To the Editor:
Patriarchy is not inevitable and having huge swaths of land and people being controlled by a single person is not ordained by God.
We are no longer an agrarian society where the physical strength of men allowed them the advantage in acquiring or defending land. Our institutions must be restructured where cooperation and mutual aid become central to policy.
Winston Churchill was a man of his times, and in the chaos and uncertainty of war he is said to have proclaimed:
“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
I heard a very educated man repeat this on TV just this morning as if it was the fate of humanity for all time. Except it isn’t true. Not by a long shot.
In fact, peaceful, successful egalitarian civilizations have flourished on this planet for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years, and all of human history didn’t begin 5,000 years ago. It is not the natural order for men to be elevated and certain men to rule while the rest get scraps that we fight each other for endlessly.
Hierarchy and dominance are often presented as inevitable, yet the evidence suggests they are choices. Human beings created these systems. Human beings maintain them. Human beings teach them to each new generation as though they were laws of nature instead of institutions designed by people.
As these institutions fail to achieve the order, prosperity and security they promise, the answer to the failures of patriarchal systems is almost always more force, more deprivation, more control, less freedom.
To what end?
We are told there is no alternative. We are told this is simply how the world works. The underlying assumption remains the same: a few should control all the wealth and power and the many should obey or face dire consequences.
I reject that premise.
We no longer live in a world where physical strength determines who survives. We must reject centralized rule and wealth or privilege to organize society. The challenges before us are many. Massive inequality and poverty, war, huge parts of our planet in imminent danger of becoming uninhabitable, technological disruption, governmental and corporate and educational short sightedness, cruelty and contempt for freedom, dignity and progress cannot be solved through domination and division. They require cooperation. They require remembering we had a past before men dominated and, dare I say it? Women and girls are really, really good at that sort of thing. You could even say nature blessed us.
Christine Taber
Sylva