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Summer 1997
World order
SPIRITUALIZING POLITICAL AND SOCIAL DISCOURSE
EDITORIAL
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ERADICATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
MARZIEH RADPOUR AND MICHAEL L PENN
COLD WAR REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY
MANOOHER M OFIDI
COMING OUT OF THE ICE: A REVIEW OF RIANE EISLER’S SACRED PLEASURE
jANE]. RUSSELL
World 0rdcr
VOLUME 28, NUMBER 4
WORLD ORDER IS INTENDED TO STIMULATE‘ INSPIRE. AND SERVE THINKING PEOPLE IN THEIR SEARCH TO FIND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CONTEMPORARY LIFE AND CONTEMPO RARY RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY
Edllorlal Board:
FIRUI KAZEMZADEH
BETH .1. FISHER
HOWARD GAHEY
ROBERT H, STOCKMAN
JAMES D, STOKES
Consultant In Pastry:
HERBERT WOODWARD MARTIN
WORLD ORDER is published quarterly by the National Spiritual Assembly of (he Bahá’í‘s ofrhe United States, 536 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, IL 600914811. The views expressed herein are those of me authors and do not necessarily reflect (he opinions of the publisher, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, or of the Editorial Board. Send manuscripts and other editorial correspondence to WORLD ORDER, 4516 Randolph Road, ApL 99. Charlene, NC 28211.E-mail Worldorder@usbnc.org1Manuscripts can be typewritten or computer generated. They should be double spaced throughout, with the fnomorcs at the end and nor attached electronically (o the (EXK. The contributor should send five copies—an original and four legible copies—and should keep a copy. Return posrage should be included.
Subscription [R[ES: U.S.A., 1 year. 310,00; 2 years, $18.00; single copies, $100. All orhcr countries, 1 year, $15.00; 2 years, $28.00; single copies. $3.00. Airmail. 1 year, $20.00; 2 years, $38.00. Send address changes (0 and order subscriprions and back issues from WORLD ORDER Subscriber Service, 5397 \Vllbanks Drive, Charmnooga, TN 37343—404Z Telephone, 1-800-9999019; Email: subscriptions@usbnc‘org. WORLD ORDER is protected through trademark registration in the U51 Parenr Office. Copyright © 1997, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All Rights Reserved Printed in the USA. ISSN 0043-8804
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IN THIS ISSUE
Spiritualizing Political and Social Discourse Editorial
Interchange: Letters from and m the Editor
The Role of Religion in Eradicaring Child Sexual Abuse by Mamie}; Raa'paur and Mir/mel L. Pam
Cold War Reflecrions on Callective Security by Manaabn Mofldi
Coming Out of the Ice review of Riane Eisler's SmdP/(amr:
by jam]. Rum”
Inside Back Cover: Authms and Artists in This Issue
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Spiritualizing Political and Social Discourse
MODERN politics are Hobbesian or, if one prefers biology to philosophy, Darwinian in nature. Too many assume that humankind exists in a world of perpetual discord and antagonism, of war of all against all, where self—interest prevails, and altruism is merely a stratagem for besting one’s enemies and achieving one’s selfish goals. In such a world, power is the ultimate arbiter, compassion is a weakness, and trust a dangerous illusion. Politics, then, is a form of struggle for the acquisition and wielding of power for the advantage of an individual or a group rather than a disinterested activity for the proper ordering of society in the interests of all its component parts.
America’s founding fathers, influenced by Hobbes and the considerably milder Locke, as well as by their direct experience of despotism and revolution, sought to create a government in which a written constitution, separation of powers, and judicial review of legislative enactments would serve as protection against tyrannical exercise of power. Yet the founding fathers were no nihilists. They knew that the freedom and order they cherished could not exist without individual and public virtues inherited from religion. For them integrity, honor, service were no thetorical devices of demagogues but indispensable elements of the ethos of a body politic.
Two centuries later the values have frayed. In a climate of moral relativism the underlying moral assumptions are no longer held. Procedure has triumphed over substance in politics and in the administration of justice. Right and wrong, guilt and innocence, justice itself, no longer have inherent meaning but are only a formal outcome of an agreed upon process. Even democracy, regtettably linked to laissez faire economics, has become more a political fetish than a method of governance.
The political and social crisis of our age can neither be understood not remedied without acknowledging its spiritual dimension, 3 dimension that is all too frequently ignored or even completely denied by the intellectual establishment. Bahá’u’lláh’s warning that, “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine,” has not been heard:
No wonder, therefore [Shoghi Effendi comments], that when, as a
result of human perversity, the light of religion is quenched in men's
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hearts . . . a deplorable decline in the fortunes of humanity immediately sets in, bringing in its wake all the evils which a wayward soul
is capable of revealing. The perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and dissolution of human
institutions, reveal themselves, under such circumstances, in their
worst and most revolting aspects. Human character is debased, confidence
is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the voice of human
conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured,
conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted,
and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually
extinguished.
