myths

fictions that can yet hold truths
used to convince self (private myths) or others (mass myths)
> likelihood of gradation between private and mass
use of myths not necessarily conscious
the range of possible messages, explicit or implicit, of a myth/group of myths, is virtually infinite, and therefore mass myths can be used by essentially all individual people as well as societies (peoples, religions, nations, "sub-cultures", towns/cities, et cetera)
> different groups can employ the same myth to different (even opposed) social ends
though often fantastic in initial appearance, myths are rooted in the world as it is perceived by their author(s)

this may need to get edited a bit down the road.