Two major ideological battlefields pit those who would despoil Earth for short-term profits against those who realize that human viability depends upon a healthy home planet and the ongoing efforts to legalize the subjugation of women. Both evils arose from the same source.
The aggressors in these conflicts descend from the erroneous notion of male superiority. This represents a continuation of the Cosmic War between the matriarchal cultures that Marija Gimbutas discovered in ancient Europe and the patriarchal invaders who conquered them.
Unable to subjugate Mother Earth, the patriarchalists despoil her as if there will be no consequences while also turning their attention to subjugating women, her Earthly representatives, by denying them human rights.
Anti-choice zealots throughout the country delight in persecuting pregnant women with Draconian laws and public humiliations after denying them proper, often life-saving medical attention.
A 34-year-old Ohio woman, whom prosecutors tormented with name-revealing accusations and threatened legal action after her miscarriage of a non-viable fetus, was not charged with felony abuse of a corpse by the local grand jury in January.
It happened before, in Texas [charges again dropped after first demonizing the woman]. In Oklahoma and other states, women have been forced to make expensive trips to saner states for routine medical treatments that have now become illegal for local doctors to perform.
This orchestrated oppression of women has deep roots. It is the logical extension of the patriarchal war against Mother Earth herself. This is no coincidence. The same people who oppose women’s rights deny pro-Earth scientific evidence detailing the deleterious effects of their greed.
A striking example of the patriarchy’s ascendance occurs on Crete. Somewhere around 1500 BCE, the matriarchal Minoan civilization was replaced by the Greek Mycenaean patriarchy with its familiar Olympian gods.
When the patriarchalists overthrew the Mother Goddess, they devalued Earth as well. They denied their Earthly origins and demonized the process which makes all things possible.
The Battle of the Sexes between primal deities was renewed when the first free-thinkers revolted against dogma. The natural philosophers of Ionia evolved into scientists, who today are Mother Earth’s partisans. The war continues to this day.
Patriarchalists might not know that their opposition to science is an outgrowth of their war with Mother Earth. They do know that scientific knowledge proves their static worlds delusional.
Science is hard. Scientists investigate and learn things that debunk the pseudo-knowledge that has become ingrained at the core of society. It requires self-discipline. Much of the anti-science, anti-education rhetoric afloat in the ether of political discourse reflects this resentment.
Even worse, science hurts the delicate feelings of those comfortable with conformity. And then it assures them that many bedrock conclusions are subject to further discoveries and explication.
The guarantee of continual change knocks the props out from under patriarchalists. They prefer – and demand – an unreal certainty, preferably with themselves in a position of power. Obedience replaces discipline.
Mutable Mother Nature renders strictures obsolete. Differing circumstances necessitate adjustments. The patriarchy resists, fearing that enlightenment will erode the flimsy foundation of its dominance.
Thales, the first philosopher, listened to Nature instead of the local priests. He looked past ceremonies to try to discern the core of his existence. Others chose to have a look themselves.
Cyclical Nature spirals into new circumstances. Heraclitus recognized the reality of the constant flux of Nature – “It flows” – that idealists ignore as if small children thinking they are invisible behind their hands in front of their eyes.
Philosophy’s purity – its reliance on Nature [Mother Earth] for its guiding principles – provoked a quick reaction from authoritarians who responded by creating belief systems of structured rigidity.
By shifting the attention from Nature to humankind, anti-philosophical idealists in Athens demanded a static hierarchy as a given. Apologists for authoritarianism still propagandize this retreat as a step forward.
Plato, who constructed fantasy worlds and whose anti-democratic Republic justified a government’s control of every aspect of its citizens’ lives, would have liked to burn the works of Democritus, whose atomic theory had to wait more than 2,300 years before scientists developed it.
By shifting the inquiry away from Earth, the idealists appealed to a selfishness descended from selfish gods, who resembled humans in every aspect except their greater power. This disconnect still infects our progress.
Defenders of dogmas begin with conclusions and rationalize toward them. They endorse authority – often without subtlety – to build arguments designed to serve prestige and power.
Subjugating women has long been part of this power drive. In many U.S. states, women are deemed incapable of making decisions regarding their own health care. Throughout the country, they face wage discrimination and a culture of sexual abuse so normalized that Supreme Court justices and presidents get free passes.
