MEPW: The Focus is Power

The focus of the project is to understand power as it relates to the earth’s crisis – its uses and abuses. And to consider new concepts of power – a force which has been, and continues to be, virtually exclusive to the world of men. Women are still trying to fit into the way men run the world.

In the main, power is hidden in the nooks and crannies of seemingly invisible places. Power is mystified, making it seem impenetrable. And its mystification is guarded by the patriarchy. (Read -archy: superior.) Men are dominant and women subordinate. Patriarchal power’s abuse exists because we lack the power to understand and alter it. By examining how the powerful have brought Mother Earth to her knees, we will begin to understand it and conceive of ways to wield our own power on Her behalf.

But patriarchal power is not impenetrable. In spite of the scope of the issues we will examine, we will approach it piece by piece and render it quite manageable. We will look at power from two aspects – theirs and ours. Their power is the project. By examining it, we will learn a few things about our own: how we relate to power, how we perceive of it innately, in our immediate external lives, in community and in the larger scope of society and politics.

Our concepts of power are distorted by unreliable narratives or “power noise.” This racket is comprised of things like slogans and sound bites, cultural bias, prejudices both blatant and nuanced, judgments which pander to dominant values, dogged polar thinking (as in “conflict,” “this or that,” “either/or” – as if there were only two ways of anything), etc. This is not an exercise in negotiation (more power noise – i.e., my way, your way, our way) but in navigation. We will investigate the hidden caves and multi-layers of power and our own yet-to-be-recognized possibilities.

The evolution of modern feminist thought has already empowered us. That power of identity and proof is already there. Now we must use it to dis-establish the male power structure as our and the earth’s authority.