As I mentioned in a earlier article, “The Way forward for US”, I’ve been occupied with methods we are able to survive and thrive throughout these difficult instances since 1993 after I was given a imaginative and prescient in a sweat lodge ceremony and noticed the sinking of the ship of civilization and the launching of lifeboats to a extra sustainable world.
From a brand new e book by Luke Kemp, Goliath’s Curse: The Historical past of Societal Collapse, I realized in regards to the newest findings that may assist us perceive our lives, our world, and discover hope for the way forward for humankind. Kemp is a senior analysis affiliate on the Centre for the Examine of Existential Danger on the College of Cambridge.
Kemp says,
“With the specter of nuclear conflict ever current, the world getting hotter and warmer, and the speedy creation of harmful algorithms, one can’t be blamed for asking: Will we make it?” Kemp goes on to say, “The issue is that almost all of us are uncomfortable in recognizing the most typical ingredient of civilization is rule via domination. A extra apt label for these methods of violence is ‘Goliath.’ A Goliath is a set of hierarchies wherein some people dominate others to manage power and labor.”
In her groundbreaking e book, The Chalice & the Blade: Our Historical past, Our Future, internationally acclaimed scholar, futurist, and activist, Riane Eisler wrote,
“We’re all aware of legends about an earlier, extra harmonious and peaceable age. The Bible tells of a backyard the place lady and man lived in concord with one another and nature — earlier than a male god decreed that lady henceforth be subservient to man.”
Eisler goes on to explain two competing methods that proceed to affect our lives at this time.
“The primary, which I name the dominator mannequin, is what’s popularly termed both patriarchy or matriarchy — the rating of 1 half of humanity over the opposite. The second, wherein social relations are based on the precept of linking reasonably than rating, could also be described because the partnership mannequin.” Eisler concludes by saying, “On this mannequin — starting with probably the most elementary distinction in our species, between female and male — variety just isn’t equated with both inferiority or superiority.”
Eisler developed these concepts most not too long ago in her e book Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Disgrace Our Brains, Lives, and Future written with anthropologist Douglas P. Fry. They are saying,
“There’s a new urgency to our want for a extra humane world. Day-after-day we’re bombarded by information of barbaric human rights abuses, terrorist assaults, proliferation of nuclear weapons, and a drift to strongman rule. New applied sciences, from synthetic intelligence to organic engineering, may have catastrophic outcomes if guided by cultural values of greed, megalomania, and disrespect for human rights.”
MenAlive: Serving to Males and the Ladies Who Love Them Since 1972
MenAlive started in 1969 after I held Jemal, my new child son, in my arms and made a vow that I’d be a special type of father than my father was capable of be for me and to do every little thing I may to create a world the place males have been absolutely healed and concerned with their households and communities all through their lives. I launched MenAlive as my window to the world to share what I used to be studying about love, life, survival, and transformation.
In June, I shall be providing thrilling new and expanded companies at MenAlive. I’m searching for women and men who acknowledge the world is altering and who wish to obtain one of the best steerage and assist out there to assist them to dwell absolutely, love deeply, and make a optimistic distinction on the planet. If this sounds such as you, learn on.
When our daughter, Angela, was born in 1972, it grew to become clear that boys and males’s well being and women and girls’s well being have been without end intertwined and we couldn’t enhance one with out bettering the opposite. My spouse Carlin and I now have six grown kids, seventeen grandchildren, and 6 nice grandchildren. We’re dedicated to serving to to rework our lives for the great of all and for future generations.
I’m positive I don’t need to persuade you that people live in methods which can be out of steadiness with the legal guidelines of nature. We acknowledge this imbalance as our local weather disaster, limitless conflicts, and lack of ecological variety. As “geologian” and historian Thomas Berry warned:
“We by no means knew sufficient. Nor have been we sufficiently intimate with all our cousins within the nice household of the earth. Nor may we hearken to the varied creatures of the earth, every telling its personal story. The time has now come, nonetheless, after we will hear or we’ll die.”
Many individuals have given up on humanity and picture that the world could be higher off with out us. Others hope that Synthetic Intelligence (AI) will save us. I used to be given a special imaginative and prescient throughout a sweat lodge ceremony at a Males’s Management Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1993.
The imaginative and prescient allowed me to see the sinking ship of domination-civilization and the emergence of lifeboats to a brand new way of life. In keeping with Václav Havel, Czech statesman, creator, playwright, and dissident,
“At this time, many issues point out that we’re going via a transitional interval when evidently one thing is on the way in which out and one thing else is painfully being born. It’s as if one thing have been crumbling, decaying, and exhausting itself, whereas one thing else, nonetheless vague, have been arising from the rubble.”
At MenAlive, I shall be introducing my group to progressive packages that provide new methods of speaking similar to, “Protected Conversations,” developed by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt. You may study them right here: https://quantumconnections.com/.
We additionally want new methods of therapeutic males’s psychological, emotional, and relational wounds similar to these developed by Joe Conrad at Man Remedy: https://mantherapy.org/
Changing into David: Why Males Have a Essential Position to Play in Overcoming Goliath
Clearly, we want everybody concerned if we’re going to change the world for good. This contains males, ladies, and youngsters. I imagine that males have a essential function to play. The comic Elayne Booler captured this thought when she mentioned,
“When ladies get depressed, they eat or buy groceries. Males invade one other nation. It’s an entire completely different mind-set.”
In his e book Goliath’s Curse, Luke Kemp says,
“Within the biblical story, Goliath is slain by a single slingshot-toting future king by the identify of David. Defeating Goliaths, in actuality, just isn’t performed alone. As a substitute, it requires actions that leverage the folks and communities round us.”
Kemp gives the next 4 guiding rules:
- Don’t Be a Dick
“I suggest a easy pledge to not be a dick. This can be a pledge to not work for, spend money on, or assist any agency, institute, or person who considerably contributes to international catastrophic threat.”
“Greater than that, it’s a pledge to not develop into a Goliath your self. All of us are able to being corrupted by energy. All of us crave standing to some extent. Don’t let the darker angels of your nature win.”
2. Be a Democrat.
“Follow democracy. Democracy isn’t just a type of authorities; it’s a tradition and lifestyle. One that every one of us must recapture.”
3. Vote Towards the Apocalypse.
“You might be firstly a citizen not a shopper. If everybody in Australia (or the US, or the UK) started switching off their lights prudently and selected the lowest-carbon journey choices, then it might barely make a dent within the nationwide emissions.”
“In the event that they modified their vote to these providing the strongest decarbonization plans, then instantly emissions could possibly be on observe to be eradicated inside a long time.”
4. Don’t Be Dominated.
“Oppose domination in your relationships, whether or not they be private, household, or office.”
“One of many first and most pernicious tales justifying subjugation was that of the savior chief. It’s time to say ‘sufficient.’ It’s time to notice the intense and terrifying reality: no gods, kings, heroes, or masters are going to avoid wasting us. Slaying Goliath and avoiding evolutionary suicide is, like all nice achievements, it’ll be a collective motion. It’s on us.”
If you want extra details about MenAlive you possibly can go to me right here. If you want details about Harville Hendrix and “Protected Conversations” you are able to do so right here. You may study extra about Joe Conrad’s work and his new e book on Man Remedy right here.
You may watch an in-depth interview with Luke Kemp, “Can Collapse Profit Everybody” right here.