She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality?

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Original article: What Every Dictator Knows : Young Men are Natural Fanatics

Humans have been successful as a species because of our ability to work together for the good of our source group and our willingness to make sacrifices for the good of that group. Because the frontal lobes of the brain in males takes longer – until nearly the age of 30 – their tendency to underestimate the consequences of their own fanaticism is reduced. I’ve written quite a bit about moral and ethical development described by Lawrence Kohlberg and the fact that although we can reach a higher level of functioning toward the end of our teens, most in this culture never do without some intervening influence like higher education or travel or various particulars – greater tolerance, openness – of the social group of origin. The median levels of development are focused on external sources of moral values as an accepting, unquestioning view of one’s family or community. People at this level are more likely to defend the morals of their group to the point of fundamentalism, particularly where religion is concerned. At this level you’re likely to hear “it’s the LAW”; “those are the rules!” “It’s in the Bible/Torah/Quran.” The moral code is seen as absolute and unalterable, the literal “word of god” in some cases, and others challenge that code at their peril.

At this stage, those who vary from the learned code are seen as “other” and therefore a threat to the whole community. Questioning their  code is so disturbing to them that they will feel attacked, and their very survival threatened, which has resulted throughout history as unfathomable violence. At this median level fanaticism can result in Crusades, Inquisitions or Jihad. People will stone women for being raped or burn their neighbors as Witches. They will kill to defend the code even if they don’t adhere strictly to that code. The 9/11 attackers were willing to die for the code they defended, but they spent the night before their attack at a strip club. There’s often a cognitive disconnect – their transgressions are OK, but “the other” must die for theirs.  More benign manifestations of this can be seen in people who will attend and support a fundamentalist church while “living in sin” or advocating abortion though identifying as Catholic; being gay or female and voting Republican; claiming to practice Christianity while advocating war, discrimination or the death penalty.

Everyone past puberty has the potential to reach higher levels of moral and ethical reasoning if the mitigating factors exist – higher education, experience with people from other cultures or communities, values espousing tolerance, understanding and an attitude of openness and curiosity of other ways of thinking or being in the world. It’s important to note that this isn’t simply a more mature approach to life, it’s the development of a higher brain function. You’ll often hear fundamentalists in our culture speak derisively of “Moral Relativity” because they haven’t yet developed that capacity to step back and look at their one moral codes from the outside. They can’t look at their own ideas as anything but reality. They’re concrete thinkers, with strictly black and white concepts of grace/sin or good/evil.

The overarching goal of Western culture at this stage in history should be to pull as many people as possible from their entrenched dogmatic  world views into a level that has been called “enlightenment” in earlier times. It’s not that my code is better than your code – it’s the idea that my code might be as valid as yours so we agree to disagree. This is the opposite of faith. Faith involves accepting your code without question. If I can get a fundamentalist to open their eyes to other ways of living and being in the world. then I have created a level of openness they didn’t have before. If I can get a person to see that, for example, none of us really knows what happens when we die, that little bit of doubt makes all the difference in a person who will welcome a refugee into their community and one who would rather burn down a mosque. It takes absolute certainty to wear a bomb onto a crowded bus, or ruin someone’s career because their lifestyle is unfathomable to you. If you can make the simple logical step to acknowledging that none of us can know what happens when we die until we actually die without coming back* that can introduce enough doubt into that individual mind to allow that reality might be a little bit bigger than their own social context.

*A Christian often believes that they know exactly what happens when they die, though not all Christians agree on what it is; Jihadists believe they’ll be rewarded with virgins when they reach heaven; Some scientists, like Dr. Pim Van Lommel, study near death experiences. Ultimately, we can each speculate as to what happens at that final juncture, believing one view or making an “educated guess” based on whatever data we choose, but the logical reality is that we cannot know until it happens, so we shouldn’t throw bombs at people who expect a different outcome. We might all be wrong. We might all be right. “Might” is far less dangerous than certainty.”

Well, not really, but I am reviving my old blog. I’ll be writing new stuff and reprinting some old stuff that still feels relevant. Enjoy!

As the days go by,

like a strand in the wind,

in the web that is my own

I begin again…

Stevie Nicks