Courtesy of wikipedia.org
In a society based on competition, it’s difficult to see how equality fits in. What’s more, the disparities wrought by climate change and wars make the notion seem a cruel joke. Those standing in the rubble left by Hurricane Helene see their lives scattered at their feet. The immigrants ballooning on our southern border are here to escape violence and death. Conditions like these have nothing to do with equality. The goal is survival.
Equality is another game. Those who flourish best are those who have the most, which makes inequality inevitable.
American Indians were the first to learn this lesson. They lost their lands so the children of immigrants could build railroads and make way for the settlers who followed. Enslaved Africans gave plantation owners the chance to grow rich.
Today, we call ourselves a nation of immigrants. Even so, we exploit our newly arrived, leaving these huddled masses to find their way into labor-intensive work that pays menial wages. That we discriminate against them because they are poor is the ultimate hypocrisy.
Equality in our society belongs to a narrow group. White men. They pretend that patriarchy is a God-given authority, one that requires them to oversee the lives of women and minorities. Yet, as the question of survival casts its shadow over a species on the brink of extinction, accommodation between winners and losers becomes necessary.
Switzerland and Italy provide an example. Climate change is melting the glaciers that once defined their border, leaving both countries with one of two choices. They can attempt to bully each other for territory. Or, they can negotiate. Centuries ago, the decision might have been to declare war. Today, the countries chose to talk.
Unfortunately, Russia and China continue to see belligerence as a strategy. Likewise, in the Middle East, a place where blood falls more readily than rain, the cancer of Biblical hatred persists. When Jordan’s Queen Ranis Al Abdullah proposed a plan to end the war in Gaza, she might have accomplished more by spitting into the Dead Sea to raise its water level.
Even so, her proposals are modest. First, all sides must agree to uphold international law. Second, the parties are required to accept that human rights aren’t negotiable and are universal. Third, starvation and the collective punishment of civilians are to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act. Fourth, there should be a general agreement that stockpiling weaponry is contrary to peace.
Tenets like these are as near to common sense as René Descartes’, “I think, therefore I am.” But patriarchy, older than The Rules of Hammurabi, is rooted in the human psyche and continues to infect modern society.
Despite demonstrations for equality and human rights, a Brookings Institute report reveals that young men aren’t buying the goals of inclusiveness. Instead, GenZ males have become more patriarchal in [their] orientation, not more inclusive. Their priorities focus on competition, bravery, and honor. In contrast, their female counterparts prefer to address domestic violence, child abuse, and mental health.
In a technological world, where muscle no longer makes right, women have a chance to promulgate values that lead to peace. In Nigeria, The Men’s Engagement Program has been transformative for the male perspective.
Designed to reduce female beatings, the program has disabused participants of the notion that masculinity confers dominance. Said one husband who used to batter his spouse, “I realized I have been an abusive husband… and asked my wife for forgiveness. [Now] we have goals and work as a couple toward achieving them.” (“Encouraging Men to Champion Gender Equality, Outreach, Fall 2024, pg.4)
The Nigerian project proves that patriarchy isn’t imprinted in a man’s DNA. It’s a template imposed upon him. True, women do lean toward compassion, but men are equally capable of empathy. Women in leadership roles can break stereotyping and make it possible for males to escape harmful paradigms of the past.
Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum is an example. Determined to reduce violence in her country, she has announced an end to the war on the drug cartels. Her decision doesn’t mean she’s turned a blind eye to them. She intends to address the root causes of their existence by providing alternatives to drug trafficking.
Maya Angelou once wrote that when a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women. It is also true that when Rosa Parks refused to step to the back of the bus, she stood up for all minorities. Feminists have long argued that women’s rights were human rights. Breaking the patriarchy’s back is a survival imperative whose time has come.
