Authoritarian institutions require conformity and obedience. But, if we wish to turn this ship around, what we need today is original thinking by many people. A partnership orientation will be essential.
What Does This Alternative look Like in Practice?
Eisler's work reveals four essential and interconnected cornerstones for shifting away from the legacy of domination, and once again building the partnership systems needed to support human survival (and thriving) on our planet:
- Family and Childhood Relations
- Gender Relations
- Economic Relations
- Narratives and Language
Partnership Parenting
The quality of family relationships and social structures are an essential underpinning of partnership systems. The family is a "mold-maker" and template for politics, economics, and other social institutions. Findings from psychology and neuroscience show that the degree of partnership or domination in our foundational human relations between women and men, and between parents and children directly affects how our brains develop.
Research suggests that domination-style parenting engenders childhood stresses that often lead to behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and physical health issues. Domination-style parenting has been linked to violence and all its economic and social costs, as children act out the dynamics of abuse and power-over which is normalized in domination system families.
To plant the seeds of cooperation, democracy and partnership, we need to provide a more evolved haven for children, and to facilitate the development of awareness and caring for the ecological context - our true nest. Clearly, this will require much dedicated effort at the individual, policy, and institutional levels.
There is increasing recognition of the urgent need for a deep systemic reassessment of what we are teaching our children. Based on multidisciplinary research conducted by Riane Eisler over three decades, her book, Tomorrow's Children presents a new integrated model for education. At the very least a "well-rounded education" will need to include emotional intelligence tailored for each age group - Edgar Morin's "Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future" (UNESCO) is another highly relevant resource expressing a similar vision.
In her book The Real Wealth of Nations, Eisler argues that the great problems of our time - such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism and environmental degradation - are consequences of a flawed economic system which advocates dysfunctional priorities and misallocated resources.
Eisler suggests that a sustainable and equitable economy is possible - one that places value on our greatest assets: people and our natural environment. She invites the reader to contemplate a "caring economics" that transcends traditional structures such as capitalism and socialism and offers enormous benefits. Eisler also describes business practices and policies and suggests practical steps for their implementation.
Another dimension:
How we use language is crucial in the shift toward partnership systems. Domination-based words and phrases have been built in to our everyday use of the English language and influence the way we perceive the world. Words and ways of thinking are rooted in the unconscious mind. The examples below are a sampling of the many phrases that can evolve from a context of domination to one of partnership in our everyday use of language.
Language matters.
- I really killed it/crushed it/nailed it > I really brought it to life
- Bullet points > Itemized list
- Mankind > Humankind
While we're at it let's take a look take two examples where partnership is actually being implemented in the gnarly matter of criminal justice. Both are currently functioning alternatives to the present system of incarceration.
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