The African American population in the US is 12.4%, the transgender population probably less than 0.5% and immigrants can’t vote. The only demographic strong enough to resist the trend towards authoritarianism or the restoration of a white male 19th century “republic” are women. Women do make up a majority of the population.
Personal…
The African American population in the US is 12.4%, the transgender population probably less than 0.5% and immigrants can’t vote. The only demographic strong enough to resist the trend towards authoritarianism or the restoration of a white male 19th century “republic” are women. Women do make up a majority of the population.
Personally, I think the greatest perceived threat to the old order is the society-wide rebalancing of male-female power. The GOP is not blind to this. Note the “Proud Boys”, note Yale educated Sen.Hawley saying feminists are forcing men to watch porn, note the impunity of pussy-grabbing bragging, note abortion-vigilante Texas. Thankfully --and it is probably no coincidence--- some of our best leaders and thinkers are women. Thank you Nancy P. thank you Stacey A., thank you Amy K, thank you Heather and many others. You are our best hope for the survival of a decent, sustainable society.
Yep--and thank you VP Harris. Don't forget her. Never forget that her job includes completely reshaping the image of what an "executive" in government looks like. The problem (this is a common conversation among historians, especially those that look at the ways in which gender is defined historically) is that status usually trumps (sorry: pun kinda intentional) gender when it comes to those who support the status quo and those who oppose it. This is why affluent white women have been joining their male partners and family members: this is called the "patriarchal bargain" in my world because it focuses on accepting their continued oppression as a way of gaining access to power. Women who are still raising or hoping to raise children they have personally produced are often willing to make that compromise; single women and post-menopausal women tend to be more radical. This is a phenomenon that has been traced historically for thousands of years.
I would also quibble (and it is a little quibble) with one characterization of the creators of the US Constitution and the authors of American "independence" from Britain. Those men were well aware--as were men throughout western civilization--that women were and are fully capable of competing with men in every way that really counts (I don't think athletic prowess counts). This is why they restricted women's access to education, made sure that their legal status was akin to that of children, the insane, and the intellectually challenged, controlled their access to financial independence, and created volumes of rhetoric proclaiming the ways in which women were "inferior" or "depraved" or (in Aristotle's words) "deformed." Men don't go full-bore hateful about people they truly think are not a threat. They do so only when they perceive a challenge to (as John Adams said to his wife, Abigail) their "masculine institutions."
An interesting example is the early Islamicate world: the claims of western historians that Islam changed women's status for the worse in the areas they conquered (previously under the aegises of the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian Empires) are in fact false. Women in Byzantine law had no rights to property, inheritance, divorce, or status. Under Islamicate rule they actually gained access to all of these. In addition, the requirement to be covered up did not originate in Islam--it was a component of Byzantine Christian law, derived from ancient Greek law that required women to be covered from head to toe in public to be considered "respectable." Influence from the Byzantine world made Islamicate rule far more misogynistic than were likely the intentions of the founders of that political system.
Thank you for the reminder about Abigail Adams and also your commentary about early Islam. It's my understanding that both Muhammed and his influential wife Aisha were strong proponents of women's education and more or less equal roles in spiritual learning. But as happened with Christianity (e.g. the role of the "apostles' apostle", Mary Magdalene), it didn't take long for distortion and amnesia to set in.
Let me give you one more, although I haven't yet read it (on my "order" list). As readers on this forum know, I often listen to the Lincoln Project podcasts where I get a ton of information. This is where I found the fabulous book by David Pepper, "Laboratories of Autocracy, a Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines". I have now listened to another with David Pell. His book is "Please scream inside your heart". Here is the link. Once you listen to it, I'm sure you'll want to get the book. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/please-scream-inside-your-heart-with-dave-pell/id1551582052?i=1000542156330
Thank you for this knowledgable post on the treatment of women throughout the ages. In ancient Athens women were never considered to be adults and were either under the control of their fathers, husbands, or another male relative. Part of this tight control is always the problem in a patriarchy where men must know that their children (only sons count) were in fact theirs. As we always know who mother is, this is not a problem in a matriarchy. Some African societies were matriarchal as are one of our nearest primate relatives, bonobos.
I have always thought and said this. It is the motivation behind the anti-abortion movement. Not because of a true belief in the sanctity of life (aka, the right to birth movement), but because, if you control a woman's reproductive choices, you control the woman.
It amazes me and disgusts me that some want to tell a woman what to do with their bodies. I suspect if men could get pregnant this would not be an issue.
Thanks Bill. Also note that the #MeToo movement has legs not because so many people are suddenly 'woke', but because women now have significant economic, political, and social power in our society.
If we like-minded women can remain cohesive, and value the care of children, there will always be those who will care for the children while their warrior mothers take up the fight.
Keep it up Bill. You’re going to be extremely popular with that view. 😁
Seriously: I happen to agree with you. In my cursory and very amateurish studies of ancient history, I came across references suggesting that the early pharaonic dynasties of Egypt were actually female-centric and matriarchal, the reverse of what we have today. Men wore make-up, dressed to be attractive, and did all the behaviors that in our older sexist tradition we attribute to women. Seems that behavior is the behavior of the underclass.
I believe it is the deeply ingrained cultural biases (read “sexism”) of historians that makes it impossible for them to see this reality. So, if my assessment of ancient society is correct, the world might be cycling back around to a place it has already been, OR world society is moving towards a new place, a power-sharing balance between the female and the male.
"The world might be cycling back around to a place it has already been, OR world society is moving towards a new place, a power-sharing balance between the female and the male".
Against wild, demented demented resistance.
We can expect worse still, yet we need to remember that it is when the most oppressive regimes are coming to an end that they become even more rigid and extreme, lashing out in all directions.
Thanks, Roland, for these wise comments, and let us hope that the madness we are now seeing in so many places is a sign of the passing of an old, terminally sick paradigm and the coming of a new, healthier one.
There is an interesting fictional take on the opposite process in ancient England, M. Z. Bradley's, The Mists of Avalon where Celtic feminine power gives way to a masculine Roman Christianity . Thanks for the ancient Egypt reference --- I'm doing a deep dive there in February and will look for what you reference
Roland, you should read Kara Cooney's book When Women Ruled the World. It explains how women in ancient Egypt helped to preserve their dynastic line by holding power until a son/brother/husband (and often some combination of those) was old enough to assume the role of pharaoh.
