Reckless Abandon
by
Leah C. Wells
Dissident Voice
March 6, 2003
Two great principles govern all interaction on earth:
the male principle of competition and the female principle of cooperation. The judicious balance between these opposing
forces functions both as a means of perceiving the world as well as guidance
for getting along in it.
In
our contemporary perspective, these polarities assume a hierarchical position,
with corresponding values assigned to the superior and inferior roles. War and peace are often interchangeably
substituted for what we identify as the male and female principles. Put another way, many people observing and
trying to ameliorate global problems posit that the male principle, war, is
wrong and the female one, peace, is right.
Patriarchy seems to subjugate, quantify, label and differentiate, while
matriarchy seeks to incorporate, include and envelop.
So
patriarchy is wrong - right?
The
hierarchical superpositioning of masculinity over femininity is inextricably
connected to the nature of the problem itself.
Fritjof Capra, in The Web of Life, describes the problem as a
"crisis of perception" where problems are viewed as distinct,
unlinked entities. In reality, the interconnected
male and female principles play a tug of war with each other, balancing each
other's creative and destructive powers, a natural system of checks and
balances. In Eastern philosophy, the
yin and yang cannot exist independently.
An ongoing intimate dance between yang, the male principle, and yin, the
female principle, governs the seasons, the transformation from daylight into
darkness and the relationships between human beings. The Egyptian ankh symbolizes the male and female union; its name in
Arabic means simply, "life."
Thus,
the nature of the problem lies not in stratifying the principles into a
"better or worse" paradigm, but rather realizing that the problems of
the world, at the individual, local, national and global levels, result from
the imbalance between the principles of cooperation and competition. The Western dominant culture has distorted
its values to place more worth in competition and aggression, and the
mysterious feminine principle of integration and synthesis is summarily
dismissed as witchery or weakness.
Yet
most importantly, inherent in this disproportionate attention to the male
principle is the unchecked capacity for destruction and objectification.
Perhaps
this is why it is so troubling to see primarily males occupying the vast
majority of seats at the United Nations and serving as heads of state for the
majority of countries. Perhaps this is
why it is disturbing that the purportedly balanced and accurate news programs
boast a majority of males in the roles of interviewer and interviewee. Perhaps this is why the theater of war,
comprised of a cast of mainly men, is the ultimate assault on femininity.
Liberation,
the act of rescuing the damsel in distress, the art of war to free people seen
as incapable of carving out their own destiny, is a patriarchal fallacy. The idea of liberating Iraq by force
represents the systematic domination of male over female, the forcible rape and
ensuing grief and shame of disempowerment that women have historically
encountered as victims of male-perpetrated violence.
Human
nature, incorporating the experience of both men and women, has a
predisposition for conflict. People
inherently perceive the world from different perspectives and have an
inclination to disagree. War, however,
is a different case entirely. Its
entire existence rests on the premise of otherness and separation, of a
definitive right and wrong, of intensive training and preparation for battle,
of desensitization to that which makes us uniquely and more deeply human:
conscience.
Embodied
in the female experience is this notion of conscience. It is the intuitive, secret voice that
whispers the directions for following a higher path. It is the dreamlike symbolism revealed through humility and
introspection. Turning inward requires
reflection and self-knowledge, faith in the unseen. It is the root system which takes hold beneath the soil before
peering upward into the light. First we
must go deep before emerging into the world.
Iraq,
the religious and historical cradle of civilization, is a potent metaphor for
femininity. It is the Fertile Crescent,
the great mother womb which gave birth to inventions like the wheel, the art of
writing and three of the world's far-reaching religions, Islam, Judaism and
Christianity which share a common Abrahamic lineage. It is the home of archaeological treasures buried deep in the
vast desert sands. It is the home of
unheard weeping, suffering borne disproportionately by grandmothers, mothers
and children.
The
invasion of Iraq is a crime against all women, against all that is feminine and
sacred.
Around
the world, countries amass arsenals of weapons like the testosterone buildup in
prepubescent males. Bombs and missiles
gather tension as they lie in wait of evacuation from planes which vanish from
their targets quicker than absentee fathers evading child support. Barbara Hope, in her essay "Patriarchy:
A State of War" recounts the U.S. Army basic training jingle, "This
is my rifle (slaps rifle). This is my
gun (slaps crotch). One is for killing,
the other for fun."
The
decision to go to war with Iraq is one which will impact all members of Iraqi
society, of American society and of people across the globe. A democratic process of hearing concerns
from all involved has been systematically avoided and effectually
discounted. The experiences of women
and children, of students and elders, of those who will be on the receiving end
of bombing campaigns and labeled 'collateral damage' have been given zero space
in a credible, public dialogue.
An
egregious disparity gapes between whose narrative matters and whose does not.
The
runaway train of male competitiveness has flattened in its tracks the female
experience, leaving a perpetual state of war and chaos where brute force is the
law of the land. The feminine
principles of cooperation, dialogue and diplomacy have been disregarded as
ineffectual and powerless.
We
have long outgrown the Roman motto, "If you want peace, prepare for
war." Men on either side of the
battle lines may declare a victory, but the women on both sides declare losses.
Leah C. Wells of Santa Paula, CA is a teacher and writer, and serves as the Peace Education Coordinator for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). She just returned from Iraq and spent time there last year. She can be contacted at education@napf.org