Okay, Wise Crone, I listened for a third time. This is your best so far, yet I always say this. Your writing, research, wit, wisdom, advocacy, storytelling is SO GOOD. I shared and made my comment there.
Fucking Charcot’s students and Sigmund Freud — how dumb do they think we are... They were so afraid of women, and not a lot has changed. To want and to fear what you want because you do not understand what it is because it is not yours to do anything with!
Love you Susan.
I had a thought, you can privately ask Nan for my email or phone number as I prefer not to leave it for public eyes. Still cleaning up scammers.
Thank you for this profound, necessary piece for peace.
Patriarchy is a poison. Sure. But I also tend to agree that women, and poor women particularly, were targeted (for burning at the stake) because they challenged particular patriarchal rights, especially the 'enclosures' - along with the myriad of 'genderised' exclusions that women suffered from as a result - from being midwives and healers onwards, and the (small) degree of financial independence that gave them.
Thanks Roy! So true. There’s a whole history of the enclosure of public lands and the rise of wage slavery, capitalism and witch trials. That’s the thesis is Sylvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch. More recently, Brian Murarescu argues that the trials were about controlling the two things the patriarchal system hated most: women and drugs, because women were cooking up a potent psychoactive Eucharist.
"And what we made in his name is an upside-down system, exactly opposite of what comes naturally - indigenously. That’s right. Patriarchal control is not natural. That’s why it takes violence to maintain it." Powerful essay, Susan. I look forward to reading more about the Hartford witch trials via your fiction.
I am part of this mission for sure !This is the very concept that has inspired my next edition of Broad Zeen Volume 3 Hysteria!!!
The history behind it and how it manifests in today's society. Loved reading through this because it shows me that the divine feminine really is wakening to bring about the change we need.
Ahhhh! Well met. The divine feminine is wakening. Stretching her arms and throwing the Liliputians off. That's the moment we are in. I hope we all live to see the outcome. Thanks for restacking and getting the word out. I'm looking forward to your volume on hysteria, and I've subscribed to you so I can read it when it does. Fight on, sister.
I walked beside you through this entire fierce, smart essay, thank you for writing it, for always giving such layered and important historical context to the patriarchal mythology. And to this, I say, as a novelist: YES! “Are all novelists just a wee bit obsessive, or is it just me?”
Thanks so much Amy! And I admit to being a wee bit rhetorical with that question. I love my obsessiveness sometimes. I think I’m part Boston terrier, part pit bull. Both terriers.
Oh my gosh, I am on a Tobacco diet with the plants, which means a diet. from media, but I will be back in a few more days to read this in cool and calm. I cannot wait.
What are you doing opening Substack, Missy? I can’t wait for your reaction. BTW. I’ve been trying to send you a DM about having a call. I can’t find you in Chat and I don’t have any DM from you. Let’s find a way to connect.
Susan, well of course I'm right with you here, violence is the trauma that won't stop giving. Passed down generationally, it seems self-perpetuating. I too question, have we reached enough recovery for us to meet that tipping point? I would love to return to the egalitarian ways and the matrilinear focus.
I'm hoping we do have enough. If not that, enough to prevail by degrees, though honestly, I'm a rip the bandage off kind of girl. Let's just do it, already. Enough unnecessary suffering.
I see a connection with suppression of creating art (whatever that means to the individual creator) on many levels. For one, if there is domination, whether external or internalized, it's impossible to achieve the state of flow needed to create your art/access intuition.
Exactly. That's brilliant. The arts are the perfect example of something that can't be trusted because it can't be controlled. Just as you can't control artists. I think it's why we don't fund the arts in school and insist only academics are valuable. There's no career path for the arts, and you are taking a tremendous risk if you pursue it. Then we inordinately celebrate people who persevere, but only if they become famous, because they are the exceptions. And you don't dare think you're exceptional, right? But what if we had some form of universal basic income, or received shareholder status, when massive corporations like Amazon get rich by using our infrastructure to ship their products?