To ancient history is where my mind searches for parallels, too...but even further back in time. Do current leaders strive to be Alexander The Great - destroying Utopian cultures of Persia with the arts/architecture/agriculture . Ghenghis Khan assembling huge armies battling their way across the globe. The Crusades & Inquisition in the name of fear-based religion ? The slaughter of the Cathars . We are again witnessing the warrior culture which is part of our history since the dawn of man.. I reflect that nothing has changed, yet, somehow these times may be different due to our 'recent' history of proclaiming democracy & the citizens hold onto the hope that we have a say . The tfg appeared to be Caligari - although he probably did not even know who he was ! But it felt/ feels like gladiator sports now again - throw the heathen citizens into the arena & the crowd cheers. My Utopian ideals were dashed at a young age. Today, the anniversary of JFK's murder marks the day I really lost much hope...just a kid, but we all felt the wind go out of our sails.
I think you meant Caligula, the Roman Emperor. But the Caligari reference works, too. Caligari was a fictional character in a 1920 German film, "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari," about the director of an insane asylum obsessed with the (fictional) 18th century Caligari, who used a sleepwalker named Cesare to commit murders for him. The doctor does experiments on patients to get them to murder for him. Jan 6, anyone?
You've said it, Leslie, I remember every detail of the moment when the news came through. And how it altered for good my view of the United States and the world. Must be the same for most of us who lived through that terrible event.
Yes, the pillars of power are shifting and those who are privileged by the status quo are fighting back. It appears they’ve moved from “family values”, “morning in America”, “trickledown economics”, “Constitutional Originalism” and “freedom” as their rallying cries to full on Authoritarians.
They have largely failed at persuading us and therefore have moved on to destroying what they can no longer control.
It’s time to call them what they are, Radical Republican Operatives determined to dismantle our Constitution. Their Radical Republican assaults on democracy must be called out every time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I wonder about the demographics of the 80 million who don't vote. Would it be 50/50 between those who believe voting doesn't matter - those in the know re gerrymandering/electoral college /the entrenched political machine...vs. those who don't care/have a clue ? I did voter registration in the 90's & there were many I wasn't fishing for to sign up. Voter turnout is crucial but we already have way too many voting for the tyrants.
But really, Leslie, you ask good questions: Who are the non-voters and why are they non-voters. To me, the answer seems obvious - I can hear people saying: "Why vote if nothing is really going to change or make my life better?" It seems reasonable to me that decades of empty promises, lack of parity and equality are enough to turn some (potential) voters off.
And then you have my brother, a Vietnam vet, who doesn’t vote because he distrusts and hates politicians and anyone in D.C…although he also hates the liberals and progressives more than the trumpers….go figure
Absolutely spot-on, Bill. Women also brought an end to The Troubles in Ireland under a female head of state. John Knox wrote tracts against female rule in Europe in the 16th century, but Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine the Great, and Marie de Medici proved how misguided he was.
Ah yes, love the title, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Rule of Women. Poor John. And I think you might mean Catherine de Medici as the power behind the throne in France. Women were absolutely excluding from ruling. Elizabeth I was very good at manipulating things in a man's world and kept everyone off balance because power depended upon her good will as she once reminded Robert Dudley. And she played the marriage game for as long as she could. She is my favorite historical female.
You are so right, Michele—I do mix up my Medici women. The 16th century was so bloody in Europe with guilt for the massacres shared by Protestants and Catholics of most countries equally. The Virgin Queen was magnificent considering her contemporary monarchs. There was simply no one quite like her, and few of her intelligence.
Yep, nailed it. Fragile white, male egos are threatened. Deep down inside they know they (as a group) have more power and status than they are owned in a civil society. They are acting out with outward hostility and masochistic behaviors. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_emotions. Especially Kemper and Hochschild.
Takes off professor hat and puts on baseball cap. "Deep down they know they are undeserving assholes". What comes out of their mouths is simultaneously projection and confession.
Concerned, however that no matter how many of us vote, we have passed the point of no return—republican legislators will change the outcome to suit their objectives.
Laughable that feminists are forcing men to watch porn. It's the same mentality that says Eve was at fault, that every woman that is raped is at fault. Now I am wondering if Hawley secretly watches porn.
I believe(d) this also, but then I come across too many "conservative" women, and the fact that a majority of white women voted for trump over Biden. And I cannot fathom why, though I try. Is it worth trying to understand these women and "wake" them?
It seems religious beliefs are a prime motivator of these women. And beliefs by definition don't require reasoned justification. But why the sense of righteous superiority? Is it ego? A lack of empathy?
I can only guess… I believe they think they are among the few who are “right” and they will be rewarded when Armageddon comes and the rest of us are destroyed. These are not my beliefs. It’s what I have been able to cull by trying to talk to them, which no longer happens, sadly.
Thanks for sharing, Carla. I’m sorry for the split in your family. I can empathize because I am facing a similar scenario. My sister and I are pretty much complete opposites, but managed to maintain a relationship based on shared history and my relationship with kids.
But then, she breached trust and endangered our entire family by refusing the Vax and then contracting COVID… after telling everyone she was going to get vaxxed.
Sorry this got OT, but seems it’s common occurrence these days, and it’s heartbreaking.
The Oregonian just had a story about not getting vaccinations in southern Oregon which is a very red part of the state. Some seem to have learned the lesson the hard way when they lost husbands; others did not.
Thanks for sharing. Sorry for the loss of your sisters in that way. I no longer communicate with one of my brothers, so this is happening in many families. Still unbelievable to me, but there it is.
Yes, happening in many families and impacting holiday gatherings and other events. Hard to keep the "family bonds" strong in the face of the strong feelings and positions.
Deeply conservative religious beliefs upholding male dominance represent the only security these women have ever known. Again, it's about fear - of loss, of displacement, of the unknown.
In fundamentalist X-tianity, the belief is that the 'saved' are the chosen, the righteous, the 'salt of the earth' who shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is a purely self-righteous stance, unexamined.
