Where to go, in a country that thinks it’s okay to use lethal force to protect PROPERTY?
What to do, in a country that has an arsenal that could all-but strip the crust off the planet, if you believe that human beings should TALK before shooting? Why is that a radical thought?
We, who have so much … why are we so martial? We, who have the most fearsome weapons on the planet … why do we seem the most terrified, the most insecure people on the planet? We, who have so much, who are so willing to kill for STUFF … why are we so willing to trade liberty for oppression?
What is wrong with us, that we gleefully champion death over discussion and life?
Why is advocating for peace portrayed and accepted as some kind of disaster?
When did we become such a sick and twisted people?
These questions haunt me, and they should haunt you.
I am in the midst of re-reading a book that I read back in the late 80’s and have pulled off the shelf many times to try to understand what’s going on since 9/11. Its the book by Riane Eisler titled “The Chalice and the Blade.”
She recounts the cultural transformation that happened in Old Europe and the Middle East as we transferred from Neolithic times to the so-called “historical” era.
There is, of course, a lot we don’t know about this transformation, but she asserts that there is plenty of evidence that during the Neolothic times the known cultures in these areas were “partnership” based, the Goddess of nature was worshipped and that the highest ideals were the sustenance of life.
At the end of this period, the Neolothic cultures were invaded by warrior people from the northeast. Religion transeferred to a belief in sky gods and the partnership model was transformed into a dominator model. All of this was happening at the time that the Abrahamic religions were born. A look at the Old Testament in light of this makes a lot of sense. The Neolothic cultures were hunter/gatherers and the new warriors were animal herders. Remember the story of Cain and Abel, the sacrifice of grains was not accepted by God, but the animal sacrifice was. There are so many ways all of this makes sense to me as a major point that led us to where we are today. Another book that recounts this transformation is “When God Was a Woman” by Merlin Stone. Since reading books about this, I have come to believe that all of the Abrahamic religions were developed in order to ground this transformation from partnership to dominator model in the culture. Not that it was a pre-planned endeavor, but that is what happened.
Why it has been “ramped up” in the last few years is, I think, in part a result of globalization and the pace of change in our society. I think people are scared and are clinging to their most base instincts.
Whatever the cause, I think we might be living through a point where the human race will make a choice about our survival. And so far, its not looking good.
thanks for those book titles. I’ll have to look for them, as I think there is something to those ideas.
Fwiw, I think these questions contain their own answers. (There’s a college word for that but my illness is cranked up to freakin’ 11 today and word-finding trouble is a major symptom so I can’t find it in the ole gray filing cabinet upstairs.) I think it’s the same ideology that drives us to value stuff enough to hoard so much of it that drives us to kill to keep it; the same ideology that drives us to build massive stockpiles of those heinous weapons is the one that allows us to find rationalizations for using them.
The last question is slightly more abstract and complicated, but I think it operates on the same theory. Our liberty is a part of our source of power as a nation, and power is one of those things that can be used in various ways, but there’s never any shortage of sick bastards who can manipulate people into abusing and/or surrendering power.
This is one of the bigger reasons why I’m always on about what we believe at our core. What the roots of our beliefs are about, where they’re grounded. The direction in which things will grow all depends on where and how you plant and nuture which kinds of seeds. Every little bit actually does matter. You train a kid to not Other people and to talk out differences, and most often, you’ll get a diplomatic adult who finds rape and killing abhorrent; you train a kid to dominate those he Others as a condition of his gender expression, up to and including violence as a permissible behavior, and you’re going to wind up with soldiers who rape and kill the people they’ve been charged with protecting.
No matter how much people want to be dismissive about the little details, the little things, it’s the little things that build the big things. Ain’t nothin’ else to use for building material. Every fuckin’ thread in the fabric of our belief systems matters. The only way to change the big things in a permanent sort of way is to change the little things they’re made of.
wow, for someone who’s having trouble recalling specific words, you strung together a bunch there into a very cogent and important statement.
The importance of the “little things” is precisely why I think the “centrist” strategy pursued over and over again by the Democrats doesn’t work. They offer nothing but castles in the sky, rooted in nothing. This is especially bad when confronting a cultural movement that worships death and domination.