Trust in our institutions provides shelter from the storm

By David Magson

We like to imagine that modern life has freed us from myth, but most of us still live surrounded by forces we cannot truly explain. The difference is that now, instead of gods, we rely on institutions — the scientists, broadcasters, engineers, and public servants who mediate reality on our behalf. And when those institutions falter or lose credibility, the lightning feels just as frightening as it did on that moor.

For most of human history, mystery was not a problem to be solved so much as a force to be accommodated. Storms, plagues, eclipses — they were given names and spirits, folded into a world where explanation and meaning were one and the same. A myth was not just a story; it was a framework of trust, a way to feel that the universe was ordered rather than hostile.

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