You and I have the same worries, Margaret. I recall marching for the ERA early on when we passed a Methodist church where "ladies" were gardening. They booed us down. There are more believers in the traditional roles of women among all classes and ethnicities of women than there are of us liberated, mostly white women. Now I cringe at the loud-mouthed mothers who bully teachers about not teaching values to their kids.
I often wonder if that comes from a lack of early education and only being prepared for being a housewife and mother. They stay in marriages where their husbands have affairs or visit prostitutes because they need someone to take care of them. It is hard to break away from being pushed down constantly. If the right has it’s way I see it headed down a path of separate schools for men and women so the only ones that learn are the men.
Except for a group of Neanderthal white males and some evangelicals who I consider estranged from Jesus, I find few solid voting blocs in America. Bill, when you speak of women, I believe that their voted are stratified by locale and education. Overall white women in 2020 probably voted more than 60% against the ‘Second Coming’ candidate. The voters who most puzzle me are Hispanics (Latinos) who outnumber Blacks. They edged closer to Trump in the 2020 election. It appears to me that President Biden and his professional team are doing far more than have recent ‘Republicans’ to provide meaningful assistance to a broadly diverse American population and that this is a’ rainbow’ rather than a white approach. So why isn’t there greater appreciation from suburban white females (who were less enthusiastically Democratic in the November VA elections) and from beneficiaries of all that the Biden administration is enacting and implementing. As an optimist, I am hoping that such recognition will be reflected in the 2022 elections, but I seem. A voice in the wilderness compared to doom-and-gloom analysts and. Pollsters.
One of the problems that I have encountered here in Salem are Bernie types who cannot or will not understand the positive things that the Biden administration is doing in terms of progressive values. I am in a conversation with one of them and I have suggested that she inform herself of what some of those positives are and start pushing them to ordinary voters as well as the others in her echo chamber.
Yes, there is a disconnect between being a Bernie Supporter and a Berner. The Berner’s are what damaged him all along. They have a tear down and build mentality that doesn’t take real life into account. They refuse to listen to others and even Bernie made statements that sounded like he wouldn’t work with others. Insurance is a great example. I get Medicare for All but how do we get there. Will they close the doors to traditional insurance companies and put so many people out of work. It could be a million if you think of all the companies, sales forces, administration and claims payers. I sent a letter asking the campaign about this more than once with no response. Made it impossible for me to vote for him.
As for Latinos, (I am one on my Dad's side), my take is that many Latinos are not sure where there political home really is: (1) Biden has no really close Latino friend/advisor that I know of; (2) Latinos were taken for granted during much of the campaign and given sparse speaking representation at the convention; (3) their diversity was not well understood; (4) many particularly in FL were alienated by the feeling that Dems were soft on left-wing dictators such as Maduro and Ortega; (5) there is a strong social conservatism and machismo in some of the US Latino cultures; (6) established Latinos don't identify with new illegal, immigrants and like nearly everybody else don't want to feel that they are at the bottom of the social ladder.(See E. Wilkerson's Caste.) Appointing an Afro-Asian-American to solve the border problem was also viewed by some as a slight.
Bill, thanks for your thoughtful insights. With a Cuban grandmother and a British mother, who could categorize this 88-year-old who was on the Nixon White House Enemies List? I hope that there are people in the Biden administration who understand what you said and are reacting to it.
"Women do make up a majority of the population." Yes, and while educational, economic, and political power is becoming more prevalent for women, moving the meter of change is still proceeding at a snail's pace.
With the continuous violent militaristic "solutions" at home and globally, we all may run out of time for a chance at that "decent, sustainable society". The 1970's/80's slogan "one nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day" resonates in my head when the "superpowers" ratchet up the stakes.
And is signaling that they're planning to attack Ukraine in January or February. Some believe Putin is saber-rattling/testing the hunger for power vs the abhorrence of bloody war by the world community.
"You [women] are our best hope for the survival of a decent, sustainable society."
I believe this. Women are the greatest resource in this country and others for making real changes. But for those who have been compromised through their ambitions in the pig pen of politics, I have to wonder if they've come away unscathed or if they're more committed to their positions and perks in the political spectrum than they are to using their intelligence, compassion, and empathy to form a better world.
I'd love to see a woman president in the U.S. But not simply because she's a woman. And not one whose primary allegiance is to the political party which sponsors her. We need a "Wonder Woman" in the top position. Personally, I thought Tulsi Gabbard was the best candidate for President in 2020. Her qualifications were numerous--a woman of color; intelligent; honest (my judgment and as well as millions of other people); a veteran and combat veteran with 2 tours in Iraq; 4 terms in congress; and exemplary character without a flaw to be found. She was a Bernie supporter in 2016, but the DNC didn't like that. Political parties don't like someone who stands on principle because they can't be controlled by the party.
Here I'll pay tribute to an incredibly brave group of women in Argentina over 40 years ago. There was a military coup and 30,000 people considered leftist were rounded up and tortured or simply killed and gotten rid of. (Earlier, in September, 1973, President Nixon and Sec. of State Kissinger had instigated and supported the overthrow and murder of Chilean President, Salvador Allende.) So, in Argentina, 14 mothers whose sons and daughters, began a protest by marching in front of the military headquarters. They wanted answers and wouldn't give up. The mothers' lives were truly at risk of being killed by the military. More women joined the march which went on daily. Forty years and 2,037 marches later, a thousand of the torturers and killers had been brought to trial and 700 had been sentenced. Here is a following story in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/28/mothers-plaza-de-mayo-argentina-anniversary
Women here in the U.S. could bond together that way and dismiss all political affiliations in forming that bond. They could move on to become the strongest force known. They need to focus on what all of them have in common and set aside the rest of the issues. All in all, I consider women smarter than men, as indicated by the endless tasks which they take on or are assigned to them. Having a remarkable mother and four sisters, I'm always in their corner and in support of them, regardless of any and all hardships they face.
And in Chile too women were central in protesting the Pinochet regime. That included the well-known "arpillera" (tapestry) workshops whose work depicted the harshness of the regime. In my childhood in Colombia a women's march was important in the overthrow of the Rojas Pinilla dictatorship.
