Unpublished letter submitted to the Toronto Star

Re; Stop threats of violence, Editorial, March 18, 2019.

Donald Trump is only symptomatic of a much deeper problem in modern society. His casual references to violence, white supremacy and his bombastic, dictatorial style reflect the values of patriarchy. It is a system of power in which men dominate and is characterized by violence, hierarchy and control. It is a male worldview. It has existed as a social culture for around five thousand years and has influenced our leadership styles, economic and religious practices, our cultural beliefs and geopolitics. It crosses economic, geographic, cultural and religious lines and affects everyone in the world. Under recent patriarchy white men are considered superior to other individuals or groups in society. Men are responsible for the vast majority of violence, economic and geopolitical problems in the world often driven by religious beliefs and yet as a society we will not face up to the fact that men are the real problem in the world and until we call them out nothing will change.  Patriarchy is the invisible problem that is destroying the world because we will not acknowledge it.

People of all faiths will continue to be slaughtered as they have for centuries and we will continue to react in horror because of these misguided racist and misogynist beliefs until we socialize patriarchy out of society. This means that society needs not only #MeToo and token western celebrity endorsements for women who have been sexually assaulted but deep-seated systemic change around the world for all women and in the very foundations of our social fabric. We need to start by socializing our young boys into gender neutral rather than macho, heroic roles and provide a balanced androgynous approach to gender identity from the time they are children throughout their lives. We also need to radically reform our predatory capitalist economic system, our male-dominated religious beliefs and our competitive education system in real ways that de-emphasize competition, hierarchy and adversarialism and promote collective harmony.

This is a stark demand and a tall order but without it we will not survive. Over the last two hundred years men, who occupy all the important leadership positions in the world have destroyed it in their pursuit of personal gain. They have lost all credibility to guide us into the future. We need new thinking and a new plan. The first step it to acknowledge the problem for what it is. If we do not change patriarchal thinking we are all doomed.