Is it not time, before humanity creates a “state of nature" worse than
ever imagined by a Hobbes, to infuse into modem political and social discourse s iritual rinci les that would make it ossible to "can- for P P P Y ward an ever—advancmg cwtlization’?
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WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
Interchange LETTERS FROM AND TO THE EDITOR
THROUGH this issue of Wzrld Order runs the thread of the imperative need for spiritualizing our lives, our conduct, our institutions to achieve what the founding fathers of our country hoped for and what the dreamers of all ages and cultures have anticipated—the promise of peace at every level of our lives.
The theme is first sounded in the editorial with its call for a return to individual and public Virtues inherited from religion—virtues essential to carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization.
At first glance Manooher Mofidi's “Cold War Reflections on Collective Security” seems an unlikely place to find the theme of the spiritual amplified. To be sure, the article does outline the United Nation’s very limited use of collective security before the Cold War, the high expectations for its expanded use after the Cold War, and the dashed hopes that have settled in the 19905 on the mechanism meant for resolving international conflicts. But beyond the definitions of collective security, the complexities surrounding it, the issues of public safety and of the rights and obligations of states, and, not least, the hope for the seemingly unattainable international peace, there is more.
That more is a religion that has the principle of collective security embedded in its sacred writings. This principle of collective security, Mr. Mofidi says, is not a “secular/political vision” but a “radicalized/spiritualized one.” It is undergirded by the concept of the oneness of humanity and is based on justice, equity, and individual dignity Its catalyst is concern for the broader collective conscience of
humankind, which expands to include issues of human dignity and human rights. We leave it to Mr. Mofidi to explain how he feels humanity can bridge the gulf between what is and what ought to be.
Perhaps the most profound and certainly the most heart—stopping and gut—wrenching call for infusing the spiritual into an issue can be found in two very different discussions of aspects of the equality of women and men.
Marzieh Radpour’s and Michael L. Penn’s “The Role of Religion in Eradicating Child Sexual Abuse” makes an important contribution to discourse on the definition of child abuse, on which psychologists have only recently begun a conversation, anl on the imperative for including a comprehensive developmental perspective in the definition. The essay provides a survey of the growing worldwide extent of the problem, but lest one think of recent television news magazine coverage on the problem and start to dismiss the issue as having already been reported, one must understand that Judith Herman’s Timmy: and Recovery, cited by the authors, was the first book to challenge much of the thinking that has kept discussion of child abuse prevention and treatment from taking place earlier. It was published in 1992.
Ms. Radpour’s and Dr. Penn’s article is exceptional in that it is not polemical. It does not attack men, nor 'does it portray women as victims. Rather the article explores the complexities of abuse and the importance of applying spiritual principles to this grave social ill. Moreover, the article calls for socieml and individual accountability. It is not only the abuser of children who needs to realize that one has a role to play in the eradication of
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INTERCHANGE
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the inequality of the sexes, for sexual abuse is, among other things, a manifestation of that inequality.
Jane J. Russell’s review of Riane Eislet's Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and t/72 Politic: of the Body continues the theme of the need for a spiritual perspective—this time to expand humanity’s understanding of its recorded history and its archeological prehistory “free of male—dominant and dissonance—teducing axioms.” The main review is of Eisler’s 1995 Sacred Pleasure, but Russell precedes it with a review of Eisier’s 1987 The C/mlite and the Blade, which lays the foundation for the more recent book. Chalice comes from the literature produced in the Second Wave of Feminism—specifically literature thatinvestigated the subjugation of women throughout history and tried to make sense of it In Chalice, Ms. Russell says, Eisler popularizes a series of archeological studies begun in the 19705 that deal with the origins and development of Western Civilization with focus on how male dominance came to be incorporated in the structure of society. Russell has much to say about the conceptual and methodological shortcomings of the methods Eisler usesmethods that poiarize some issues, fail to report some others fully, and fail to see that religion provides a way out of the incompletely recorded, reported, and interpreted history of the past. But Russell also has much to say about what needs further study from a non-male—biased point of view.
As a means for evaluating both of Eisler's books Russell posits out three half-truths that inform discussion in our present age of transition (Men have always dominated women; therefore, domination is inevitable. Male domination is natural and hence unchange able. Men protect women from physical danger; hence women must be subordinate), showing both the elements of truth and the illogical and damaging deductions. As a further means for evaluating Eisler’s books Russell also engages the issues of women‘s rage and men’s guilt and the part they play in resolving the equality of women and men.