What a great practice--the arpillera workshops to record history and injustice. I just saw an anti-Pinochet arpillera for sale on ebay.
The U.S. has done some terrible injustices in South America as well as Central America, and they've been done by both political parties. The Nixon-Kissinger corruption of the traditionally apolitical Chilean military was followed by the murder of President Salvador Allende, a democratically-elected physician and socialist who was very popular with the people. Americans should see the movie "Missing" with Jack Lemon which shows part of what happened in Chile. Then, there was Pres. Reagan's interference in El Salvador and the murderous , U.S.-backed contras. That was well demonstrated in the film "Salvador" directed by Oliver Stone.
When Americans currently argue over the problem of immigration at our border with Mexico, they should really back up and find out exactly who these people are and what caused them to be desperate enough to make that dangerous trip north. When they discover that dictators in Central America have made their countries fearful and hopeless, then Americans might begin to understand why the migrants are fleeing northward. When Americans realize that our president and congress have armed and financially-backed those dictators--as long as those dictators agree to be severely anti-communist--then our government doesn't care what else the dictators do to their people. Hence, desperate people at our doorstep as a result of our government's policies. So it goes....
Thanks Bill for your timely and deeply appropriate reminder.
Maybe I'll be misunderstood, yet I feel strongly that the gender aspect of the issue is the major symptom of our disease rather than its main cause.
This, I see as the extreme bias towards the masculine principle in our societies and the corresponding sidelining of the feminine, an imbalance that persists despite women gaining more and more positions of power and responsibility.
This leads to a society in which everything is on the surface -- a telescreen surface -- and there's nothing behind it.
Such a society can only be a deeply sick one.
Another insight into the masculine mind, provided by a major French philosopher:
“This world, in which reason is more and more at home, is not habitable. It is hard and cold like those warehouses filled with goods that cannot satisfy: neither clothe the naked, nor feed the hungry; it is as impersonal as those factory sheds and industrial zones where manufactured things remain abstract, their only truth, statistical, borne on the anonymous circuit of the economy, the outcome of skilful planning decisions that cannot prevent disasters, but prepare them. There we have it, the mind in its masculine essence, living outside, exposed to the violent, blinding sun, to the trade winds that batter and beat it down, in a land without folds, rootless, solitary, wandering and already alienated by the very things it has produced, things that remain untameable and hostile.”
#
I speak of sick societies and wish I did not have now to express deep condolences to Americans following events in Wisconsin last night that are painfully similar to the horror my city, Nice, in France, suffered at the hands of a mad fanatic on July 14th 2016.
Similar too, I fear, to the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
We shall have to beware now of attacks on America from within coordinated with Russian moves against Ukraine and Chinese ones against Taiwan.
Thank you for the Levinas quote, a great description of the empty world of "rational" materialism, unanchored in the heart and in human exchange. Others have pointed out that the world "mercy" and "mercantile" have a common Etruscan root. What Levinas describes is a sickness to be sure but the repression of the feminine predates our modern, materialist world and often takes its most virulent form in more "spiritual traditions. Depressingly, we may be sickened by two separate, potentially fatal illnesses.
Thank you for recovering Emmanuel Levinas' name from the large library you seem to hold in your mind. I am not familiar with Levinas, but you have provided me with an excellent opening. His description seemed very appropriate. Another thank you, Peter, for selecting it.
I was once told that Lenin had never read Marx and Engels, just the prefaces. I wouldn't know about that, but I do know that all too often I have spent years sitting on a book half read or barely opened because I had been drawn to a passage in it. I'm a magpie, lining my nest with bright aphorisms filched or simply picked up alone the way, and that can make me a bore because I tend to repeat the same material... often from Lichtenberg's fascinating Waste Books...
Another image: it's rather like having a collection of road signs pointing to places where I spent a day or two... and all too often to places I'd like to visit but never got to. In other words, when I have read works of philosophy I rarely got beyond a first reading.
Peter, Good morning. The exchanges that you had with Bill and Eric here were not the first time my mind became glued to your thoughts. This time, I felt the wisdom, poetry and moderation you expressed. Emmanuel Levinas' quote evoked an embedded and uncomfortable aspect of America. It was so precise and visual in its rendering. In another passage of yours, humanity and regard of one human being for another was both exacting and generous. You rendered purity as in fresh water, and it is good to tell you so. However you gather, Peter, the results can be limpid.
But just a passing note: rereading that passage of Levinas, I remembered the flightpath descending towards Dallas-Fort Worth, mile upon mile of sheds. And the way I felt about what I saw.
Yes. “Civilizing” the white “wild” west, populated by many (probably) PTSD civil war men, was done by the gradually rising population of females according to some accounts. Women have been the anchors for stability for a long time — with perhaps the exception of mother’s who buy illegal firearms for their children and then drive them into danger.
The African American population in the US is 12.4%, the transgender population probably less than 0.5% and immigrants can’t vote. The only demographic strong enough to resist the trend towards authoritarianism or the restoration of a white male 19th century “republic” are women. Women do make up a majority of the population.
Personally, I think the greatest perceived threat to the old order is the society-wide rebalancing of male-female power. The GOP is not blind to this. Note the “Proud Boys”, note Yale educated Sen.Hawley saying feminists are forcing men to watch porn, note the impunity of pussy-grabbing bragging, note abortion-vigilante Texas. Thankfully --and it is probably no coincidence--- some of our best leaders and thinkers are women. Thank you Nancy P. thank you Stacey A., thank you Amy K, thank you Heather and many others. You are our best hope for the survival of a decent, sustainable society.
Yep--and thank you VP Harris. Don't forget her. Never forget that her job includes completely reshaping the image of what an "executive" in government looks like. The problem (this is a common conversation among historians, especially those that look at the ways in which gender is defined historically) is that status usually trumps (sorry: pun kinda intentional) gender when it comes to those who support the status quo and those who oppose it. This is why affluent white women have been joining their male partners and family members: this is called the "patriarchal bargain" in my world because it focuses on accepting their continued oppression as a way of gaining access to power. Women who are still raising or hoping to raise children they have personally produced are often willing to make that compromise; single women and post-menopausal women tend to be more radical. This is a phenomenon that has been traced historically for thousands of years.
