Where
democracy, safety
and justice begin
PressInfo #
221
April
28, 2005
By
Riane
Eisler,
TFF Associate*
The culture wars are still on --
and heating up on the family front. Yet even now,
progressives are more comfortable talking about what's
right or wrong in "public" life -- the widening gap
between rich and poor, the immorality of an unnecessary
war, policies ignoring global warming. But family
relations directly influence what people consider normal
and moral in all relations -- public as well as
private.
Progressives cannot let reactionary
fundamentalists continue to dominate public discussion of
"private" life and "family" values. We cannot build a
healthy democracy on a foundation of authoritarianism and
intolerance.
Family relations affect how people
think and act. They affect how people vote and govern,
and whether the policies they support are just and
genuinely democratic or violent and
oppressive.
Slogans like "traditional values"
often mask a family "morality" suited to undemocratic,
rigidly male-dominated, chronically violent cultures.
They market a "traditional family" where women are
subordinate and economically dependent, where fathers
make the rules and severely punish disobedience -- the
kind of family that prepares people to defer to "strong"
leaders who brook no dissent and use force to impose
their will.
How can we expect people raised in
authoritarian families -- where men are ranked over women
and children learn that any questioning of belief and
authority will be punished -- to vote for leaders whose
policies promote justice, equality, democracy, mutual
respect and nonviolence?
It's not coincidental that for
regressive fundamentalists -- whether Christian, Hindu,
Jewish or Muslim -- the only moral family is one that
models top-down rankings of domination ultimately backed
up by fear and force. It's not coincidental that the 9/11
terrorists came from families where women and children
are terrorized into submission.
To build cultures of justice,
safety and real democracy, we need families where women
and men are equal partners, where children learn to help
and persuade rather than hurt and coerce, where violence
is not modeled, and where children are encouraged to
think for themselves.
The World Health Organization
reports that every year 40 million children under age 15
are victims of family abuse or neglect serious enough to
require medical attention. Sexual abuse and rape are also
rampant.
Here in the United States, a woman
is battered, usually by her spouse or boyfriend, every 15
seconds.
Every progressive movement has
challenged traditions of domination and violence once
justified on moral grounds -- from the biblical condoning
of massacres and slavery to the "divine right" of kings
to rule their "subjects" and the "divine right" of
"superior" races to rule "inferior" ones.
Traditions of domination and
violence in family and sexual relations perpetuated under
the guise of religious morality are the major holdout.
They must be recognized -- and changed --
worldwide.
Progressives cannot retreat on
moral values and emotionally charged issues such as
abortion and homosexual rights. We need a progressive
pro-family agenda that is in line with the core teachings
of all religions: caring, empathy and responsibility
rather than coercion, intolerance and
violence.
This is not a pipe dream. The
Nordic nations, for example, have prosperous economies,
with longer life spans and much lower crime rates than
the United States. Women and men are more equal partners
and policies such as universal health care and paid
parental leave foster family and societal
health.
In the United States, pro-family,
pro-child, pro-democracy policies would:
Enumerate
rights for all children -- the right to shelter,
nutrition and health care, a clean environment, and
freedom from violence.
Promote equality for women
and for all families, whether parented by a man and
woman, a single parent, or two parents of the same
gender.
Support families with
policies such as paid parental leave, high quality
childcare, and preschool for all
children.
Protect reproductive freedom
and show that the best way to prevent abortions is
to provide family planning and sex education, as do
other nations with much lower abortion
rates.
Provide education for
healthy, nonviolent family relations and parenting
for both boys and girls.
Promote real educational
reform through small classrooms and small schools
where every child has individual support and
attention.
We can't expect to build societies
respecting human rights and democracy when millions of
people grow up in authoritarian families that routinely
violate human rights.
This isn't a question of Democrats
versus Republicans. It's about promoting values that
truly help us make our society safe, prosperous, just,
and equal.
* Riane Eisler is author of "The
Power of Partnership" and the international
bestseller, "The Chalice and The Blade." She is
co-founder of the Spiritual
Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence
and president of the Center
for Partnership Studies.
She can be reached at center@partnershipway.org. Direct
email: eisler@partnershipway.org
Contact information - Phone:
831-624-8336 • Fax 831-626-3734
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