All week my search for pertinent topics for this blog were side-tracked by the deaths of numerous luminaries: Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and even Billy Mays. We’ll miss you all.
Then, during lunch today, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reached out and grabbed me with this headline: “The End of Male Rule.” The reason that this headline was so moving to me stems back to the Saturday of the week-end before 911 when Dr. Wayne London, an old metaphysical theorist friend of mine told me that: 1.) The American financial system as we know it would collapse. 2.) The center of the U.S. Military would come under attack, as would 3.) the patriarchally-controlled Catholic Church. He then said, “All of this will happen as Mary Energy begins to lead toward the change, and women will take control of the world again.” He went on to explain that this woman control is not a new phenomena, just one that has not been around for quite some time.
Well, after the Twin Towers were hit, our own American citizens did much more damage than anyone could have ever imagined possible to our financial system by setting up the elaborate mortgage and derivative schemes that nearly caused the entire U.S. financial system to collapse.
Of course we all remember the horrible hit that the Pentagon endured on 911, and now we face the huge financial burdens of continuing two wars and trying to rebuild a completely exhausted military that has been over-stretched and nearly wiped out emotionally by the last several years of redeploying both our all-volunteer army and their equipment over and over again. When you begin to see more suicides than casualties of war, something is obviously very wrong with the System.
The Church went through what has come to be recognized minimally as a very difficult time with millions and millions of dollars in lawsuits and structural challenges over sexual abuse issues that had been closeted by numerous U.S. Bishops for years and years. The celibacy thing seemed to have been much more destructive for the men of the Church than the women.
So, what was Reihan’s interpretation of this metamorphosis, this change in traditional male dominance?
Before we go there, on NPR this evening, I heard about Chuck Saylors, the first male president of the National Parent Teacher’s Association since its inception in the late 1800’s, and it all started to make even more sense, a guy in a predominantly female organization deserving to become president because so many men have assumed more house dad roles.
Reihan’s article started with the line: “The era of male dominance is coming to an end. Seriously.” He went on to describe the fact that the Great Recession has turned what was a quiet evolution into a revolution…a mortal blow to the macho men’s club. He quotes the fact that 80% of job losses or over 7 million jobs have been lost by men in this recent massacre, and the predicted number of male jobs lost by the end of 2009 is estimated to be around 28 million worldwide. He adds to the fact that soon there will be three women for every two male college graduates in the U.S.
One of his most interesting revelations was that Iceland threw out the entire men’s club in their last election, as did Lithuania. Could this be the beginning of a trend?
Of course the article went into much more depth, had numerous other examples to support these claims, and was compelling in its support of Dr. London’s theme. The bottom line, however, is not easily denied. We macho, risk-taking, aggressive guys have done a lot of damage over the years, and it will be fun watching this predicted shift in the next decades.
I’ve always felt that a world run by women might have a little better chance of having less warfare. Let’s hope that the female leaders of our future will have the attributes that will make them better than the men that they are replacing, and the world will be a better place.