Whether it’s mankind’s insane propensity for war, his growing gun violence, his abuse of women and children, his militarized police, or even big oil’s excessive greed, the root of many of our problems is one and the same: There is too much alpha male energy running things on Spaceship Earth.
It is time for leaders to emerge from either gender who use more highly evolved qualities — such as compassion, cooperation and a sense of community — to right the ship.
New Feminine Paradigm Needed.
The National Geographic movie entitled Stress offers much needed enlightenment on this issue. It tells the story of how, for decades, Stanford researchers studied a tribe of baboons, which live much like humans do; in nuclear families, caring for their children, men going off in search of food and coming home. They wanted to understand how they dealt with stress. The Alpha male came home empty handed from the hunt. Frustrated, he would swat his wife and their children. His stress becomes their stress; and before long they’re all running around biting each other on the bottoms. Much like life in America today. Stress not managed begats more and more stress.
One day in the Baboons’ backyard, a load of meat poisoned by disease was inadvertently dumped. The alpha males fought off all the others and got to the meat first. They all died. Without them, an entirely new kind of community emerged. Women took over, supported by the beta men. More time was spent grooming and raising children, a sort of utopia came to be.
Buckminster Fuller’s wisdom about the overall superiority of women to rule the world – or for a new feminine paradigm of leadership – was published in a 1968 McCall’s Magazine article, entitled “Why Women Will Rule the World”.
Bucky said a world run by women would refute the outdated notion of scarcity, and set out instead to provide for 100% of humanity. Our abundantly advanced technology and all our new knowledge has brought us to the point where it no longer needs to be “us versus them”, but instead the objective could be “to make the world work for 100% of the people, without harm to the environment.”
We must get control of the alpha energy that’s running amok. We must demand a new more intelligent government. We must make it clear to all of our leaders that war is no longer a sustainable activity. We must demand the transition off fossil fuels happen now. We must demand justice and equality for all peoples, and the environment.
How can women lead the way to make this happen?
Maybe we could get creative and take a lesson from the war-weary women of Sudan who staged a sex strike for peace. Somehow, whatever it takes, we must all find the courage to demand a world where “governance equals nurturance”. As corny as it may sound, love really is the answer. And once humanity demands a compassionately-attuned-to-other world we will get it. As Bucky said, “When there is a strong enough will, there can be no other way. Whatever we think is what will be.”
It doesn’t have to be women who lead, just people who have traditionally feminine values and approaches to problem solving. For example, Bernie Sanders. With his focus on caring for people and the planet, he could have been more of a woman president than Hillary. Elizabeth Warren thinks like a mom. What’s fair? How do we make it work for everybody? And, of course everyone by now everyone knows that Barack Obama is, at heart, already our first feminine paradigm president.
Read Bucky’s article below to get your own vision of how good life might be with a more feminine paradigm of leadership in place. Share it with the women you know who might make great leaders if they had a little encouragement.
Find the courage to speak truth to power NOW. Wield your mighty keyboard. And please share Buckyworld.
We live in dysfunctional times, and realizing this, President Obama is finding new ways to get things done for America and for the planet, and in doing so, creating a new model of leadership.
Here is one attempt:
Catastrophic environmental events brought on by climate change will take a heavy toll on the human psyche, and just the emotional stress of knowing can be devastating. Looking to Bucky’s wisdom for some new light to share on this problem, here’s what I found, all from the forward of his seminal 1981 book, Critical Path:
I got nods all around, especially from the women, but my husband didn’t talk to me the rest of the night. Later he asked “Why do you always have to be such a downer? Why do you insist on hijacking every conversation?”
A report from the U.S. Department of Defense Monday warns that climate change is a “threat multiplier” which can worsen national security problems such as terrorism and infectious disease spread, yet they, and the rest of us, seem positively determined to NOT actually tackle this enemy, at least not in any way that might prevent this most serious threat.
On Buckminster Fuller’s last day on Spaceship Earth, July 1, 1983, he tidied his always cluttered desk and left the office to visit his dying wife at Pacific Palisades Hospital. There, while holding her hand, he had a massive heart attack and died. On his desk, next to a neatly stacked manuscript for a book called called Cosmography, and a fourteen page typewritten document entitled “World Livingry Service Industry”.
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