I would also quibble (and it is a little quibble) with one characterization of the creators of the US Constitution and the authors of American "independence" from Britain. Those men were well aware--as were men throughout western civilization--that women were and are fully capable of competing with men in every way that really counts (I don't think athletic prowess counts). This is why they restricted women's access to education, made sure that their legal status was akin to that of children, the insane, and the intellectually challenged, controlled their access to financial independence, and created volumes of rhetoric proclaiming the ways in which women were "inferior" or "depraved" or (in Aristotle's words) "deformed." Men don't go full-bore hateful about people they truly think are not a threat. They do so only when they perceive a challenge to (as John Adams said to his wife, Abigail) their "masculine institutions."
An interesting example is the early Islamicate world: the claims of western historians that Islam changed women's status for the worse in the areas they conquered (previously under the aegises of the Byzantine and Sassanid Persian Empires) are in fact false. Women in Byzantine law had no rights to property, inheritance, divorce, or status. Under Islamicate rule they actually gained access to all of these. In addition, the requirement to be covered up did not originate in Islam--it was a component of Byzantine Christian law, derived from ancient Greek law that required women to be covered from head to toe in public to be considered "respectable." Influence from the Byzantine world made Islamicate rule far more misogynistic than were likely the intentions of the founders of that political system.
Thank you for the reminder about Abigail Adams and also your commentary about early Islam. It's my understanding that both Muhammed and his influential wife Aisha were strong proponents of women's education and more or less equal roles in spiritual learning. But as happened with Christianity (e.g. the role of the "apostles' apostle", Mary Magdalene), it didn't take long for distortion and amnesia to set in.
I learn something every day on this forum. My book list is now likely longer than the time I have left to read them. Thank you all.
Let me give you one more, although I haven't yet read it (on my "order" list). As readers on this forum know, I often listen to the Lincoln Project podcasts where I get a ton of information. This is where I found the fabulous book by David Pepper, "Laboratories of Autocracy, a Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines". I have now listened to another with David Pell. His book is "Please scream inside your heart". Here is the link. Once you listen to it, I'm sure you'll want to get the book. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/please-scream-inside-your-heart-with-dave-pell/id1551582052?i=1000542156330
Thank you for this knowledgable post on the treatment of women throughout the ages. In ancient Athens women were never considered to be adults and were either under the control of their fathers, husbands, or another male relative. Part of this tight control is always the problem in a patriarchy where men must know that their children (only sons count) were in fact theirs. As we always know who mother is, this is not a problem in a matriarchy. Some African societies were matriarchal as are one of our nearest primate relatives, bonobos.
Long live “Lysistrata”!
Thanks for this…added to my growing list of “things I did not know”!
You are SO right. Thank you for aiming “patriarchal bargain.” I have observed it and felt it, but now have its name.
Indeed, the Quran and Muhammad were/are quite forward-thinking about the roles of women.
I think you described me! LOL
I have always thought and said this. It is the motivation behind the anti-abortion movement. Not because of a true belief in the sanctity of life (aka, the right to birth movement), but because, if you control a woman's reproductive choices, you control the woman.
It amazes me and disgusts me that some want to tell a woman what to do with their bodies. I suspect if men could get pregnant this would not be an issue.
Yes forced pregnancy. Recommended Reading, Trust Women by Rebecca Todd Peters (focus on progressive Christianity, theology and ethics)
Thanks Bill. Also note that the #MeToo movement has legs not because so many people are suddenly 'woke', but because women now have significant economic, political, and social power in our society.
If we have safe quality child care
If we like-minded women can remain cohesive, and value the care of children, there will always be those who will care for the children while their warrior mothers take up the fight.
WE CAN DO IT!
That is absolutely correct, Kim.
United. 🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿
Keep it up Bill. You’re going to be extremely popular with that view. 😁
Seriously: I happen to agree with you. In my cursory and very amateurish studies of ancient history, I came across references suggesting that the early pharaonic dynasties of Egypt were actually female-centric and matriarchal, the reverse of what we have today. Men wore make-up, dressed to be attractive, and did all the behaviors that in our older sexist tradition we attribute to women. Seems that behavior is the behavior of the underclass.
I believe it is the deeply ingrained cultural biases (read “sexism”) of historians that makes it impossible for them to see this reality. So, if my assessment of ancient society is correct, the world might be cycling back around to a place it has already been, OR world society is moving towards a new place, a power-sharing balance between the female and the male.
"The world might be cycling back around to a place it has already been, OR world society is moving towards a new place, a power-sharing balance between the female and the male".
Against wild, demented demented resistance.
We can expect worse still, yet we need to remember that it is when the most oppressive regimes are coming to an end that they become even more rigid and extreme, lashing out in all directions.
Thanks, Roland, for these wise comments, and let us hope that the madness we are now seeing in so many places is a sign of the passing of an old, terminally sick paradigm and the coming of a new, healthier one.
There is an interesting fictional take on the opposite process in ancient England, M. Z. Bradley's, The Mists of Avalon where Celtic feminine power gives way to a masculine Roman Christianity . Thanks for the ancient Egypt reference --- I'm doing a deep dive there in February and will look for what you reference
Roland, you should read Kara Cooney's book When Women Ruled the World. It explains how women in ancient Egypt helped to preserve their dynastic line by holding power until a son/brother/husband (and often some combination of those) was old enough to assume the role of pharaoh.
Hi Jennifer. Bill Willis, Conway, SC.
Thank you Jennifer 🙏
To ancient history is where my mind searches for parallels, too...but even further back in time. Do current leaders strive to be Alexander The Great - destroying Utopian cultures of Persia with the arts/architecture/agriculture . Ghenghis Khan assembling huge armies battling their way across the globe. The Crusades & Inquisition in the name of fear-based religion ? The slaughter of the Cathars . We are again witnessing the warrior culture which is part of our history since the dawn of man.. I reflect that nothing has changed, yet, somehow these times may be different due to our 'recent' history of proclaiming democracy & the citizens hold onto the hope that we have a say . The tfg appeared to be Caligari - although he probably did not even know who he was ! But it felt/ feels like gladiator sports now again - throw the heathen citizens into the arena & the crowd cheers. My Utopian ideals were dashed at a young age. Today, the anniversary of JFK's murder marks the day I really lost much hope...just a kid, but we all felt the wind go out of our sails.
