Hello readers,
The mentality created by the industrial revolution was one that deified science and materialism. The pragmatic evolution of ideas and ideals re-centered the human and cultural experiences of men and women away from God, spirituality, and Nature. No longer subservient to a higher power of some kind, humans replaced those fundamental alliances to Man himself and his ability to create, organize, and restructure our way of thinking and our way of life around the planet.
Humans, like chimpanzees, have most often created cultures which privilege male dominance and the objectification of women over the last 2000 or so years. Why were early cultures so much more respectful of Nature and the feminine? I tend to think that culture is built as a means to empower humans, to help us combat the fear of being helpless in this complex world. In early times, Nature herself was both enemy and friend, and “primitive” humans had to learn to learn from her, respect her, and also protect themselves from her rages. When Biblical times rolled around, the era of respect for Nature and the feminine was coming to an end. A revolution which crushed polytheism and which all but erased feminine power from what were to become the most powerful religions in the world: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, paved the way to where we are now.
Patriarchy is the father of the neo-liberal economic policies which govern global systems today. We see the dominance of masculine over feminine resulting in game changing climate change which will lead to the extermination of humanity and much of the planet without immediate intervention. Empire building strategies of many nations, led by the United States, the biggest empire in the history of the world, have created a pattern of endless war and unrest. And today, we observe in public life political turmoil and chaos in many nations. Economic inequality, the breakdown of culture, and the majority of people struggling to survive without a safety net is the overall result of masculine domination of our societies.
When the energies of masculine and feminine are not fully recognized, respected, and given a voice in the societies in which we live, at least 50% of our being is silenced. Without a voice, we live in pain. The repressed longings and needs of the subconscious mind, both personal and collective, yearn to be reflected in our culture, to be recognized publicly. It is both physically and emotionally painful to not have a voice, to not be heard. We become invisible. And the invisible are exploited.
Today, in the United States, widespread use of narcotics (pain-killers) are used by people of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds. The pain may begin as back pain, physical pain. The body expresses the agony which the mouth cannot utter. Our media outlets are almost all loyal servants to their corporate masters. While we in the United States and even Europe “enjoy” a semblance of democracy, the reality behind the scenes is a different one. Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister from Greece, explained in an interview with Noam Chomsky, how transparency is needed to restore democracy to Europe. According to Mr. Varoufakis, France runs the E.U., and all of the most important economic decisions are made by a group of people not elected by popular vote, behind closed doors. Mr. Varoufakis is working hard to raise awareness on the need for true democracy and for transparency in politics and economics in Europe.
Most of us know that global economics is run by a small number of ultra-wealthy individuals, that their wealth has paid the way for corporations to be given the privileges of persons, and that real people enjoy no such privilege. The world today is run by money and values only money and power. We have returned to a feudal system, and 99.9 per cent of us are working for an invisible master. We have few to no rights, depending where we live in the world. Our governments do not represent us, but they use our work, our human and collective resources, our land, and our money to orchestrate their plans for continued domination and repression.
To be silenced is to suffer. While the United States and our policies have essentially created terrorists and terrorism as a trick to control the American people and maintain fear and scapegoating while the wealthy few continue to accumulate more wealth and power, some of us see through these tactics. And as the smoke screen clears, we are beginning to see that the carrot of the American Dream was never more than a mirage. Materialism and the accumulation of goods that most Americans can no longer afford, has crumbled. A number of mostly older and less well educated Americans are still held by the sway of the illusion. These are the people following Donald Trump. They are being manipulated to think that the continuation of corporate domination will restore a decent quality of life to themselves and their families, that by scapegoating and fear mongering, they will find their way back to a place where they feel powerful. The restoration of identity through scapegoating is something we are seeing around the world. People are in pain and they feel powerless. Extreme right-wing groups spring up and feast on that fear, harnessing the energy of pain, giving a new but ugly voice to the silenced.
There is another and much better way to heal the pain and to give a voice to those who have been deprived. It is an old idea, but we can give it a new twist. How about true democracy? How about ending racism and racist economics? I recently listened to a to a powerful and emotional Ted Talk: Majora Carter – The Greening of the Ghetto. This young woman explains how so very intentionally politicians, banks , real estate abandoned the South Bronx, stole its resources, and left its people to struggle as the value of its properties were stripped away. The establishment in the United States has done everything in its power to take away dignity, pride, and political and economic power from its citizens, especially those who are not white.
And yet all people strive and hunger for freedom. We all yearn in our hearts to express our talents, to speak our true voice. We all have important things to say and to share with our fellow humans. So much talent and ingenuity is wasted because of the international political and economic systems to which we have been subjected.
What gives me hope is the rising swell of support for Bernie Sanders, the growing confidence of the little people to speak up. Those who have been crushed working minimum wage jobs with no benefits. People don’t want to just somehow survive. We want to be heard, and we need to have a voice in our communities and in the way our governments and businesses are run. Very few Americans vote in our elections because most of us are disenfranchised. Not only do both Democrats and Republicans manipulate elections to make sure that those who most likely won’t support them are deprived of the right to vote, but the media also works hard to make sure that candidates which would earn widespread popular support are given little to no coverage.
We do have candidates who do want to bring back balance to our societies by restoring the feminine, by giving us back dignity. There are people, such as Jill Stein of the Green party, who want to listen to us and who have the energy, intelligence, and leadership skills to restore our environment, create jobs and transform our society into something we can back and believe in. We need to do our research and dig beyond the illusions spun by the corporations and billionaires to see that we do have the power to create a world together that does represent our values. We can take on the billionaires and the big corporations, because they get their billions from our hard work, and we get nothing in return, but sick and silenced. The corporations and patriarchy have reached their logical end. Our food, water, our soil, our bodies have been exhausted and polluted by abuse and disrespect.
There is another way.
People who have been abused either suffer and accept disempowerment, or they gain strength and use their experiences to help others. The exploited billions of the world each contain a voice. And each of our voices contains a balance of masculine and feminine energies. This is the voice of Nature. Together, we can heal our pain, stop using narcotics and painkillers to disguise the suffering, and slowly or not so slowly, realize that we each have a unique voice and unique talents that the world so desperately needs to hear and experience.
We don’t have to accept the status quo. We simply need to wake up and realize that we have alternatives. Loving alternatives which benefit everyone and which can restore our planet as well as dignity and respect to humanity. We can live in harmony with Nature. We are part of Nature, and she is part of us. The time has come to stop suppressing the feminine. It is killing us.
adamevenevenadam 