Editing National myth (section)

== Dissemination ==
National myths are created and propagated by national [[intellectuals]], and they can be used as instruments of political mobilization on demographic bases such as [[ethnicity]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Safty |first=Adel |title=Leadership and Conflict Resolution |page=273 |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BAMntG01-lwC&pg=PA273 |location=USA |publisher=Universal publishers |isbn=1-58112-617-4 |quote=Shnirelman (1995) considers nationalist myths ... created by national intellectuals and propagated by the intelligentsia with the aim of using this myths as an instrument of ethno-political mobilization under interethnic conflicts.}}</ref>

They might over-dramatize true incidents, omit important historical details, or add details for which there is no evidence; or a national myth might simply be a fictional story that no one takes to be true literally.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abizadeh |first=Arash |year=2004 |title=Historical Truth, National Myths, and Liberal Democracy |journal=Journal of Political Philosophy |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=291–313 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9760.2004.00201.x}}</ref>

=== Mythopoeic methods ===
Traditional [[mythopoeia|myth-making]] often depended on [[literature|literary]] story-tellers — especially [[Epic poetry|epic poet]]s. Ancient [[Hellenic Culture|Hellenic culture]] adopted [[Homer]]'s Ionian ''[[Iliad]]'' as a justification of its theoretical unity, and [[Virgil]] (70–19 BCE) composed the ''[[Aeneid]]'' in support of the political renewal and reunification of the Roman world after lengthy civil wars. Generations of medieval writers (in poetry and prose) contributed to the [[Arthurian]] [[Matter of Britain]], developing what became a focus for English nationalism by adopting British Celtic material. [[Luís de Camões|Camões]] ({{circa | 1524}}–1580) composed in Macao the [[Os Lusíadas|''Lusiads'']] as a national poetic epic for Portugal. [[Voltaire]] attempted a similar work for French mythologised history in the ''[[Henriade]]'' (1723). [[Wagnerian opera]] came to foster German national enthusiasm.

=== Other methods ===
Modern purveyors of national mythologies have tended to appeal to the people more directly through the media. French [[pamphleteer]]s spread the ideas of [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|Liberty, Equality and Fraternity]] in the 1790s, and American journalists, politicians, and scholars popularized mythic tropes like "[[Manifest Destiny]]", [[American frontier|"the Frontier"]], or the "[[Arsenal of Democracy]]". Socialists advocating ideas like the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] have promoted catchy nation-promoting slogans such as "[[Socialism with Chinese characteristics]]" and "[[Kim Il Sung]] thought".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Portal
 | first1 = Jane
 | chapter = The Kim Cult
 | title = Art Under Control in North Korea
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zWH05CbG02kC
 | location = London
 | publisher = Reaktion Books
 | date = 2005
 | page = 90
 | isbn = 9781861892362
 | access-date = 6 February 2020
 | quote = [...] a North Korean's conversation is full of phrases such as 'Kim Il-sung thought', 'Kim Il-sungism', 'dedication to Kim Il-sung' and 'the Great Leader Kim Il-sung'.
}}
</ref>