The leaning tower of Pisa’s foundation rests on a mixture of clay, sand, and shells, which is particularly soft and uneven, especially on the south side. This soft subsoil could not properly support the tower’s massive weight of approximately 14,500 tons, leading to the tilt that became noticeable during construction in the late 12th century (around the third story) when the ground beneath one side began to sink unevenly. (Internet search response.) One day, man’s efforts to continue to shore it up will fail and the tower will fall and future generations will use the rubble to build homes, etc. or the rubble will be an object of speculation by future persons who have inherited the curiosity gene.
To name a few books on economics and civilizations such as: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (I’ve read other books by Jared Diamond), The Economics of Inequality and Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, The Fate of Empires by Sir John Glubb, and The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter, some of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon; and The Histories by Herodotus, to name a few. ( I am deliberately not mentioning the misogynistic philosophers I have read.)
You know what I have found is not discussed–patriarchy. The founding principle that past and current societies have inculcated. To these male authors, it’s as though patriarchy is so natural and normal that it is not a cause of discussion when analyzing the whys and wherefores of past or current societies. However, patriarchy is the bedrock or should I say the quicksand on which these past and current societies is built.
Look at the Tower of Pisa–the builders knew the foundation was not solid, but, in their arrogance, they continued to build. I’m sure the tower, over the span of years of its existence, has been shored up many times, but it still leans and one day will fall. Its base is faulty and cannot support what man arrogantly built.
How could societies or civilizations based on the premise of patriarchy be successful in perpetuity? These societies, even when seemingly functional, are not truly successful. Patriarchy is premised on hierarchy. Think about it–hierarchy, in and of itself, is unstable. In a hierarchy, there will always be competition for the top most rung. That competition will either be internal from the lower rungs of the hierarchy or external from barbarians.
The patriarchy devalues women and children. Women are seen as less than human and useful only to bear children and for the comfort of the male. Children are seen as useful tools to maintain status. Sons and daughters are used to defang rivals, but are ultimately expendable.
The patriarchy is exploitive of resources. It extracts from the land and the people until nothing is left. It then moves to fresh pastures to do the same until it meets a foe it cannot defeat. The patriarchy does not care for the people from which it extracts resources and, as a result, the people suffer. The patriarchy only rewards the few–family (sometimes) and loyalists (sometimes). The patriarchy is composed of the human equivalent of locust swarms.
The patriarchy can only sustain its existence by continuous war. Booty from war is used to pay the soldiers and enrich the top tiers of the hierarchy. War, conquer, rape, pillage, enslave are the hallmarks of patriarchy.
The patriarchy’s mentality is zero-sum. There must always be a winner and a loser.
Patriarchy eventually devolves into the mediocrity of the males at the top of the hierarchy. The emperors of Rome are a good example of this mediocrity that is exacerbated by inbreeding which causes mental and physical defects. Another good example is Charles the II of Spain. The Egyptian Pharaohs, those in the same dynastic family, would be another example. There is another influx of mediocrity as the patriarchy surrounds itself with family, sycophants, and loyalists…most of whom have no credentials, qualifications, or experience.
The patriarchy uses fear tactics to maintain power. With the patriarchy, there is always a barbarian at the gate. Depending on how paranoid the topmost hierarchy is–internal conflict may also be fomented.
The patriarchy is inherently destructive to the people and the environment. Resources are finite. A people’s forbearance when being exploited to the point of starvation, homelessness, and general lack has its limits.
The patriarchy cannot control the corruption that is endemic to any hierarchical structure. As the saying goes–power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Patriarchy is based on the false premise that the male, by some divine right, should control. We seem never to stop to think about who wrote the Bible and most of the philosophical and religious texts that are extant today–all justifying the might of the male. Interesting, in the patriarchy…intelligence is not celebrated only physical prowess. Unfortunately, physical prowess and intelligence are, in most cases, mutually exclusive.
The patriarchy does not learn from its past. Patriarchy repeats the same playbook over and over again because the patriarchy is addicted to the short term gains/benefits of wielding power. Patriarchy continues the much used trope of bread, circuses, and religion to subdue the masses. However, the burden of supporting the hierarchy through taxation levied through confiscation of goods, services, and the devaluing of currency is the masses’ thanks.
The patriarchy is the egotistical expression of male insecurity which, through the ages, has become even more pathological. Thought–Socrates had to die. Socrates asked the patriarchy to know itself. Patriarchy is too insecure to do that inner work which might have caused enough awareness to create a better system of governance. Patriarchy is trapped in a vicious cycle of insecurity, juvenile sexuality, power seeking, ignorance, and denial. Have you noticed that each level of hierarchy in the patriarchy has its own uniform? There is nothing radiating from the inside of these males, so there must always be the outward display of costume to denote their status.
But none of these authors I have mentioned has any criticism of patriarchy. Because they are male? They are too invested in the benefits of patriarchy to see it as the underlying cause of society’s ills? I know we have only known patriarchy, but there are other systems where one gender is not dominant to the detriment of the other gender. I think one of the reasons the Egyptian civilization lasted as long as it did was because of its treatment of women. In many Egyptian dynasties, the women were more or less equal in status to the males. When the Egyptians were conquered by the patriarchal barbarians, there was a decline from which, eventually, they did not recover and became the less than mediocre society of today. However, one time they did recover and thrived, was when Egypt was retaken by the Nubians which had an egalitarian gender culture.
This excerpt from the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly comes to mind as a fitting epitaph to patriarchy: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone (s)tand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, (h)alf sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, (a)nd wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command… My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
It’s time for a new age. Let water the great acid etch man’s reign in the age of Pisces into the rock of ages as a dark age best not repeated.
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius
Aquarius Excerpt from song Aquarius by the 5th Dimension
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I am a woman’s rights. I have as much as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? Sojourner Truth
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