Harry Potter series; and Second Life are analyzed as creative mythology and a representation of contemporary culture and emerging technology.

A generation on the move, a country on the brink, and a young author's search to find out how we got here. Millennials and the Moments That Made Us is a cultural history of the United States, as seen through the eyes of the largest, most diverse, and most disprivileged generation in American history. The book is a relatable pop culture history that critiques the capitalist status quo our generation inherited - a critical tour of the music, movies, books, TV shows, and technology that have defined us and our times.

Ubiquitous and enduring, myths are an inherent part of culture. These 10 essays explore the role of myth in the modern world, delving not only into science fiction and fantasy, but also into sport, terrorist rhetoric and television. Contributors contemplate the changing face of the hero in Breaking Bad, Justified and the Japanese film trilogy 20th Century Boys; explore ideology in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice novels and the HBO series Game of Thrones, Showtime's The L Word, and The Day the Earth Stood Still; and examine Al Qaeda's use of myth to justify its violent actions. Other essays consider the hero ideal in sport, the wolf myth in Twilight and the comic persona of Hercules in the Travel Channel series Man v. Food. The power of myth, this volume reveals, extends beyond ancient stories of gods and heroes to express the hopes, fears and reality of everyday life.

The publication of the Harry Potter series in the United States coincided with the coming-of-age of its main target audience, the millennial generation. Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials: Identity, Reception, and Politics takes an interdisciplinary view of Harry Potter, as a series and a phenomenon, to uncover how the appeal of Harry became a lifestyle, a moral compass, and a guiding light in an era fraught with turbulence and disharmony. As a new phenomenon at the time, Harry Potter provided comfort through the heroism of the main characters, showing that perseverance and “constant vigilance,” to quote one of the professors, could overcome the darkest of times. Hobbs argues that Harry Potter prepared an entire generation for the chaotic present marked by the 2016 Election and 2020 Pandemic by shaping the political attitudes of its readers, many of whom were developing their political identities alongside Harry. Her analysis focuses on both the novels themselves and the ways in which fans connected globally through the Internet to discuss the books, commiserate about the events swirling around them, and answer calls to action through Harry Potter-inspired activism. In short, Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials examines how Harry Potter became a generation's defining mythology of love, unity, and transformation.

This book examines Joseph Stalin’s increasing popularity in the post-Soviet space, and analyzes how his image, and the nostalgia it evokes, is manipulated and exploited for political gain. The author argues that, in addition to the evil dictator and the Georgian comrade, there is a third portrayal of Stalin—the one projected by the generation that saw the tail end of the USSR, the post-Soviet millennials. This book is not a biography of one of the most controversial historical figures of the past century. Rather, through a combination of sociopolitical commentary and autobiographical elements that are uncommon in monographs of this kind, the attempt is to explore how Joseph Stalin’s complex legacies and the conflicting cult of his irreconcilable tripartite of personalities still loom over the region as a whole, including Russia and, perhaps to an even deeper extent, Koba’s native land—now the independent Republic of Georgia, caught between its unreconciled Soviet past and the potential future within the European Union.

The Myth of the Welfare Stale is a basic and sweeping explanation of the rise and fall of great powers, and of the profound impacts of these megastates on ordinary lives. Its central theme is the rise of bureaucratic collectivization in American society. It is Douglas's conviction, which he supports with a wealth of detail, that statist bureaucracies produce siagnation, often exacerbated by inflation, which in turn produces the waning of state power.Douglas has his own set of ""isms"" that require concerted attention: mass mediated rationalism, scientism, technologism, credentialism, and expertism. People who make policies have little, if any, awareness of the actual way social processes evolve: agricultural policy is set by people who know little of farming, arid manufacturing policy is set by people who have never set foot on a factory floor. In light of this ""soaring average ignorance,"" it is little wonder that policy-making has Alice-in-Wonderland characteristics and effects.Douglas sees the notion of a welfare state as a contradiction in terms; its widespread insinuation into the culture is made possible by its weak mythological form and benign-sounding characteristics. In fact, welfare states in whatever form they appear have failed in their purpose: to redistribute income or increase real wealth. The megastates are the source of social instability and economic downturn. They grow like a tidal drift. They start out to correct the historical grievances of the laissez-faire states, only to increase the problems they seek to correct. In this, the welfare state is a weakened form of the totalitarian state, producing similarly unhappy results.Professor Douglas has produced a work of ""anti-policy"" - arguing that freedom leavened by an ordinary sense of self-interest and social concern can overcome the shortfalls of the megastates and their myth-making, self-serving, propensities.

This book offers strategic leaders with essential information for their most important role: the change management function of positioning the organization for success into the future. To do so, leaders need to sort through a myriad of forecasts, predictions and weak indicators of change to make timely decisions. This volume addresses the most critical factor for future success: people and, specifically, harnessing the potential the current youth cohort will bring when they join the full-time workforce. Drawing on multi-disciplinary analyses by 37 researchers, the book presents an integrative assessment of the characteristics that those in the current youth cohort are likely to bring to the workplace. The focus is on those born after 2005 with an examination of the implications of this cohort being raised from birth immersed in an increasingly omnipresent digital environment which extends far beyond social media. The authors see the coming ‘digital tsunami’ as creating disruptive effects across major elements of our economy and even society however optimistically conclude that the digital environment and the development of 21st Century skills in schools will equip the next generation with essential competencies, attitudes, social skills and work goals. The key to harnessing the potential of this generation will be to modify current human resources and workplace practices which will mean sweeping away much of the ‘boomer’ legacy that this cohort has imprinted on organizations. To assist leaders, the book goes beyond presenting a rich portrait of who these youth may become by providing practical recommendations for the changes that need to start now in order to position the organization to benefit from what they will bring. As the astute strategic leader knows: objects in the future can be closer than they appear.