The Myth of Redemptive Violence is an archetypal plot in literature, especially in imperial cultures. One of the oldest versions of this story is the creation myth of Babylon (the Enûma Elish) from around 1250 B.C. Walter Wink coined the term as part of an analysis of its impact on modern culture and its role in maintaining oppressive power structures in his book The Powers That Be. Narrative and effect While contrasting the Enûma Elish with the Genesis creation myth found in the Book of Genesis, Wink examines the psychological effects of each phase of the story. He asserts that every phase of the narrative serves to reinforce the ideology of the status quo and convince us to perpetuate the ruling power structure. Primal chaos The primacy of Tiamat suggests that chaos and evil are the original and natural state of the universe. This can be used to convince us to fear and oppose any threat to the current order, under the assumption that things can only get worse. Superheroes especially have dark origins (for example, the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents and the destruction of planet Krypton), and the pervasiveness of evil is depicted by the resurrection of villains in horror movies and cartoons, the exaggerated presence of violent crime in news coverage, and the overwhelming number and variety of bad creatures in The Lord of the Rings. Tammuz Tiamat and her allies oppress the other gods, who, at first, seem powerless to resist. This acknowledges the effectiveness of alternative systems, and gives us the guilty pleasure of vicariously harming our "betters" and breaking their rules. However, all this is constrained by the exaggerated flaws of the antagonists, which foreshadow their failure and make us ashamed to identify with them. Horror films tend to emphasize this part of the narrative to the extreme, whereas superhero stories often marginalize it. Heroism Marduk offers to defeat Tiamat in exchange for absolute rule over the remaining gods, and they all agree. This elevates "might makes right" to a contract made at the beginning of the universe. People are inclined to identify with the hero because of his privileges and his good attributes, and to sympathize with any subsequent oppression. Modern examples include James Bond's license to kill, the gold mine given to Doc Savage's father, Friday's loyalty to Robinson Crusoe, the brazen dishonesty of Jedi knights, the extremes of Jack Bauer, etc.