Incidentally, this has been on my mind quite a bit. The TotJO, and/or all organisations like it (churches, charities, philanthropic associations &c.) must respond to the transcendental needs of their participants. "Transcendental" here means only that 'greater-than-myself' liberation from the reflexive ego - that "I-ness" which gets objectified into "me/my/mine". Nearly all these institutions are destined to failure when the membership is too large to come to agreement (this can also produce a 'tyranny of the majority,' which is why I've not been such a keen advocate of democracy), the values are skewed from symbolic/ethical to significative and dogmatic (tradition, orthodoxy) or when we do not allow our values to adapt with changing conditions over time.
There are some very central values which hardly change very much; many of these we have noted in anthropology by their quasi-ubitquitous nature across cultures and history (and even, in many cases, prehistory) as well as exhibited among our non-human cousins.
As it were, these are the gifts we must be exacerbating, amplifying and refining in our Temple. We need to devote ourselves to devotion, not to self-empowerment; to unity rather than debating who is 'more right/wrong' about a non-issue that won't matter in a month or so. We need to be fostering true understanding especially with those we disagree with the most. We need to respect the ego and that of others (not try to dissolve it) through intersubjectivity, abandoning the notion of objectivity altogether. We need moral interrogations (contemplation/meditation) to become central to our existential landscapes. And above all else, we need to quit being so damned proud of what we think we know as facts.
Mythology is important to our allegorical comprehension the un-expressable, non-rational aspects of Life ; rationality and reason are merely how we justify (sic) or recognise patterns and motives in the environment of which we are participants. That is why we lend it value : human beings are storytelling animals, most of our understanding comes from metaphor and simile. Yet, Campbell, Watts et al. are not prophets for us, no more so than Heidegger or Merleau-Ponty. Forget George Lucas...
There is no such thing as Star Wars (nor any other pop culture "canon"), for that, one needs to look to cultural anthropology and ethics.
Until we can undertake this endeavour - which I assure you will be painful and difficult (as it has been hic et ubique), then we will probably all just fade away with other phenomena ...
May the Force be with us.
