Regression

I've been re-reading, as I've said, Reine Eisler's "Chalice and Blade"....this, as well as Joseph Campbell and Gimbutas, were foundational to my outlook. I am a somewhat accidental Feminist. So deeply have these things sunk into my psyche, that even the word "Feminist" seems limiting...inadequate...with connotations of being simply the other side of a coin, rather than a comprehensive, whole-istic world view.

Eisler, and the others, make a compelling case....and I find it instructive that so much effort has been marshaled to discredit and belittle these ideas.

In the same way that Western Historians, until very recently, ignored much evidence suggesting that the pre-Columbian population of the "New World" was many millions....in other words, that the effects of European disease went before the actual Europeans, giving the impression of a relatively uninhabited place, ripe for the taking....in the same way, any suggestion or proposal that threatens the Mythos of Man the Warrior/Hunter, of Primitive Man the Brute, of an alternative way to structure a society, is simply disregarded....attacked as "Utopian", "Pseudohistory"....

Liberalism ( look it up...I'm not talking about the Faux Definition...) leans towards Feminine Values...what Eisler calls Gylanic....Partnership, as opposed to Dominator....Cooperative, versus Uber-Competitive.

"Conservatism" is the Reaction to this.(see: http://www.alternet.org/story/153919/the_truth_about_the_conservative_mind%3A_why_reactionaries_from_edmund_burke_to_sarah_palin_have_fought_real_liberty_/?page=entire)

For almost 40 years, those who have historically held Power have been fighting a war for the Mind....it's been a shadow war...fought with Memes, and Slogans and Framing. It relies on Fear....whether of the Other, the Brown People Du Jour, or of loss of status, and function...

Why, for instance, can we not have an Equal Rights Amendment? Who does it threaten, the idea of Women having equal pay, equal rights to property, and the like?

Why, after 911, was the obvious...what our country had done abroad to engender so much Hatred...off limits?

The Drug War...which is, for the most part, a War on Weed....why do we continue it? Is it because Weed encourages Thought, and Peace and Sharing?(refute,)...

Labor Unions....why are they so vilified? Is it due to their challenge to Hierarchical, Authoritarianism?

Again and again, there are patterns that connect...Hippies...Quakers...Liberals...Environmentalists...all those who advocate a more Peaceful, Rational and Egalitarian World....these are the Enemies of the Man...the Dominators.

I note that Kucinich has had a very difficult time promoting the creation of a "Department of Peace"....why? Why is Peace and cooperation so threatening to the (largely) Men who Rule us?

One of my main beefs with Christianity is it's focus, since the 3rd or 4th century, on War and Hatred and Destruction....and on a My Way or the Stake Mentality.....rather than on the Ideals and Utterances of it's purported Founder.

Are we really doomed?

Can enough of us not make a conscious Choice (Heresy...look it up)...to change this Dynamic? Are the war monger's feelings so fragile and important? Let alone the "Troops"....my God!...is calling the recent Imperial Wars "Wrongheadded" and Stupid...such an affront to those who were fooled into fighting them? Must we tiptoe through the minefield of PTSD, and say nothing of how Evil our invasion of Iraq was?

In growing up with a disabled Vietnam Vet...I learned rather quickly that one must not criticize that war...no matter how, Objectively, Stupid it was. His Psychological Equilibrium, such as it was, relied on sustaining the Belief that our actions in Indochina were good and just...that he lost his legs for Freedom and the American Way....

This continues, on a National, Societal Scale.

We are Cowards.

Untill a critical mass of Us find the Courage and Fortitude to speak out against all the War and Hate and Domination and Uber-Competitive Psychotic behaviour...nothing will change.....except for the worse.

Science is only used when it enhances and supports the male-centric Authoritarian Dominator System...otherwise , it is disregarded. Same with Religion...Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild? No...can't have that... God is Pro War(Fallwell)...Jesus with a Sword...(and Women as Property!) Turn the other cheek...in order to distract your enemy, lol.

I note that "Democracy" is well and good, when the supposed "Will of the People" gives us Violent Imbeciles for leaders....it is suspect, if not "un-American", if it brings Reason, Intelligence or a Black Dude into the White House.

Locate your spine, my Fellow Americans...that wrinkled mass at the top of it is your Brain.

Please, begin to use them both.