Male domination is both visible and invisible. It is a form of systemic violence that shapes gender social relationships from which no one can escape. But let us first note that the acquisition and persistence of this particular psychic structure remains essentially unconscious. In the individual, it can be assimilated to his acquired vision of a certain order of things that appears to him to be relevant and legitimate. It is both a system and a social construct requiring a psychic structure that conditions us in order to reinforce and perpetuate it. Men themselves, as dominators, are prisoners of this domination. History incorporated, naturalized, and thus forgotten as such.
While the patriarchal vision of the social structure has its origins in the perception of the notion of family, it would be simplistic to limit it to the figure of the father. It is the projection of a structuring family ideal, and as a fantasy it therefore remains a form of neurosis.
The patriarchal vision of human relations now goes far beyond the question of gender.
Another characteristic of this particular vision is that it identifies everything that lies outside its order of things as the expression of a form of disorder that can only disturb the hoped-for social serenity; a disorder whose disappearance then becomes desirable.
Reactionary and even fascist reasoning has no other origin.
The patriarchal social vision cannot truly conceive of a horizontality of human relations since it remains fundamentally hierarchical, even if it sometimes tries to hide this characteristic. The family romance can only oppose the common good of an egalitarian society since the patriarchal construction is based above all on the confiscation of resources that will constitute the power and therefore the continuity of the family. In the name of the family, as with any identity, the most blatant and sordid selfishness will thus find its legitimacy; sometimes even at the expense of those members of the family who are reluctant to accept this order.
It is therefore no surprise to find the patriarchal mentality as one of the pillars of Capitalism and the Nation-State, which thus demonstrate their deep kinship.
The form of social alienation that characterizes the patriarchal mentality has deep roots that cannot be erased with a wave of the hand. Yet it is one of the major causes of the historical stasis in which we find ourselves. That is why it is essential not to stop at appearances where it is concerned; by not seeking, for example, to stupidly reduce it to a women/men opposition and a primitive feminism that will get us nowhere.
As Emma Goldman, a truly avant-garde feminist, once said, it is not enough to free ourselves from external domination; we must also pay attention to internal domination. And certainly, this internal domination has become comfortable.
Patriarchy persists and is maintained because our culture leads us to conform to it in the name of normality, and encourages us to actively consent to the relationships that are thus reiterated every day and all over the world. If patriarchy persists, it is because we can benefit from it psychologically and because, in a way, it reassures us.
Eradicating the patriarchal mentality from our minds, moving beyond it, undeniably requires courage and a profound change in our relationships of all kinds and in certain acquired reflexes of which we are still too little aware.
Yet it is an essential condition for being able to once again envisage a future that is not overwhelming. For with patriarchy, the relational approach to humanity, whose psychological model is the love of others and of life in general, is made impossible by the production and reproduction of hierarchical relations of domination and competition, and the forced search for the valorization of the value that sustains them. Murray Bookchin summed it up by stating that “[…] the essential ecological problems have their roots in the problems of society – problems that go back to the very origins of patricentric culture.”
This realization is of unexpected importance, because while patriarchy is indeed the keystone of the construction of pyramidal and warlike domination that gave birth to capitalism, it is also one of its weak points. Patriarchy thus represents a potential trigger for its collapse.
Resistance by oppressed women against dominant men could extend to a position of demanding recognition of all groups oppressed by binary divisions according to gender, race or class. Beyond the struggles, to resist is to raise a voice against the order of the powerful and their domination and exploitation. As communalism proposes, to resist is to engage, to take action that is likely to last and to be organized, accompanied by a culture that brings together and carries a movement capable of deploying real strength. A counter-force, driven and driven again until the establishment of an autonomous parallel society, rooted and established in the territories until the shift towards an emancipated society in all areas and responding to our daily needs, rich in mutual aid and strong bonds. This is our future.
Rebound:
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.