Ich glaub mich rammt ein Rotkehlchen (den wollte ich schon länger mal wieder benutzen ;-)): Es gibt in Deutschland Tanzverbote? Hallo? Wo leben wir hier eigentlich? Oh, aber als Christ sollte ich doch für sowas sein, gerade an so Tagen wie Karfreitag, gell? Nö. Freiheit ist eben gerade die Freiheit der Andersdenkenden. "Und was ist, wenn jemand so ne Veranstaltung gerade na Kartfreitag genau gegenüber der 'Gemeinde' (also des Gottesdienstraums/gebäudes) macht?" Dann kann man da mit anderen Mitteln als einem landesweiten(!) Verbots vorgehen. Oder es ertragen.
[War für Facebook zu lang... aber für'n Blog fast zu kurz. Blöd, das.]
First off, let me say that I haven't read "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". Not really planning to either, judging by what I've read about it.
So, why's it like horoscopes? Simply because it's too general. It's so general that whatever story you have, you *can* make it fit the monomyth. Or make the monomyth fit the story, however you look at it.
*Especially* when you consider that (apparently) the monomyth is still present even if only *parts* of it are actually present in the story at hand. Don't know if there's a threshold of how many elements of the monomyth must directly be detectable in the story.
And then there's... well, here's the monomyth summary from "the master" himself (got that from Wikipedia):
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Now imagine a story... no, take Harry Potter. Fits it perfectly, doesn't it? Or so they say. Except "bestow boons"? Be flexible, being free of Lord Voldemort at the end is a boon, right?
But now... imagine a story that turns HP around: a wizard has to live in our muggle world. Can't do any magic either. Still would fit. Why? Because it's so malleable! "supernatural wonder"? Look at Mr. Weasley in Harry Potter. "fabulous forces" like Eckeltricity? See, it all fits.
Or take Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", or similar yarns. Where's the supernatural wonder there? Modern-day technology is a supernatural wonder ("sufficiently advanced technology", aka "magic") to the people back in the middle ages.
But it still fits, right? Because not all elements must be present.
Wonderful. Wonderfully meaningless, that is.
"Hey, you still haven't explained how it's like horoscopes!" Yes, I have. Just not explicitly. So here goes:
The monomyth can be made to fit any story there is. Just like your "daily horoscope" can be "made" to fit whatever actually happens to you, since it's so broad and actually empty of real concrete data. Or like a soothsayer telling a woman she "will meet a tall, handsome man". Sure, lots of people meet tall, handsome men every day.
Oh, and the monomyth also reminds me of an overbroad patent. ;-)
Wieso eigentlich nicht? Das sind doch alles Beamte, die von Menschen berufen werden, die von Menschen eingesetzt oder gewählt wurden, die von anderen Menschen gewählt wurden, die am Ende vom (jeweiligen) Volk gewählt wurden.
Also, was ist eigentlich "demokratisch legitimiert"? Nee, ich schau jetzt nicht nach. Später.
Ist "demokratisch legitimiert" nur, wer direkt vom Volk gewählt wird?
Dann ist auch der Bundeskanzler bzw die Kanzlerin (also uns Angela) nicht demokratisch legimiert. Weil ja nicht vom Volk, sondern vom Bundestag gewählt. Oder ist das noch "nah genug"? Weil... das sind ja alles "Volksvertreter", ja?
Aber was ist *dann* mit den Ministern? Demokratisch legitimiert? Staatsekretäre? Und, und und...
Formlulieren wir's mal n wenig anders, leicht mathematisch: Gegeben Person A und Person B. Person A direkt vom Volk gewählt. Person B indirekt über N Schritte von A eingesetzt. Wie gross darf nun N sein, damit B immer noch als "demokratisch legitimiert" gelten kann?
What I want and not got: a system that allows me to (to some rather high level of detail) specify a subset of all means of transportation (car, bicycle... walking) and it then finds a path based on the means selected.
I know of no navigation system (HW or SW) that does it. I wish for openstreetmap to do so, but...
Means I'd like to see supported more are public transport and bicycles. What Google Maps supports (badly) is walking. What it apparently doesn't support is walking and public transport (walk, public, walk and so on).
While surfing on a music-recording related mission (triggered by something on this site), I came across http://www.irma.ie/piracy.htm.
Such a sweet page.
Scroll down, all the way down. To the section "What is suspicious". You'll see "incorrect spelling". Now scroll back up to "SID CODE". You'll see "CD's". Doesn't that make the whole page suspicious? ;-) (And yes, I am a spelling nazi. ;-)
Oh, and there's such sweet bias. "What is suspicious" has "no record label". Sure, if I were to publish my music myself, if I were to sell my, maybe even home-burned, CDs at my own gig... then this is suspicious. Yeah, right. Of course, what they're really going for here is that they are an extension of the (big) labels. Who do not really want you to self-publish. Either publish via them (and they get the lion's share) or not at all (so as to not be competition for their profitable acts).
And "low cost" is also suspicious. "Only if you pay an arm and a leg it's really good." Oh, go FOAD, recording industry of whereever.
On the word "piracy": I just use it because the web page I comment on uses it. And it's a well-established term. Not that the meaning is well-established, just the term is well-known. This list has a bit more on that. I agree. Though I'd add that there are (IMHO) pirates there too. Organizations that run illegal CD/DVD (Blu-ray?) manufacturing plants. Who actually make money from unauthorized duplication. And who may be even armed. I'd be then willing to call them pirates.
Hmm, veerer-offer on tangents, that's me. ;-)