Reclaiming the Balance: Let's Try Fixing Patriarchy

What Needs to be Fixed: Understanding our Tendencies

2012-02-15T11:24:00.000-08:00

In our last two posts, we’ve delved deep into the esoteric world of yin and yang.

Our most important discovery was that the symbol for yin/yang expresses five significant truths:

1. The symbol represents the interaction of the two forces that make up the whole.

2. The whole is always seeking balance within itself.

3. Yin and yang are dynamic forces. They each contain, create, and destroy the other.

4. The relationship between the two forces is the mechanism the whole uses to insure balance.

5. The continuous, dynamic dance between the two forces is what guarantees survival of the whole.

In truth, every pair of contrasting opposites we learn as children can be thought of in terms of yin and yang. Yet it is even deeper than that. Because yin and yang are created together in a single movement, they are bound together as parts of a mutual whole. It’s impossible to talk about yin or yang without some reference to the other, they are so rooted together. Winter is yin to summer’s yang. Cold is an absence of heat. Up is the opposite of down. Conceptually, they owe their existence to each other. And their survival.

Okay, so enough theory. Let’s talk about the real world. Heck, let’s talk about people. Can you use yin and yang to describe people? Absolutely!

And as we talk about how yin and yang relate to people, we need to remind ourselves that yin is generally associated with the feminine principle and yang is generally associated with the masculine principle.

Okay, yang people will be quick, more rational, focused on external exploration, desirous of action, and interested in talking. Yang people value personal accomplishment.

Yin people will be slower, more intuitive, focused on inner growth, desirous of pondering before acting, and interested in listening. Yin people value connection with others.

But if yin is generally associated with the feminine and yang is generally associated with the masculine, can we just say that women are yin and men are yang?

Not really.

Remember, every whole has yin and yang. Every person will have both yin and yang energies in them, thus will have both yin and yang attributes.

But we can say that women carry more yin energies and thus have more yin tendencies, and men carry more yang energies and thus have more yang tendencies. And this is actually quite scientific. Anyone want to talk about hormones?

Tune in next time and we’ll see how those attributes associated with yin and yang behaviors are hard-wired into all of us.

What Needs to be Fixed: Understanding Our Duality

2012-02-06T15:49:00.000-08:00

In the last post, I said we’d spend some time looking at what’s missing in our world because our cultures are basically patriarchal. It’s not going to be easy, either; it’s hard to see what isn’t there.

But before we do, I want to take a deeper look at how the masculine and feminine are meant to relate to each other. Even thought they appear as polar opposites, it’s important to understand that it’s really not an either/or proposition.

Let’s start by looking at the symbol for yin and yang. We’ve all seen it, right? A circle bisected by a curving line, one half white, the other black, with a small spot of the opposite color dotted in each section. It’s called the taijitu, and there are several “truths” about balance we can derive from this amazing symbol.

1. First, the circle split into two parts says that every whole can be considered as having both a yin, or feminine aspect, and a yang, or masculine aspect. Even yin and yang. That’s why the symbol isn’t just half black and half white. The small circle of black in the white area and the small circle of white in the black area are meant to represent the fact that all yin contains some yang and all yang contains some yin.

2. But that’s not the main secret to this symbol. The real magic is that yin and yang are not static like they appear in a two dimensional model. The taijitu is meant to represent the workings of anything and everything. That means this symbol represents the interaction of the two forces that make up the whole. It really says that everything’s composed of interacting dualities.

3. Remember we said the whole cannot exist without both parts? Well it’s just as true that neither part can exist without the other part. Yin cannot exist without yang, and yang cannot exist without yin. Ultimately, it’s the dance between the two that guarantees survival.

4. Another important piece of this puzzle is that the relationship between the two is dynamic; it’s constantly moving and changing. For example, even though it always looks like there’s an equal amount of yin to yang in our symbol, there will be times when there’s more yin and times where there’s more yang. That’s because the whole is always seeking dynamic balance within itself. It cannot exist in a state of perpetual imbalance.

5. And here’s the really cool part. The dynamic relationship between yin and yang is the mechanism the whole uses to insure balance. Here’s how it works.

We’ve already said that all yin contains some yang and all yang contains some yin. But it’s also true that yin creates yang and yang creates yin. Yin consumes yang and yang consumes yin. They are what you might call the check and balance system for each other. In a perfect world, there will never be too much yin, because yang will balance it. And there will never be too much yang, because yin will balance it.

That’s great as far as the symbol is concerned. But how, you might ask, does it relate to life and people and our culture? That’s really the core question and we’ll look at it in the next post.

What Needs to be Fixed: Opportunity Lost

2012-01-29T21:35:00.000-08:00

As I said in my first post, I believe we urgently need to reclaim the balance missing from our world before we kill ourselves and our planet. I also said that I think the imbalance we’re experiencing today is because most of our world is culturally a patriarchy.

In business, there’s something called an “opportunity cost.” This addresses what’s lost when you select one path over another. So it seems reasonable to ask, what are the opportunity costs of having a patriarchy instead of a matriarchy? Or better yet, a balance-archy (I made that up, but I kind of like it).

