Community Marketplace Meetings > October 26, 2007
Riane Eisler Talk and Panel
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
First Unitarian Church
Article written for The Portland Alliance newspaper
Riane Eisler, speaking to a crowd of 400
"The time is now — in fact, the time was yesterday!" proclaimed Riane Eisler, to great applause from a packed auditorium at First Unitarian Church on Friday evening, October 26. She called for a "national and international public education campaign" to seize the opportunity for cultural transformation that is provided by our current state of disequilibrium. It is at such times of instability and disorder that great cultural transitions are possible, she observed.
Dr. Eisler's first widely acclaimed book, The Chalice and the Blade, began changing attitudes and lives almost three decades ago. That book drew attention to archaeological evidence about egalitarian, peaceful agricultural societies in southeastern Europe which existed before the maledominated, violence prone cultures that saturate our written histories of Western civilization. An audience member vividly portrayed the influence of this book when she declared, during the question period, "It turned me from an angry feminist into a hopeful feminist!"
The "chalice"and "blade" chosen by Eisler for the title to that book symbolize the power to give life and the power to take life. Eisler was invited to Portland because of the enthusiastic reception given here to her most recent book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. In this book and in her October talk, she invites us all to be leaders in the cultural transformation from our current socialeconomic system, based on domination through the power to take life, to a system based on partnership through sharing the power to give life.
Eisler told the audience of her childhood in Austria, then Cuba, where her family found refuge from the Nazis before coming to the United States. These experiences awakened her to the economic injustice of our current system, in which we are taught that money is the measure of value. We learn what is moral or immoral, normal or abnormal, through the primary human relationships of the family. Yet those caregiving relationships have no place in our economic system, which assigns economic value in terms of money and property.
As she explained, the "domination system" that has prevailed for the past five thousand years is organized as a hierarchy of power. It values physical strength and quantity of material possessions. It makes extensive use of war and military might, and it counts life destroying activities as contributions to productivity while regarding life supporting activities like childcare as having little or no economic value. This system also views the natural world as subject to human domination and endless exploitation.
Her new book, The Real Wealth of Nations, argues that real wealth is not financial. In an economics based on supply and demand, scarcity creates monetary value. The contributions of women caretakers are always abundant, for without them life could not go on; so are the contributions of the natural world. Thus these contributions are regarded as having little monetary value. Neither capitalism nor socialism has a good historical record when it comes to taking care of people and nature, although each has some qualities involving partnership.
Eisler told her audience, "Economics should be about making life better — in short, about caring. We need new economic indicators based on caring. One such indicator is the infant mortality rate. The US is 42nd in the world in infant mortality, behind Cuba and other countries!" Switzerland has calculated that its gross domestic product (GDP) would increase 70 per cent if the caring work of women were counted toward GDP. "In the US we think nothing of paying a plumber $50 to $90 an hour, yet the typical child care worker gets $10 an hour with no benefits," she exclaimed.
She discussed some of the facts from her book's chapter,"It Pays to Care." Companies that have the best policies of caring for their employees have higher profits. Nations that invest in their "human capital" are among the most competitive in international trade. As the status of women rises, men are less afraid to participate in caring activities. Stability increases when there is more economic and political democracy in the home and in the governing of the state.
During the past thirty years, Eisler said, "a lot of going backward has been happening." Regressive regimes have pushed women back into subservience, their " traditional position." The U.S. has experienced a resurgence of the "traditional family, authoritarian, male dominated, and punitive. And political regression has followed the return to this model," she said. "We need to reclaim the family, which has been highjacked. A progressive family agenda is important for the 2008 election. She observed that "in some countries it is unlawful to use physical discipline against children in families. Such discipline teaches that violence is OK, that it's normal, even moral."
In conclusion, she recognized her Portland audience as "very important leaders" in this public education campaign to change the conversation and reclaim the talk about what a healthy family really is. "We can't just protest," she urged. "We must have a clear idea of the foundation that is needed for a new partnership system. We have to change the foundation, or the domination system will just keep on rebuilding itself." Dr. Eisler's website is www.rianeeisler.com.
