Forsaking Mother Nature

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An essay from the blog: LOVE, BRAIN, PLANET. . . Connecting the Dots as if All Life on Earth Mattered-

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...Could this COVID be a metaphor for humanity’s rapacious assault upon Mother Nature? What is it about us, the U.S. in particular, that's so knowingly assaulting the source of our existence? We Boomers have had the best of it in so many ways. Why are we not computing the reasons why we do what we do and in the process seek to evolve and change today’s power dynamic for the sake of all life on our forsaken Earth? Applying bio-logical hard-data neuroscience is one way —were we to heed it —which can actually help us adapt and maybe survive!

Today, Washington, Wall Street, Corporate and Big Tech is 80+% men. And no, this is NOT an attack on all men. Far from it. But it is tagging the entrenched capitalistic privileged white patriarchy and the self-serving power and status-seeking of the men on top who so effectively and increasingly are ignoring ‘we the people’. In the process perpetuating environmental injustice, diminishing democracy and fueling climate-change so much of which is based on the exploitation inherent in systemic racism. Yes indeed, Black lives matter as do the Indigenous peoples of this continent whose naturally holistic values understand humanity in the context of the source of our existence….spirit and matter.

Men — biologically built to lead, to dominate, to be strong, to inseminate, to ensure our species’ survival (thanks to how Dr. Sam Keen described it back in the men's movement days: “when we men unzip our flies, our brains fall out”!) are programmed to fulfill their naturally inherited roles as “protectors and providers” vs. women’s biology which makes us more softly vulnerable — built to bleed, to attract, to conceive, to give birth, breast-feed, nurture, care-take and to embody the deep nature of mothering.

Thanks to eons of daring and discovery men’s bold and brilliant exploration, calculation, construction, invention, innovation has given us 'civilization' -- language, the law, engineering, electricity, radar, rockets, cars, trains, boats and planes. And today, AI, and with it a dehumanizing data-driven future. For better and worse— our accelerated flexibility, mobility, comfort, complicity, complacency and the ease, speed, and luxury and consumption illustrate's today’s fossil-fueled “Petroculture”.

The primal and predominantly masculine drive for power and control has been about fighting for or defending turf, thus to kill or be killed. Let’s not forget during this time of peace we take so easily for granted it’s a result of centuries of conflict and war when (rightly or wrongly) millions of (mostly) men have, and still do, sacrifice life and limb. As that basic tribal impulse to attack and divide necessitates the denial of civility and commonality — how else could the patriarchal impulse have been conditioned to undertake eons of historically punishing and lethal tasks which one way or the other — like it or not — women have enabled and too often played our part.

No surprise then, in innate response to fear, that testosterone-fueled competitiveness, violence and risk-taking is found more in the brains and hormones of men than women and the pro-social, oxytocin-enhanced feelings of empathy and relatedness — and with it more ethics* —- are more predominant in women than men. (*see Dr. Paul Zak). These basic physiological facts offer reasons to forgive ourselves and each other by better understanding the origins of the culturally conditioned patterns of power-dynamics we’ve unconsciously introjected & which neuroscience reflects and which we can learn from, now.

Acknowledging the roots of our limited individual and collective consciousness which has allowed our outdated polarizing political systems to remain so unquestioned is pivotal to encouraging frank and open conversations between women and men, and the young and old. As women’s 'progress' increasingly threatens the ‘men-at-the top’ status-quo entitlements, it is ours to recognize why patterns of dominance are still rooted in primitive imprints of mammalian history and anatomy. It is for us all to accept and appreciate our similarities and — thankfully — our differences, and move on together harmoniously from here.

Will this pandemic end Trump’s grotesque extremes and trigger the necessary regenerative transition? The predation and arrogance of toxic masculinity that we women (and that many good men) have suffered from for eons must be over. Increasingly, young people today are becoming crucial catalysts for vital systemic change. They deserve our total support and we are leaving them a heavy load. Time’s up for the tiny minority of male oligarchs who monopolize the world and time for more women to speak up and out and forget competing with 7” heels, skin-tight clothes and cleavage, and instead to collaborate and cooperate and keep the faith in the strength of feminine principles and cultivate the best of our common and shared human nature.

So a call to all of us — to good men and women alike — to heed the signals and respect and give voice to the unquantifiable human qualities of love and interconnectedness and caring that exist within us all. To do it for ourselves, for each other, for our children — and for Mother Earth — before we have no choice but to escape this little Blue Planet and head for Mars or the Moon again — ℅ Mr. Bezos and Mr. Musk’s “Big Fuckin’ Rocket” !

Posted by Judith Asphar for Coracle