Give it up Guys....

So today I have decided, fellas, its time to give it a break, Come on now. You’ve had a good trot at it. You’re just not doing a very good job. Don’t get me wrong. I luvyouse and all. But you kinda have to admit, you’re not very good at it.

Oh, OK, You want some examples. …are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to rub your collective noses in it. sigh....... Well all right.

• George Bush: The whole War on Iraq thing.
• John Howard: Pretty much every decision you make. And the whole war on Iraq thing.
• Mal Brough: for thinking that somehow the army is going to prevent child abuse, heal people’s souls and stop alcoholism.
• The whole NSW Government: for a jaded litany of reasons
• Pretty much every president or prime minister – except perhaps Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
• Your general garden variety violent criminal, rapist, murderer etc.
• Every CEO and President of every environmentally horrific mining and manufacturing company in the world – for thinking it is OK and that you have some kind of right.
• Whoever it was that invented the atomic bomb, the gun, ddt, herbicides, artificial fertilizers, and now, GMO foods.
  

Shall I go on?

Anyway, the trouble for us girls I think, is that our choices are not very enticing – to actively change the world, we have to choose to engage directly with power - in Government, Politics and Business. And this means, engaging directly with greed, fear, hate and a propensity for violence, not to mention BUREAUCRACY! It’s a hard slog, and generally requires working along side folks whose values and behaviors are diametrically opposed to our own. To influence the operations of power, we have to get very close to the flame – we have to work within the system, and as a result, are shaped, ground down, and subject to those same systems we are trying to change. Sometimes despite out best efforts, it seems that to survive in that environment requires unpalatable compromises – we become that which we are trying to change, or we burn out.

Instead, many of us focus on where we can make a difference in our day to day lives – we end up teachers and nurses or managers of community organizations. We focus on the immediate value of this work….but for what end? We have been doing this for decades, perhaps even centuries? And frankly, things don’t seem to be getting better. And we continue to do this work for crappy wages in male dominated bureaucracies, or in the community sector for a pittance while we beg for resources from government and business.

Now before someone gets anti-princess or precious about free will and gender equity, and before someone makes the obvious point that girls can do bad things too, I am talking about the general meta-narrative that operates despite an environment of apparent social justice and legal equity. I am not saying that men are EVIL, just that there is a bizarrely unfortunate feedback loop between how we raise our boys to fill jails and political parties, the blundering murderous momentum of our economies, institutions and political structures, and the operations of power.

There is a lot of bad shit happening in the world that women have nothing to do with instigating.

Of course, my life is especially blessed with fellas who epitomize everything that is good and lovely in the world – my Dad, my Hubby, my Brother, the Cougarnaut, the Biggest Hippy and well, lots of others. So it isn’t ALL men, its just that where there are places in the world for evil, violence, genocide, hate, destruction, war or environmental suicide to operate, well, those places are invariably held by men.

So what is a girl to do? I am not really sure. I suspect it has something to do with growing veggies, pots of tea, and herding ducks.

Rant over.