At 08:42 PM 6/19/96 -0400, you wrote:
>What if according to your # 4 thoughts are in the past and there is
>nothing we can do to change that. Perhaps we could question the future
>and by so doing test ourselves before we put the blame on society.
>Society is the culmination of our( men and women; men vs women) behavior.
Thank you for your response. I read it with great interest, but I'm
not exactly sure if I understand it all. Let me try-- Are you saying that
the established order is so deeply entrenched that it is futile to try &
alter it, rather we should direct our energies to the future? If so, I
couldn't agree with you more! Rather than engaging in conflict with the
existing form of government, I envision people sort of by-passing it
altogether & using the resource of human energy to develop new ways of
organizing. The people on this list have certainly done a lot of thinking
about this, with important values like respect for one another & all of our
natural world being so predominant.
I _was_ reflecting on the past. I think it lends meaning to how we
got here. In my perception, much of the social change & disorder seen now
had its roots in the 60's movement. The basic philosophy, as I interpret
it, was:
The government/big business has gone completely nuts. Let's say so, REAL
LOUD! Let's find a different way of living with freedom & love for one
another at its core. Let's quit pretending that building stuff & buying
stuff is the reason we're here. Let's recognize the value & equality of all
people. The ecology movement was a direct result of the 60's movement.
The 2nd womens movement also came out of this, & along with our
dwindling resource-based economy has driven most of the social changes we've
experienced--some good, some bad, some remain to be seen.
With that in mind, I reject the idea of trying to change the
entrenched powers by working within existing channels. For example, this
practice of representational democracy, where we cast a meaningless vote for
either the Clinton empire or the Dole empire, is an insult to our
intelligence. It distracts us & pacifies us so we don't get too LOUD about
the fact that they're all the same people, who misuse their power, prestige
& privilege at our expense.
>I beleive that women are extremely powerful and yet have to know their
>potential and live up to their expectations
>
>Michele Rigaud
>Baltimore Maryland
IMO, you're absolutely right! Women ARE powerful & have made
tremendous advances in the past 25 years. Whether we work within the
existing system to bring about social change or reject it for the alternate
society which we envision, we will affect the future by, as you put it,
testing ourselves, setting our standards and sticking to them.
Patty Lokken
Cyrus, Minnesota, US