Awesome piece! Speaking of patriarchy in modern times Read Emily Rapp Black’s “satirical” essay we just published on The W(hole) - it’s too real. And point taken patriarchy kills men - including my brother who just died at 67 - the cost of being a man. And thanks for the shoutout!
Of course, shout out. I couldn’t steal your phrase without a shoutout! Thanks for this. I’ll look up The W(hole). I think the next wave for feminism is to include men. I’m sorry your brother died too soon. Men are not doing well, and because I love them, my son especially, I want this to stop for them, too.
Thanks, Susan! Yes to the next wave. My husband’s onboard. And both men and women are robbed of authentic relationship by the patriarchy.. The W(hole) is my literary magazine a section on my substack where I publish other writers and I’d love a piece from you!
I didn't know that! Love the idea, though, and would like to contribute something. If we enroll men in their own salvation, we can dismantle our collective mental illness. If we blame them for it, we have to go another round. I think we are getting it this time.
I do think hysterical fear is the root of authoritarianism - the terror of death. But I also think that we are examining the consequences of that right now. I hope enough people can see the ways that fear is irrational and the ways it's being manipulated in order to stay in power. Agent Orange is a lot of things. Subtle is not one of them.
They know they are "terror mongering," yet it doesn't lessen their own terror one bit. Now, that's a paradox. The very men killing us would benefit if they stopped and just became willing to pay taxes and treat their workers as if they were actual human beings.
Reading this was like finding a trail when you're lost in the backcountry. You may not know where it leads, but you suddenly feel less panicked. Someone else has been this way and has found some sort of vantage point, meadow, place of respite that is worth traveling toward.
That’s the point succinctly. Gods, you can’t trust them. Or the people who claim to represent gods. Or worse still, the people who hear a god’s voice telling them what we all should do, and how he’s going to punish us all if we don’t.
I guess. If you have to explain why there’s evil in a world where your god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent- the 3 OMNIs. Or twist an answer to the question of why good things happen to bad people and the reverse. If god is all that.
Hence Loki and Eris. There is a passage in the Bible, not often preached, where God sends Lucifer to tell the priests of —I think it was Jehosophat?— That he should indeed attack his brother-in-law, the king of the other part of Israel, which caused him a great defeat. I forget which prophet said to the king, basically, “Fuck around and find out. “ but all the other priests said, rightly, that Gold told them to say it was all right and to go ahead. Note that Lucifer volunteered to go… not having yet fallen, apparently.
Free will is one of my most disliked theological arguments. It can't be God's fault; it's ours. God the Father? Please. He could step in, but he wouldn't dream of it. What mother lets her kids fight to the death and calls it free will? If you have to twist your mitre into a bunch to explain why evil exists when God is all three omnis, why he stands mutely by regardless of multitudes of victim-prayers, your god is not all-powerful. Nor is he a god of mercy or love. He is a ruthless god of war who isn't the only archetype in the human unconscious.
Make them watch Faux News? Info Wars? Now, I hear the Rump Admin. has stopped all childcare payments. Does that mean America is a deadbeat dad now, too?
The thing is we are NOT MAKING THEM WATCH. IT is a choice. But it is an easy choice to make as even the so-called middle-of-the-road media, (I'm looking at NPR) or "leftist" media is not doing a lot better.
Okay, Wise Crone, I listened for a third time. This is your best so far, yet I always say this. Your writing, research, wit, wisdom, advocacy, storytelling is SO GOOD. I shared and made my comment there.
Fucking Charcot’s students and Sigmund Freud — how dumb do they think we are... They were so afraid of women, and not a lot has changed. To want and to fear what you want because you do not understand what it is because it is not yours to do anything with!
Love you Susan.
I had a thought, you can privately ask Nan for my email or phone number as I prefer not to leave it for public eyes. Still cleaning up scammers.
Thank you for this profound, necessary piece for peace.
Great. Thanks for everything. I will get the phone and email from Nan. You’re right, of course, that they are terrified of women. With good reason.