I think you meant Caligula, the Roman Emperor. But the Caligari reference works, too. Caligari was a fictional character in a 1920 German film, "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari," about the director of an insane asylum obsessed with the (fictional) 18th century Caligari, who used a sleepwalker named Cesare to commit murders for him. The doctor does experiments on patients to get them to murder for him. Jan 6, anyone?
yes, they both ring true....you made my day ! thank you. As tragic as these characters are - this somehow brings some levity - you made me smile.
Brilliant -- the Caligari reference lost me...
You've said it, Leslie, I remember every detail of the moment when the news came through. And how it altered for good my view of the United States and the world. Must be the same for most of us who lived through that terrible event.
Thank you Bill Espinosa
Yes, the pillars of power are shifting and those who are privileged by the status quo are fighting back. It appears they’ve moved from “family values”, “morning in America”, “trickledown economics”, “Constitutional Originalism” and “freedom” as their rallying cries to full on Authoritarians.
They have largely failed at persuading us and therefore have moved on to destroying what they can no longer control.
It’s time to call them what they are, Radical Republican Operatives determined to dismantle our Constitution. Their Radical Republican assaults on democracy must be called out every time. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I call them far right radical regressives. They are no longer conservatives, but are now the party of death.
Unfortunately, there are 74 million of them, almost all white, and they carry guns,
All the more reason to publicize the radical nature of their movement.
Hear hear!
I wonder about the demographics of the 80 million who don't vote. Would it be 50/50 between those who believe voting doesn't matter - those in the know re gerrymandering/electoral college /the entrenched political machine...vs. those who don't care/have a clue ? I did voter registration in the 90's & there were many I wasn't fishing for to sign up. Voter turnout is crucial but we already have way too many voting for the tyrants.
But really, Leslie, you ask good questions: Who are the non-voters and why are they non-voters. To me, the answer seems obvious - I can hear people saying: "Why vote if nothing is really going to change or make my life better?" It seems reasonable to me that decades of empty promises, lack of parity and equality are enough to turn some (potential) voters off.
Whether things change or not, my mother always said “If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain.”
And your mother was 100% correct.
And then you have my brother, a Vietnam vet, who doesn’t vote because he distrusts and hates politicians and anyone in D.C…although he also hates the liberals and progressives more than the trumpers….go figure
Oy!
Absolutely spot-on, Bill. Women also brought an end to The Troubles in Ireland under a female head of state. John Knox wrote tracts against female rule in Europe in the 16th century, but Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Catherine the Great, and Marie de Medici proved how misguided he was.
Ah yes, love the title, First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Rule of Women. Poor John. And I think you might mean Catherine de Medici as the power behind the throne in France. Women were absolutely excluding from ruling. Elizabeth I was very good at manipulating things in a man's world and kept everyone off balance because power depended upon her good will as she once reminded Robert Dudley. And she played the marriage game for as long as she could. She is my favorite historical female.
You are so right, Michele—I do mix up my Medici women. The 16th century was so bloody in Europe with guilt for the massacres shared by Protestants and Catholics of most countries equally. The Virgin Queen was magnificent considering her contemporary monarchs. There was simply no one quite like her, and few of her intelligence.
Yep, nailed it. Fragile white, male egos are threatened. Deep down inside they know they (as a group) have more power and status than they are owned in a civil society. They are acting out with outward hostility and masochistic behaviors. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_emotions. Especially Kemper and Hochschild.
Takes off professor hat and puts on baseball cap. "Deep down they know they are undeserving assholes". What comes out of their mouths is simultaneously projection and confession.
Charlie I like the baseball cap side of you 😁
Roland, Thanks. That's the more comfortable side.
And getting women to vote in massive numbers, along with persons of color, will win in 2022!
There is no other path to maintaining Democratic control of Congress.
Concerned, however that no matter how many of us vote, we have passed the point of no return—republican legislators will change the outcome to suit their objectives.
Bingo
Laughable that feminists are forcing men to watch porn. It's the same mentality that says Eve was at fault, that every woman that is raped is at fault. Now I am wondering if Hawley secretly watches porn.
It’s a no brainer that he does.
And which flavor?
For Hawley, likely BDM.
I can see that. He really likes to whip himself up into a frenzy. /s
... And female dominant porn, at that!
I believe(d) this also, but then I come across too many "conservative" women, and the fact that a majority of white women voted for trump over Biden. And I cannot fathom why, though I try. Is it worth trying to understand these women and "wake" them?
As a sister of two of these women…it’s impossible. They’re firmly seated on their “religious” high horse and look down on misguided progressives.
It seems religious beliefs are a prime motivator of these women. And beliefs by definition don't require reasoned justification. But why the sense of righteous superiority? Is it ego? A lack of empathy?
I can only guess… I believe they think they are among the few who are “right” and they will be rewarded when Armageddon comes and the rest of us are destroyed. These are not my beliefs. It’s what I have been able to cull by trying to talk to them, which no longer happens, sadly.
Thanks for sharing, Carla. I’m sorry for the split in your family. I can empathize because I am facing a similar scenario. My sister and I are pretty much complete opposites, but managed to maintain a relationship based on shared history and my relationship with kids.
But then, she breached trust and endangered our entire family by refusing the Vax and then contracting COVID… after telling everyone she was going to get vaxxed.
Sorry this got OT, but seems it’s common occurrence these days, and it’s heartbreaking.
The Oregonian just had a story about not getting vaccinations in southern Oregon which is a very red part of the state. Some seem to have learned the lesson the hard way when they lost husbands; others did not.
I know. Both of my sisters have refused to be vaccinated and have told me I will die in two years because I have been vaccinated.
Thanks for sharing. Sorry for the loss of your sisters in that way. I no longer communicate with one of my brothers, so this is happening in many families. Still unbelievable to me, but there it is.
