4. POWER

There is nothing wrong with power. In and of itself, power is good and exists on many levels. Consider the entities earth, moon and sun. Gravity is power; so are motion and velocity. Because of these in combination, the entities exist in relationship and reciprocity – on the cosmic scale. Thus we continue on our endless journey around the sun. An example of power on the macro scale is the organization of the Executive Branch, Congress and the Supreme Court in the USA – a political ideal of powerful entities co-existing in tension, or balance.

Power is bad when it is out of whack. If the geniuses at NASA, who bombed the moon in October 2009, had caused it to shift its position in the cosmic relationship, no mortal can predict what the consequences of disturbing that relationship might be. (They were looking for water needed for establishing mining operations up there – there’s no end to the irony....) On the micro level, inadequate personalities crave power and these types are all around us, screwing things up on both the macro and micro level and everywhere in between.

As this blog is about women, power and the earth, we will be examining the disproportional and coercive structures and activities of command, organization, events and resources that threaten life on earth and ways in which balance can be restored. The concept of “empowerment” will not be used here as it is a personally enabling concept of power, which is a misnomer, at least for these purposes. In dealing with the world, one never has nor loses power in and of itself. It is potential which is or is not exercised and like the sun, moon and earth, it exists in relationship.

There are many kinds of power and varieties of its definition in confrontation with one another. Living reality presents innumerable versions of the thing itself. All over the world, 24-7, physical, political and rhetorical power plays and battles are taking place, one side attempting to thwart, destroy or trump the other.

Feminists oppose all of these in principle, as we oppose the patriarchal domination of women and its resulting inequality and it is this patriarchy which is doing battle over control of the earth. And it is this conflict – feminist opposition to male dominance and powermongering – that will inform the basic language here. We will examine the threats listed in Blog 2 (THREATS: Life in the Mainstream) in feminist terms and not pop power rhetoric. And remember: The greatest power of all is the life force – and we own it.

The threats to the earth cannot be considered without integrating the issues and problems that confront women directly; e.g., health, work, education, economics, sexuality, violence, family, children, girls, housing, safety, security. And international affairs: Women’s rights are under siege around the world. How long will it be before foreign versions of “conflict, war, poverty or religious fundamentalism where women and children are the first and most numerous victims” (quoting Isabel Allende) migrate to our land? Women’s troubles co-exist with Mother Nature’s.

I read recently that the powers-who-be thought that women rising in political leadership were too focused on things like nutrition, primary health care, education, etc. “Soft issues,” they call them – like ignorance, starvation, thirst, dying in childbirth and being “collateral damage” in war were secondary to whatever “hard issues” might be. This gives you some idea of what we – and Mother Earth – are up against.