Patriarchy is a poison. Sure. But I also tend to agree that women, and poor women particularly, were targeted (for burning at the stake) because they challenged particular patriarchal rights, especially the 'enclosures' - along with the myriad of 'genderised' exclusions that women suffered from as a result - from being midwives and healers onwards, and the (small) degree of financial independence that gave them.
Fortunately, there are so many we could publish a cookbook.
Thanks Roy! So true. There’s a whole history of the enclosure of public lands and the rise of wage slavery, capitalism and witch trials. That’s the thesis is Sylvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch. More recently, Brian Murarescu argues that the trials were about controlling the two things the patriarchal system hated most: women and drugs, because women were cooking up a potent psychoactive Eucharist.
And is the recipe for the 'psychoactive Eucharist in the public domain (yet)?
"And what we made in his name is an upside-down system, exactly opposite of what comes naturally - indigenously. That’s right. Patriarchal control is not natural. That’s why it takes violence to maintain it." Powerful essay, Susan. I look forward to reading more about the Hartford witch trials via your fiction.
Thanks Robin. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Really enjoyed reading this Susan.
I am part of this mission for sure !This is the very concept that has inspired my next edition of Broad Zeen Volume 3 Hysteria!!!
The history behind it and how it manifests in today's society. Loved reading through this because it shows me that the divine feminine really is wakening to bring about the change we need.
Ahhhh! Well met. The divine feminine is wakening. Stretching her arms and throwing the Liliputians off. That's the moment we are in. I hope we all live to see the outcome. Thanks for restacking and getting the word out. I'm looking forward to your volume on hysteria, and I've subscribed to you so I can read it when it does. Fight on, sister.
I walked beside you through this entire fierce, smart essay, thank you for writing it, for always giving such layered and important historical context to the patriarchal mythology. And to this, I say, as a novelist: YES! “Are all novelists just a wee bit obsessive, or is it just me?”
Thanks so much Amy! And I admit to being a wee bit rhetorical with that question. I love my obsessiveness sometimes. I think I’m part Boston terrier, part pit bull. Both terriers.
Oh my gosh, I am on a Tobacco diet with the plants, which means a diet. from media, but I will be back in a few more days to read this in cool and calm. I cannot wait.
What are you doing opening Substack, Missy? I can’t wait for your reaction. BTW. I’ve been trying to send you a DM about having a call. I can’t find you in Chat and I don’t have any DM from you. Let’s find a way to connect.
Susan, well of course I'm right with you here, violence is the trauma that won't stop giving. Passed down generationally, it seems self-perpetuating. I too question, have we reached enough recovery for us to meet that tipping point? I would love to return to the egalitarian ways and the matrilinear focus.
Laughing is soooo allowed.
I'm hoping we do have enough. If not that, enough to prevail by degrees, though honestly, I'm a rip the bandage off kind of girl. Let's just do it, already. Enough unnecessary suffering.
I’m laughing. And I do realize this is no laughing matter, but I love the rip off the bandage kind of girl. Me too! I feel it’s that time!
I see a connection with suppression of creating art (whatever that means to the individual creator) on many levels. For one, if there is domination, whether external or internalized, it's impossible to achieve the state of flow needed to create your art/access intuition.
Exactly. That's brilliant. The arts are the perfect example of something that can't be trusted because it can't be controlled. Just as you can't control artists. I think it's why we don't fund the arts in school and insist only academics are valuable. There's no career path for the arts, and you are taking a tremendous risk if you pursue it. Then we inordinately celebrate people who persevere, but only if they become famous, because they are the exceptions. And you don't dare think you're exceptional, right? But what if we had some form of universal basic income, or received shareholder status, when massive corporations like Amazon get rich by using our infrastructure to ship their products?
Awesome piece! Speaking of patriarchy in modern times Read Emily Rapp Black’s “satirical” essay we just published on The W(hole) - it’s too real. And point taken patriarchy kills men - including my brother who just died at 67 - the cost of being a man. And thanks for the shoutout!