Yes, happening in many families and impacting holiday gatherings and other events. Hard to keep the "family bonds" strong in the face of the strong feelings and positions.
Deeply conservative religious beliefs upholding male dominance represent the only security these women have ever known. Again, it's about fear - of loss, of displacement, of the unknown.
In fundamentalist X-tianity, the belief is that the 'saved' are the chosen, the righteous, the 'salt of the earth' who shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is a purely self-righteous stance, unexamined.
The 30 women I know who voted for the former guy voted one issue.
And the thing that really gets me is quite a few of them had abortions.
You and I have the same worries, Margaret. I recall marching for the ERA early on when we passed a Methodist church where "ladies" were gardening. They booed us down. There are more believers in the traditional roles of women among all classes and ethnicities of women than there are of us liberated, mostly white women. Now I cringe at the loud-mouthed mothers who bully teachers about not teaching values to their kids.
The ERA! You are a veteran. Thank you for your service. The beat goes on...
I often wonder if that comes from a lack of early education and only being prepared for being a housewife and mother. They stay in marriages where their husbands have affairs or visit prostitutes because they need someone to take care of them. It is hard to break away from being pushed down constantly. If the right has it’s way I see it headed down a path of separate schools for men and women so the only ones that learn are the men.
What a wonderful man!
Except for a group of Neanderthal white males and some evangelicals who I consider estranged from Jesus, I find few solid voting blocs in America. Bill, when you speak of women, I believe that their voted are stratified by locale and education. Overall white women in 2020 probably voted more than 60% against the ‘Second Coming’ candidate. The voters who most puzzle me are Hispanics (Latinos) who outnumber Blacks. They edged closer to Trump in the 2020 election. It appears to me that President Biden and his professional team are doing far more than have recent ‘Republicans’ to provide meaningful assistance to a broadly diverse American population and that this is a’ rainbow’ rather than a white approach. So why isn’t there greater appreciation from suburban white females (who were less enthusiastically Democratic in the November VA elections) and from beneficiaries of all that the Biden administration is enacting and implementing. As an optimist, I am hoping that such recognition will be reflected in the 2022 elections, but I seem. A voice in the wilderness compared to doom-and-gloom analysts and. Pollsters.
One of the problems that I have encountered here in Salem are Bernie types who cannot or will not understand the positive things that the Biden administration is doing in terms of progressive values. I am in a conversation with one of them and I have suggested that she inform herself of what some of those positives are and start pushing them to ordinary voters as well as the others in her echo chamber.
Yes, there is a disconnect between being a Bernie Supporter and a Berner. The Berner’s are what damaged him all along. They have a tear down and build mentality that doesn’t take real life into account. They refuse to listen to others and even Bernie made statements that sounded like he wouldn’t work with others. Insurance is a great example. I get Medicare for All but how do we get there. Will they close the doors to traditional insurance companies and put so many people out of work. It could be a million if you think of all the companies, sales forces, administration and claims payers. I sent a letter asking the campaign about this more than once with no response. Made it impossible for me to vote for him.
Berners are very naive about politics in my experience and they were so bad in 2016 that I have disliked him ever since.
Same here. Two young men decided not to vote cause the election was stolen from him.
One is listening the other who knows.
As for Latinos, (I am one on my Dad's side), my take is that many Latinos are not sure where there political home really is: (1) Biden has no really close Latino friend/advisor that I know of; (2) Latinos were taken for granted during much of the campaign and given sparse speaking representation at the convention; (3) their diversity was not well understood; (4) many particularly in FL were alienated by the feeling that Dems were soft on left-wing dictators such as Maduro and Ortega; (5) there is a strong social conservatism and machismo in some of the US Latino cultures; (6) established Latinos don't identify with new illegal, immigrants and like nearly everybody else don't want to feel that they are at the bottom of the social ladder.(See E. Wilkerson's Caste.) Appointing an Afro-Asian-American to solve the border problem was also viewed by some as a slight.
Bill, thanks for your thoughtful insights. With a Cuban grandmother and a British mother, who could categorize this 88-year-old who was on the Nixon White House Enemies List? I hope that there are people in the Biden administration who understand what you said and are reacting to it.
"Women do make up a majority of the population." Yes, and while educational, economic, and political power is becoming more prevalent for women, moving the meter of change is still proceeding at a snail's pace.
With the continuous violent militaristic "solutions" at home and globally, we all may run out of time for a chance at that "decent, sustainable society". The 1970's/80's slogan "one nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day" resonates in my head when the "superpowers" ratchet up the stakes.
Like Putin, who's amassing 92K soldiers @ the Ukraine border.
And is signaling that they're planning to attack Ukraine in January or February. Some believe Putin is saber-rattling/testing the hunger for power vs the abhorrence of bloody war by the world community.
"You [women] are our best hope for the survival of a decent, sustainable society."
I believe this. Women are the greatest resource in this country and others for making real changes. But for those who have been compromised through their ambitions in the pig pen of politics, I have to wonder if they've come away unscathed or if they're more committed to their positions and perks in the political spectrum than they are to using their intelligence, compassion, and empathy to form a better world.
I'd love to see a woman president in the U.S. But not simply because she's a woman. And not one whose primary allegiance is to the political party which sponsors her. We need a "Wonder Woman" in the top position. Personally, I thought Tulsi Gabbard was the best candidate for President in 2020. Her qualifications were numerous--a woman of color; intelligent; honest (my judgment and as well as millions of other people); a veteran and combat veteran with 2 tours in Iraq; 4 terms in congress; and exemplary character without a flaw to be found. She was a Bernie supporter in 2016, but the DNC didn't like that. Political parties don't like someone who stands on principle because they can't be controlled by the party.