Dr. Eisler was introduced by Marcia Meyers, representing the Economic Justice Action Group of First Unitarian Church, which cosponsored the event with KBOO community-supported radio. Meyers made the audience aware that Dr. Eisler, before she became an internationally acclaimed author, had been a young public interest attorney in California writing briefs in support of the Equal Rights Amendment. A group of women led by Meyers laid the groundwork for the October event by initiating several book-study groups in the Portland area for reading and discussion of The Real Wealth of Nations and by identifying a large number of organizations already supporting an economics of caring and sharing in the Portland community. This group has established a website, www.realwealthpdx.com, where more information about these organizations can be found.
Four panelists joined Dr. Eisler to engage in further conversation with the audience
After her presentation, Dr. Eisler joined a panel of Portlanders representing four such organizations, and the five panelists then responded to questions from the audience. Judy Bennett served as moderator, introducing panelists Jennifer Allen, Associate Director, Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices at Portland State University; Alan Rosenblith, producer of "The Money Fix" and advocate of a local currency; Scott Nine, Executive Director at the Village Free School; and Leslie Pohl Kosbau, Portland Community Gardens.
These panelists spoke briefly about their work. Allen commented that the diversity of community issues requires finding ways to partner and address all the issues together. For example, the social impact of investment in development is being addressed in different ways by different groups. The sustainable development program offers the opportunity to learn how these groups can work together.
Rosenblith envisions a PDX currency — somewhat like Hood River Dollars — that can serve as an exchange medium to facilitate "matching unmet needs with unutilized resources. "This would be a currency "based on partnership not profit."
Nine described the experience-based approach of his school. "We learn like we breathe," he told us. The Village Free School tries to provide experience that enables children to absorb knowledge from their human and natural environment.
Kosbau said the Department of Parks and Recreation sponsors community gardens on lots as small as 50 by 100 feet. By working in such gardens, neighbors learn how to work out problems, children acquire an understanding of what the farmer goes through to produce their food, and everyone learns how to create places of beauty and productivity. There are now 30 of these gardens in the Portland area,"places where people want to stay and not to flee from."
A question about "limited means and unlimited wants" drew the comment from Dr. Eisler that such an outlook "comes straight from the domination mindset," in which we "substitute accumulation of material things for what we want but don't get "caring behavior from other people." This view reflects a"flawed definition of economics." We need to "change what is valued economically."
Concern about overpopulation led to the observation, "Women need to have other options than breeding," and they need access to family planning. The problem of hunger — locally, nationally, and internationally — led Allen to urge that we "think about food choices in terms of where it comes from, not just what it costs."
To the question, "How could we take money and put it into a caring economics?" Dr. Eisler cited the examples of Scandinavian countries and Chile, where caregivers in the home receive stipends. "We could also give a tax credit for household work, and if there's no tax due, the credit could be given as actual cash." Other suggestions included passing a good farm bill; investing in land, which is "often overlooked for what we can put on that land;" and remembering that "forests are not just for lumber."
In a discussion about sustainability, "green" buildings and good management of infrastructure came under comment. It was noted that "our economy is an extractive economy," and we should realize that the Northwest has a great deal of natural and human resources. Investing in caring and sharing — ¯not exploiting our natural and human resources — is the way to create real wealth.
Dr. Eisler was asked to suggest priorities for Portland. Noting that the "current economics creates scarcity," she recommended that"neighborhoods take responsibility "for their local community. Nine added his recommendation that citizens get to know their neighbors and that "folks with privilege look for ways to give up power" so that everyone's unique contribution to the common life can be received and appreciated.
At 9 o'clock, the two remaining questioners were invited to come up and talk with the panelists while most of the audience went downstairs to refreshments. Some twenty organizations were tabling around the reception room, with literature and spokespersons available for another hour of conversations.