Of course, shout out. I couldn’t steal your phrase without a shoutout! Thanks for this. I’ll look up The W(hole). I think the next wave for feminism is to include men. I’m sorry your brother died too soon. Men are not doing well, and because I love them, my son especially, I want this to stop for them, too.
Thanks, Susan! Yes to the next wave. My husband’s onboard. And both men and women are robbed of authentic relationship by the patriarchy.. The W(hole) is my literary magazine a section on my substack where I publish other writers and I’d love a piece from you!
https://open.substack.com/pub/thompsonk/p/introducing-the-whole-voices-on-addiction?r=1fhxt&utm_medium=ios
I didn't know that! Love the idea, though, and would like to contribute something. If we enroll men in their own salvation, we can dismantle our collective mental illness. If we blame them for it, we have to go another round. I think we are getting it this time.
Maybe!
makes me wonder... if fear itself is the root of authoritarianism... the need to feel like someone is in control, somewhere...
I do think hysterical fear is the root of authoritarianism - the terror of death. But I also think that we are examining the consequences of that right now. I hope enough people can see the ways that fear is irrational and the ways it's being manipulated in order to stay in power. Agent Orange is a lot of things. Subtle is not one of them.
if nothing else ao is an excellent mechanism for highlighting the absurdity of authoritarian terror mongering..
They know they are "terror mongering," yet it doesn't lessen their own terror one bit. Now, that's a paradox. The very men killing us would benefit if they stopped and just became willing to pay taxes and treat their workers as if they were actual human beings.
Reading this was like finding a trail when you're lost in the backcountry. You may not know where it leads, but you suddenly feel less panicked. Someone else has been this way and has found some sort of vantage point, meadow, place of respite that is worth traveling toward.
Thanks for this. I love the analogy. I hope we can all travel together on the path of saving ourselves. I think we are doing just that.
Susan, I'm saving this to read next week when I'm beyond final edits mode. Happy New Year to you!
Early congrat on finishing final edits mode! I always appreciate it that you take the time to tell me you are saving something to read later.
And now we know how to induce hysteria, mostly in people who do not have the given organ. It is tragic.
That’s the point succinctly. Gods, you can’t trust them. Or the people who claim to represent gods. Or worse still, the people who hear a god’s voice telling them what we all should do, and how he’s going to punish us all if we don’t.
I guess. If you have to explain why there’s evil in a world where your god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent- the 3 OMNIs. Or twist an answer to the question of why good things happen to bad people and the reverse. If god is all that.
Hence Loki and Eris. There is a passage in the Bible, not often preached, where God sends Lucifer to tell the priests of —I think it was Jehosophat?— That he should indeed attack his brother-in-law, the king of the other part of Israel, which caused him a great defeat. I forget which prophet said to the king, basically, “Fuck around and find out. “ but all the other priests said, rightly, that Gold told them to say it was all right and to go ahead. Note that Lucifer volunteered to go… not having yet fallen, apparently.
Gods, you can’t trust them.
True. So maybe we just need to make everyone stop lying.
Yeah. Another choice. Isn't evil possible because of Free Will?
Free will is one of my most disliked theological arguments. It can't be God's fault; it's ours. God the Father? Please. He could step in, but he wouldn't dream of it. What mother lets her kids fight to the death and calls it free will? If you have to twist your mitre into a bunch to explain why evil exists when God is all three omnis, why he stands mutely by regardless of multitudes of victim-prayers, your god is not all-powerful. Nor is he a god of mercy or love. He is a ruthless god of war who isn't the only archetype in the human unconscious.
Make them watch Faux News? Info Wars? Now, I hear the Rump Admin. has stopped all childcare payments. Does that mean America is a deadbeat dad now, too?
The thing is we are NOT MAKING THEM WATCH. IT is a choice. But it is an easy choice to make as even the so-called middle-of-the-road media, (I'm looking at NPR) or "leftist" media is not doing a lot better.