In the brash, thought—provoking, pageturning prose we have come to expect from Ms. Russell, she goes on in her review of Sacred Plum” to examine Eisler’s theory of cultural transformation in human sexuality. The book, Russell says, has the same conceptual and methodological shortcomings found in The Chalice and theBlaa’eperhaps even more.
In the end Russell shows how both of Eisler’s books raise important issues related to power, sexuality, and public safety and how both books suffer from methodology that is not clearly thought out. Yet one must read Eisler’s books, Russell says, because, despite their limitations, they show how erroneous ideas about male supremacy distort history and human sexuality, they begin to write women into history, and they point the way for areas of research that need to be revisited, giving equal attention to men and women. As in the editorial and in Mr. Mofidi’s discussion of collective security, religion and an understanding of the spiritual in carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization is an overlooked dynamic essential to solving the equality of women and men. Even more, according to the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, world peace is not attainable until women are accorded equality.
The Role of Religion in Eradicating Child Sexual Abuse
BY MAZIEH RADPOUR AND MICHAEL L. PENN
N The Hidden \Wmis, a set of spiritual aphorisms written by Bahá’u’lláh, the
Founder of the Bahi’l Faith, He promises: “O Children of Fancy! Know, verily, that while the radiant dawn bteaketh above the horizon of eternal holiness, the satanic secrets and deeds done in the gloom of night shall be laid bare and manifest before the peoples of the world.”1 In the 150 years since these words were written a plethora of studies have uncovered the ubiquity and severity of child sexual abuse. On almost a daily basis one is inundated with hideous stories depicting the abuse and neglect of children. And yet, although the awareness of the problem of child sexual abuse is increasing throughout the world, the rates of abuse appear to be increasing as well, which has motivated many to seek a better understanding of the nature of the problem and to undertake a serious investigation of the various factors that lead to its perpetuation. Researchers and scholars from a wide range of backgrounds have suggested solutions to the problem that are primarily legal or psychosocial in nature, the assumption being that, when the structure of society changes, problems such as child sexual abuse will disappear. But such interventions can only be minimally effective if they do not address the spiritual nature of the individual and if they do not give credit to the power of religion and the role that religion has played in the historical transformation of both individuals and communities.
Child Sexual Abuse: A Global Epidemic LEST the issue of child sexual abuse be treated lightly, it is important to underscore its worldwide extent. It is a global epidemic, and of the abuses suEeted by children few destroy more lives than do incest and sexual exploitation. A recent study found that 29 percent of all tapes occur among victims who are younger than eleven years old and that 52 percent are perpetrated against
Copyright © 1997 by Manieh Radpout and Michael L. Penn. The portion of the article written by Dr. Penn will appear in his forthcoming book entitled Dmmm‘on of the 72mph, which will be published by Rowman 8c Littlefield later this year.
1. Bahá’u’lláh, 7h HW Words trans. Shoghi Effendi (Wilmette, 111.: BahA’I Publishing Trust, 1939) Persian. No. 67
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WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
youths between the ages of eleven and seventeen. The overwhelming majority of these children, the vast number of whom are young girls, are not victimized by strangers but by fathers, stepfathers, brothers, uncles and other close relatives.2
Isabel M. Rosas, a social science researcher, in a study conducted in the Maternity Hospital of Lima, Peru, found that 90 percent of the mothers aged twelve to sixteen had been raped and that most had been raped by close relatives.3 Other studies show similar rates of abuse. In an island—wide sampling of women in the Barbados, 33 percent reported having been sexually abused in childhood or adolescence.‘ Similarly, S. M. Allen, another researcher, in a Jamaican study, found that 4 percent of the 450 thirteen— and fourteen-year-old girls reported having been raped by persons they knew.5 These data are in line with findings from other regions of the world.6
The psychosocial consequences of the sexual exploitation of children are vast, severely affecting thought, behavior, and relationships throughout childhood and continuing to have effect into adulthood. Some well-known consequences include pathological disruption in patterns of trust and attachment, self—mutilation, low self-esteem, eating disorders, preoccupation with suicide, multiple—personaiity disorder, increased vulnerability to tape and future abuse, anxiety attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, dissociation, borderline personality disorder, drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, school failure, and depression.7
Recent studies indicate that rates of abuse are continuing to increase. UNICEF, for example, reports that the exploitation of children through pornography and prostitution is “a global growth industry,” fueled by galling poverty, greed, and a callous demand for cheap sex. It reports that
It is destroying the lives of millions of girls and boys in rich and poor
nations alike, and much too little is being done nationally and internation ally to check it. In some countries, children as young as seven years of age
2. National Victim Center and the Crime Vietims Research and Treatment Center, Rape in AmerimuiRtpart 10 IhtNan'im (Arlington, Virginia: The Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, 1992)
3. Isabel M. Rosas, Vialma‘a irxualypalitim criminal, CLADEMInfin-mafivo 6 (1992).
4. Penn Handwetker, “Gender Power Differences between Parenu and High Risk Sexual Behavior by Their Children: AIDS/STD Risk FICIOL'S Extend to 3 Prior Generation,” journal 0/ Women? Httzlth 2 (1993): 301.
