This article critiques a specific systems theorist in terms of academic mythmaking. Barthes (1972) argues that myths contain a kernel of truth for "the form does not suppress meaning, it only impoverishes it. But the kernel is hardly the whole corn, and if it is substituted for the whole, it will mislead any attempt to understand that whole. In this paper, I will show how this self-deception affects the systems theorist's analysis, and his practical efforts to transform social processes outside the confines of academia. The "kernel of truth" is taken as the whole truth, and hence distorts, misleads and mythologises concepts and processes upon which the analysis is based. Three articles are critically examined in view of the potential of self-deception and show that the systems analysis discussed cannot provide new insights into the "complex process of political communication" beyond entrenching the prevailing order.
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