Foundational myths rewrite predicted futures as descriptions of an already-past beginning.

Evidence

Foundational myths are, by definition, transhistorical: not only outside history, but fundamentally ahistorical. They are anachronistic and have the structure of a double inscription. Their redemptive power lies in the future, which is yet to come. But they work by ascribing what they predict will happen to their description of what has already happened, of what it was like in the beginning. History, however, like Time’s arrow, is, if not linear, then successive. The narrative structure of myths is cyclical. But within history, their meaning is often transformed. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 828

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core definition of the foundational-myth mechanism: double inscription, ahistorical temporality, cyclical narrative structure — a tool for the colonialism/identity toolkit.
• XREF: Connects directly to Anderson’s ‘imagined community’ and the constructed temporality of the nation; also resonates with Homi Bhabha’s work on nation as narration. — connects to: Utopic certainty derives from millenarian traditions of ordained futures. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 690; Return to archaic form can itself be a rendering of future shock — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 300; Futures are increasingly represented in the forms of the past. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 515 (+3 more)