Why do I say ending patriarchy is key to ending climate change?
It’s not rocket science.
Patriarchy is the dinosaur dominator mindset that is leading us inexorably towards climate disaster. It is the mindset of wanting more; more things, more power, more control, more sex - well, you get the idea huh? More everything.
Patriarchy is egotism on steroids. Testosterone is a steroid. It is why we experience such high rates of sexual violence in the world too. Men who cannot control their appetites for power and things will also unlikely control their appetite for sexual domination. Thus women and children, perceived as weaker, are used to satisfy these untamed desires. That helps keep the matriarchy under control, to keep women collectively disempowered.
Individual desires rule over the collective need. So we are not allowed to have balanced society; we are not allowed the necessary economics of sufficiency; we are not allowed to have safe societies, with egalitarian modalities. And we are not allowed to live within the means of this earth, because to do that those who now hold power must yield it to the collective.
People do not readily yield power. They grasp at it and cling to it. They want more not less. They see life as a zero sum game, so for them to enjoy their power they must take power from others, from nature, from "natural resources", and they must always chase more; there is no more powerful drug than power.
Most other addictive and harmful drug use is, in fact, an indirect response to this hoarding of power by the few. Individuals traumatised by circumstances, by direct results of the negative exercise of power by others (mainly men) in sexual violence, or who are sensitive to the mass trauma that is rife in our societies try to self medicate away their suffering. They take a drug to release their sense of powerlessness in a messed up society for a moment, yet the release from suffering is transitory and short-lived. Thus addictions form.
The way our societies treats these people is very cruel. Drug users, alcoholics, sex workers, and those who have been abused as children and/or adults are cast out, made homeless, re-traumatised, criminalised and imprisoned, or left voiceless by institutionally corrupt systems dominated by those with a patriarchal dominator mindset.
So now do you wonder why people will not listen to the #climate warnings you and others are giving?
You are wanting to live within earth’s means. You are wanting to see nature and other species thrive healthily. Your dreams and wishes are only possible if the patriarchal dominator mindset is put back in its box.
This is THE problem.
People who now have power must lose their power. As I wrote earlier, they will not readily give it up. It is a drug and highly addictive. The entire edifice of our culture will have to tumble. A society built on the foundations of living within earth’s means and with egalitarian human relationships at its core will look very different. Rape is an unnatural event. Rape of our planet is an unnatural event. The two phenomena are intimately linked. Both go against natural justice.
These climate wars that we are in - yes we are in climate wars - are truly the wars to end the patriarchal dominator culture. Humankind’s next evolutionary stage is clearly to rebalance in all things, to harmonise within our human relations and our relations to the planet.
David Graeber accurately described bullshit jobs. These are jobs that add nothing to life. Mainly counting beans, or showing up as a bean to be counted. An economy of sufficiency, and that has shaken-off the anachronistic dominator patriarchal mindset, will not have these jobs. We will not rely upon forced poverty as the motivating factor for a person to contribute to the collective wellbeing of all. And we will lose our obsession with counting beans and being counted.
There is an inner dimension to this shift that cannot be underestimated in importance. Any attempt to fix society that comes from places of ego is destined to fail; stronger egos will prevail. They will always want more, so we will just recreate the problem in a different mask.
Inner peace manifests as outer peace. Being at peace with oneself is key to being at peace with others. Two or more peaceful persons coming together to voluntarily co-create, grow food, build shelter, or any of the many other activities humans engage in, don’t need written contracts and lawyers. They don’t need the bullshit that society demands under this dominator culture that rules our world today.
How far will we push earth such that earth must push back against us so we learn these lessons? So far it is not looking good, though I guess the ending of a dominator culture that has ruled for ten or twenty thousand years at most is always going to look a bit messy.
We have more oil. We have more demands for consumption. We have increasing rates of violence, war, and sexual violence. You may not see these things are all linked, all caused by the culture of patriarchy, but they certainly are.
We will not solve the climate problem without solving the patriarchy problem. It’s just a symptom - even if it is also an existential threat, which it most certainly is.
