Reply #207: But I am troubled by one thing. Having at last had time to read...

[newswolf56]

...this whole astonishing thread -- I was obligated to do some "real" work today even as I was posting and responding -- I note there are a few posters who reject as absurd the notion that radical Islam and Dominionist Christianity are equally oppressive, and others who seem to think this entire marvelous discussion can be reduced to a recitation of "man bad/woman good" feminist dogmatism.

With all due respect, I would gently urge such critics to please read more thoughtfully and carefully.

Those who doubt the incipient violence of Dominionist Christianity -- which explicitly calls for the resumption (in modern America) of the Old Testament practices of witch-burning and the stoning-to-death of adulteresses and "abominations" (i.e., gays, lesbians and pagans) -- may go to any one of several links to discover the dread truth of these terrifying assertions. The most informative links are available by Googling "dominionist christianity"; diligent reading will reveal that it is no exaggeration whatsoever to compare our own homegrown Christofascists with the Taliban: the only difference is that we at present have a legal system in place that presumably protects us from such horrors. Once that system is overthrown -- and that is precisely the Dominionists' intent -- we would be no different from Talabanic Afghanistan or theocratic Iran, with women, sexual minorities and "heretics" savaged accordingly.

Moreover it is clear to me that the "bad" singled out on this wonderful thread is not maleness per se but patriarchy, maleness run amok -- a male supremacist ideology that, in its drive to escape what its religions describe as "sin" and its secular scientists call "human limitations" -- has ironically evolved into a doomsday machine. Semiotically speaking, patriarchy's ultimate symbols are thermonuclear weapons (the macrocosm) and the suicide bomber (the microcosm). The focus of this thread was not simply the depredations of the "bad" male but rather (1) how such depredations were elevated to cultural supremacy (chiefly via the triumphs of Yehevistic religion and its atheistic/mechanistic offspring) and (2) how the now-inherent tendency toward these depredations might best be counteracted -- the ultimate goal being the preservation of not merely the human species but the planetary ecosystem -- Mother Gaea. By analogy, this thread was thus akin to a discussion of German history (by Germans themselves) in which the lead questions were (1) how did Nazism succeed in what was then the most civilized (best educated, healthiest, most technologically advanced etc.) nation on the planet and (2) what might be done to prevent Nazism from ever happening again. Surely not a recitation of sloganisms -- "Germans bad/allies good" or "man bad/woman good" -- but instead precisely the sort of open-minded, open-hearted, receptive-spirit dialogue that may yet enable us to save ourselves. In my short time here, not only the very best of DU but a strong suggestion of precisely the infinite promise this site seems to offer: indeed I feel truly blessed to have been one of the participants. Thank you all so very much.