A civilization’s shared myths account for why things are the way they are. They can bolster loyalty to a religion or a nation, and they can excuse class and race privilege. Ancient Hebrew scriptures claim that God gave them a land where other nations were already living just as America’s “manifest destiny” excused genocide and pathological land theft. But myth’s don’t have to be toxic, in fact, they could be quite useful in uniting a people around a common goal of actually becoming a great nation that, for example, eradicates poverty and racism, ends militarism and environmental exploitation. We need to be able to purge the myths that support religious or racial superiority and replace them with a vision of compassion and peace.