It is even worse elsewhere. Forced child marriages and female genital mutilation are common in parts of the world. Afghan girls are denied schooling – as are some American girls after a certain age in certain religious communities.
The second-class status of women is a staple in most patriarchal, idealistically-based religions. Such systems impose hierarchical caste systems. Those at the top make sure there are many subject to their authority.
Idealists benefit from their omission of facts. They pull their dogma out of … thin air. They congratulate themselves with make-believe discussions of their fantasy worlds. Literary debates masquerade as serious discussions.
Idealists declare what they want the world to be as unproven facts instead of pursuing truths. Dogmatic idealists with their destined destinations echo the intransigence of superstitious priesthoods – and vice versa. They cannot be philosophers if their inquiry rejects most of the natural world.
Glorious reality requires no embellishments to delight and inspire us. Its richness invites our explorations. We just need the steady gaze normally reserved for love, and, following the Ionian tradition, turn away from dogma toward the real world where close investigation can make some real problems solvable.
Mother Nature inspired those first philosophic minds to reassert her status as the bedrock foundation of the world and all creatures. They speculated wildly at times, but we can be sure that, if they had our tools, their investigative attitude would have served them well.
As advocates for Nature as the source of all knowledge, the first philosophers were protoype ecologists. It follows logically that, since we learn from Nature, it requires our reverence and its own preservation.
Philosopher-begotten scientists continue to wage war for Mother Earth and her evolving world against patriarchal chains of devout obedience.
Thus, scientists fill the front lines in the battles against the rampant pollution of the environment, the warming globe and the deliberate ignorance perpetrated by Mother Earth’s foes. True wisdom tries to defend the planet.
Who surveys the natural world – the only home we have known, our very source of being – and declares it to be evil? Not sometimes less welcoming, but somehow besmirched with sin? Those with evil in their hearts.
Demonizing the Cosmos makes gods necessary to put everything aright – and to put everybody under the thumbs of the mouthpieces of those deities. Their ultimate enemy is always the Earth Goddess; their fight against Nature’s ways.
Philosophic warriors use Nature to refute the ruse proclaimed by patriarchs who usurped Mother Nature’s realm. It is an ongoing war of the reality of abundant change versus static conformity.
Philosophy birthed the scientific movement. There had been many previous technological accomplishments. Thales made science matter as a distinct discipline. He made matter matter.
Narrowed visions narrow chances for long-term success. Defending the status quo eliminates room for growth. And the world does not slow down to accommodate cowards getting left farther behind.
With only the world at stake, our leaders fake gravitas to prolong exploitation to feed momentary greed, knowing the devastation will collapse upon their heirs. But they don’t care. They just don’t care.
Thinking becomes dangerous for those who refuse to conform to societal norms. The fires of inquisitions are banked in preparation for heretics who challenge the static status quo.
Still, we can only educate those seeking information. The incurious reject anything that might disturb their insular worlds. Crack their impassivity and healthy doubts might enter.
Ignorance contains the possibility for growth, excitement. There is no need to be ashamed of our ignorance unless we choose to refuse new opportunities. Then, ignorance becomes stupidity.
Philosophers birthed science, redirected attention from harsh dogma toward Nature and its continual flux. They answered Mother Earth’s call to avenge her demotion and to overthrow ignorance.
Philosophy birthed science, demanding exactitude when viewing reality. Science still needs philosophy to gauge its technologies for collateral damage when they are employed.
Unfortunately, science, through technology, often puts knowledge into the hands of those not seeking wisdom. They prioritize immediate needs – or greed – over the long-term effects of putting new tools to use.
Natural philosophy maintains its relevance. We never outgrow the need for the rigorous honesty which provides the foundation with which true art and science engage experience.
We cannot go back to Nature, but neither can we escape our natural heritage. It is not the old skills we need to ensure our survival, but that impetus to change, to meet new circumstances.
And, probability assures us, we need as many people as possible working toward a sustainable future. This means including women as equal inquirers in the quest. [How many Marie Curies have we lost through the millennia?] Recognizing equal rights for women is a necessary first step toward humanity’s survival.
Celebrate Earth’s wonders and the glories of our lives. But beware of rituals that would codify your awe away from experience toward prescribed limitations subject to tyrants’ demands.
The robin sings up the Sun, celebrates blue skies or grey, goes worm hunting in the rain and then hymns the closing day. We should be as dutiful to create as much beauty, leaving joy along our way.