For the next several weeks, I want to challenge us to consider what is lost when one lives in a patriarchy where control and power rest with men. Certainly, masculine principles will be present in a patriarchy, but what about feminine principles?

Feminine principles, you may ask. What are those? And that’s the point; we don’t readily comprehend what the feminine principles are anymore. But ancient cultures used to understand the feminine side of the equation. They called it yin to the masculine yang.

Yin is dark to yang’s light.

Yin is cold to yang’s heat.

Yin is receptive to yang’s aggressiveness.

Yin values connection while yang values individual expression

You get the drift.

Thousands of years ago, the wise ones knew that balance was the natural order of things. Imbalance led to disaster, whether at a personal, community, or global level. In the simple model of yin and yang, balance is created by the fact that one cannot exist without the other. In a healthy system, there can be no yin without yang. And there can be no yang without yin.

In fact, they’re really just two different faces of the same whole, a whole where balance comes from an equal expression of both. Yet sadly, we are so immersed in our patriarchy, we don’t seem to realize how very out of balance we are. We don’t even know what’s missing.

So, we’re going to spend some time looking at what’s lacking in our world because we have a patriarchy. What have we lost? And what is the cost?

Stay tuned. This should be pretty interesting.

What Needs to be Fixed: Patriarchy Supports Inequality

2012-01-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday! Life has been beyond busy the last two weeks and I’m afraid I’ve been a bad blogger. But I’m here now and ready to explore a pretty basic problem with patriarchy: inequality.

Let’s take another look at that definition of a patriarchy:

Patriarchy: the control by men of a disproportionately large share of power.

(Merriam-Webster.com)

In our patriarchal culture, the idea of a larger share of power resting with men is no surprise if you’re a woman. But in terms of balance, a disproportionately large share of power resting with any subgroup of a culture or civilization is a dangerous thing.

“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Lord Acton is to be congratulated for this tidbit of wisdom. It’s true that any group enjoying power over another group runs the risk of corruption. Patriarchy features the supremacy of males over females, but we could just as easily discuss the supremacy of one racial or socioeconomic group over another. Corruption and by definition, inequality, are guaranteed. The goal should always be balance.

But let’s go back to the idea of patriarchy. It’s easy to see that our Western Civilization has been patriarchal for millennia. Whether considering the position of supremacy granted the father of the clan, the lack of legal rights for women well into the 20^th century, the glass ceiling that still exists for women in business and politics even now, or the reckoning of descent and inheritance along the male line, power and control clearly rest with men. Yup, it’s a patriarchy, alright. And women are not equal with men.

But what, you might ask here, is so wrong with living in a patriarchy? What’s a little inequality among friends if we gain all the accouterments of civilization?

It’s a fair question; our “civilized” patriarchal cultures do seem to have the important things in life: the availability of adequate food and housing, safety, freedom, democracy, indoor plumbing, a car in every garage, and a chicken in every pot. What more could people want? We are taught that never in the history of the world has life been so good. For heavens sake, we “civilized” nations are what most of the rest of the world aspires to become.

But are things really so great?

Well, let’s see. We are constantly at war somewhere on the planet and the threat of nuclear holocaust hangs heavier and heavier.

The “haves’ certainly have a lot, but there are a lot of “have nots” who don’t.

Our environment is in pretty bad shape and getting worse. Pollution is increasing, the climate is changing, and the global species extinction rate is accelerating at an alarming rate. This might make one question the ultimate viability of a planet dedicated to patriarchal ideas.

It’s even more concerning when you add the fact that there are still places in the world where baby girls are killed because they are less valued than baby boys.

Or that true religious freedom doesn’t exist anywhere at an organized level; every major religion limits the participation of women at its highest levels.

These inequalities are all trappings of a patriarchy, so I think it’s safe to say that we aren’t all equal in a patriarchy. And that needs to be fixed.

My next post will cover another problem with patriarchy. Bet you just can’t wait!

Reclaiming the Balance

2012-01-08T15:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog!

I’ve started this blog with a mission: I want us to reclaim the balance missing from our world today before we kill ourselves and take our planet with us.

Not a bad idea, right? We can all agree on that.

But what, you might ask, is so out of balance that we, and our planet, might die?

I believe that the majority of what’s wrong with every aspect of our world today can be linked to the fact that we, as a people, are out of balance. Further, I think we as a people are out of balance because the cultures in which we live are out of balance.

For the most part, I think we live unbalanced lives and the affect we have on each other and everything around us, including nature and the planet, serves to perpetuate this imbalance. It’s a nasty, deadly cycle.

But how, you might ask once more, are our cultures so out of balance?

The sad truth is that for over 2,500 years, the dominant cultures on our planet have all been patriarchies. By definition, a patriarchy is not balanced. Take a look:

Patriarchy: the control by men of a disproportionately large share of power.

(Merriam-Webster.com)

It seems to me that if we do want to live in a balanced way and save ourselves and the planet, we probably don’t want to be living in a patriarchy. There are definitely other possibilities and we’ll look at those down the line.

But first, before we can fix patriarchy, we need to understand what is so wrong with it. That it’s unbalanced is only one of the many problems. There are dozens and dozens of other problems with patriarchy and I intend to explore them in this blog. Please join me. It’s going to be an interesting ride.