Here I'll pay tribute to an incredibly brave group of women in Argentina over 40 years ago. There was a military coup and 30,000 people considered leftist were rounded up and tortured or simply killed and gotten rid of. (Earlier, in September, 1973, President Nixon and Sec. of State Kissinger had instigated and supported the overthrow and murder of Chilean President, Salvador Allende.) So, in Argentina, 14 mothers whose sons and daughters, began a protest by marching in front of the military headquarters. They wanted answers and wouldn't give up. The mothers' lives were truly at risk of being killed by the military. More women joined the march which went on daily. Forty years and 2,037 marches later, a thousand of the torturers and killers had been brought to trial and 700 had been sentenced. Here is a following story in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/28/mothers-plaza-de-mayo-argentina-anniversary
Women here in the U.S. could bond together that way and dismiss all political affiliations in forming that bond. They could move on to become the strongest force known. They need to focus on what all of them have in common and set aside the rest of the issues. All in all, I consider women smarter than men, as indicated by the endless tasks which they take on or are assigned to them. Having a remarkable mother and four sisters, I'm always in their corner and in support of them, regardless of any and all hardships they face.
“Political parties don't like someone who stands on principle because they can't be controlled by the party.”
Nail on the head, Heydon.
And you may be on to something with a women’s movement such as you describe!
And in Chile too women were central in protesting the Pinochet regime. That included the well-known "arpillera" (tapestry) workshops whose work depicted the harshness of the regime. In my childhood in Colombia a women's march was important in the overthrow of the Rojas Pinilla dictatorship.
What a great practice--the arpillera workshops to record history and injustice. I just saw an anti-Pinochet arpillera for sale on ebay.
The U.S. has done some terrible injustices in South America as well as Central America, and they've been done by both political parties. The Nixon-Kissinger corruption of the traditionally apolitical Chilean military was followed by the murder of President Salvador Allende, a democratically-elected physician and socialist who was very popular with the people. Americans should see the movie "Missing" with Jack Lemon which shows part of what happened in Chile. Then, there was Pres. Reagan's interference in El Salvador and the murderous , U.S.-backed contras. That was well demonstrated in the film "Salvador" directed by Oliver Stone.
When Americans currently argue over the problem of immigration at our border with Mexico, they should really back up and find out exactly who these people are and what caused them to be desperate enough to make that dangerous trip north. When they discover that dictators in Central America have made their countries fearful and hopeless, then Americans might begin to understand why the migrants are fleeing northward. When Americans realize that our president and congress have armed and financially-backed those dictators--as long as those dictators agree to be severely anti-communist--then our government doesn't care what else the dictators do to their people. Hence, desperate people at our doorstep as a result of our government's policies. So it goes....
Thanks Bill for your timely and deeply appropriate reminder.
Maybe I'll be misunderstood, yet I feel strongly that the gender aspect of the issue is the major symptom of our disease rather than its main cause.
This, I see as the extreme bias towards the masculine principle in our societies and the corresponding sidelining of the feminine, an imbalance that persists despite women gaining more and more positions of power and responsibility.
This leads to a society in which everything is on the surface -- a telescreen surface -- and there's nothing behind it.
Such a society can only be a deeply sick one.
Another insight into the masculine mind, provided by a major French philosopher:
“This world, in which reason is more and more at home, is not habitable. It is hard and cold like those warehouses filled with goods that cannot satisfy: neither clothe the naked, nor feed the hungry; it is as impersonal as those factory sheds and industrial zones where manufactured things remain abstract, their only truth, statistical, borne on the anonymous circuit of the economy, the outcome of skilful planning decisions that cannot prevent disasters, but prepare them. There we have it, the mind in its masculine essence, living outside, exposed to the violent, blinding sun, to the trade winds that batter and beat it down, in a land without folds, rootless, solitary, wandering and already alienated by the very things it has produced, things that remain untameable and hostile.”
#
I speak of sick societies and wish I did not have now to express deep condolences to Americans following events in Wisconsin last night that are painfully similar to the horror my city, Nice, in France, suffered at the hands of a mad fanatic on July 14th 2016.
Similar too, I fear, to the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
We shall have to beware now of attacks on America from within coordinated with Russian moves against Ukraine and Chinese ones against Taiwan.
Sorry: accidental blanking of the French philosopher's name: Emmanuel Levinas, writing in Difficile Liberté.
Thank you for the Levinas quote, a great description of the empty world of "rational" materialism, unanchored in the heart and in human exchange. Others have pointed out that the world "mercy" and "mercantile" have a common Etruscan root. What Levinas describes is a sickness to be sure but the repression of the feminine predates our modern, materialist world and often takes its most virulent form in more "spiritual traditions. Depressingly, we may be sickened by two separate, potentially fatal illnesses.
Thank you for recovering Emmanuel Levinas' name from the large library you seem to hold in your mind. I am not familiar with Levinas, but you have provided me with an excellent opening. His description seemed very appropriate. Another thank you, Peter, for selecting it.
Thank you, Fern, but... just a correction.
I was once told that Lenin had never read Marx and Engels, just the prefaces. I wouldn't know about that, but I do know that all too often I have spent years sitting on a book half read or barely opened because I had been drawn to a passage in it. I'm a magpie, lining my nest with bright aphorisms filched or simply picked up alone the way, and that can make me a bore because I tend to repeat the same material... often from Lichtenberg's fascinating Waste Books...
Another image: it's rather like having a collection of road signs pointing to places where I spent a day or two... and all too often to places I'd like to visit but never got to. In other words, when I have read works of philosophy I rarely got beyond a first reading.
Peter, Good morning. The exchanges that you had with Bill and Eric here were not the first time my mind became glued to your thoughts. This time, I felt the wisdom, poetry and moderation you expressed. Emmanuel Levinas' quote evoked an embedded and uncomfortable aspect of America. It was so precise and visual in its rendering. In another passage of yours, humanity and regard of one human being for another was both exacting and generous. You rendered purity as in fresh water, and it is good to tell you so. However you gather, Peter, the results can be limpid.
Fern, pardon me, I can't find words.
But just a passing note: rereading that passage of Levinas, I remembered the flightpath descending towards Dallas-Fort Worth, mile upon mile of sheds. And the way I felt about what I saw.
Thank you for your encouragement.
Yes. “Civilizing” the white “wild” west, populated by many (probably) PTSD civil war men, was done by the gradually rising population of females according to some accounts. Women have been the anchors for stability for a long time — with perhaps the exception of mother’s who buy illegal firearms for their children and then drive them into danger.