5. S‘ M. Allen. “Adolescent Pregnancy among 11 to 15 Year Old Gills in the Parish of Manchester," diss. U of West Indies, 1982.
6. See M. P. Kass, L. Heise, and N. E Russo. “The Global Health Burden of Rape,” Pmbalagy afWamnz Quarterly 18 (1994): 509—37 For studies conducred in the United States, see Judith L. Herman, Father—Daughttr Inmr (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1981) and Diane Russell, “The Incidence and Prevalence of Intrafamilial and Extrafamilial Sexual Abuse of Female Children,” CbildAbmt andNegIa-t 7 (1983): 133—46.
7. See Richard Kluft, [nmr—Relaml Syndrome: Of Adult flythopnt/mlogy, ed. R. P. Kluft (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1990).
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THE ROLE OF RELIGION 1N ERADICATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
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are bought and sold by adults who might be their parents, their guardians, their teachers or even agents for institutions masquerading as charitable organizations. Physically and emotionally enslaved, the children are then {efnted out and abused by men, and sometimes women, from all walks of i e.‘1 Although the ubiquity of childhood sexual abuse has only recently come to the attention of development workers and health officials throughout the world, Sigmund Freud, architect of psychoanalysis, first drew attention to the widespread nature of the problem nearly a century ago. After psychiatric examination of many emotionally disturbed Viennese women, Freud concluded that many were suffering from a sexual neurosis brought on by repeated sexual assault, abuse, and incest. As early as 1896 Freud published his findings in a report entitled The Aetialogy Of Hysteria, in which he wrote: “I therefore put forward the thesis that at the bottom of every case of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature sexual experience, occurrences which belong to the earliest years of childhood, but which can be reproduced through the work of psychoanalysis in spite of the intervening decades. I believe that this is an important finding, the discovery of a mputNili in neuropathology.”9 However, the implication that child sexual abuse was a pervasive social problem proved to be difficult for Freud’s contemporaries and later even for Freud himself. Consequently, Freud reluctantly repudiated the traumatic theory of the origins of hysteria. Judith Herman, one of the foremost authorities on trauma-telated neuroses, observed that Freud’s correspondence makes clear that he was increasingly troubled by the radical social implications of this hypothesis. Hysteria was so common among women that if his patients’ stories were true, and if his theory were correct, he would be forced to conclude that what he called “perverted acts against children” were endemic, not only among the proletariat of Paris, where he had first studied hysteria, but also among the respectable bourgeois families of Wenna. . . . This idea was simply unacceptable. It was beyond credibilkyle Despite Freud’s retreat, recent data validate the widespread, cross—cultural problem of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation."
8, UNICEF, Convention on 1}): Right: of the Child: Sexual quloimtian (New York: United Nations Centre for Human Rights, 1992) l.
9. Sigmund Freud, “The Aetiology of Hysteria,” (1892) in The Completel’qthnlagimlWor/zi af SigmundFm‘d, trans. J. Sttachey, vol. 3 (London: Hogarth Press. 1962) 203.
10. Judidi Herman, Trauma and Retailer]: Tb: Afimatl/ af Wakrmfmm Dammit Abwt to Political Terror (New York: Basic Books, 1992) 13—14.
111 See Ann W. Burgess, cd., Rape and Sexual AmzulnA Rexemfi Handbook (New York: Garland, 1985); D. E. H. Russell, Some! Etplaimxian (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1984); Herman, Fathn—Daugbm (mm; World Health Organizadon/UN High Commission for Refugees, Fowl: R(filgtt Victim: of Sexual Walma: Rape Fauna and itx Impact 4m anlemmt (Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 1990).
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As child sexual abuse has become acknowledged as a problem of epidemic proportions, considerable attention has been given to how and why an adult could abuse a child. Lay persons have attempted to explain the pathology by invoking the image of “the dirty old man.” Experts have attempted to explain it by invoking various types of psychopathology. However, as has been noted more recently by feminist theorists, given the widespread nature of childhood sexual abuse, it is unreasonable to assume that most child abusers are particularly unusual human beings who ate sufleting from one or another diseased state.lz
An alternative hypothesis is that deeply entrenched psychosocial values and cultural practices contribute to the likelihood that a considerable number of men all over the world are prone to abuse children sexually. Indeed, as has been noted by Linda Gordon, author of Heroes qf T/m'r Own Live:: The Politics and Hittary of Family Violence, in focusing almost exclusively on the “perversion” of the culprits, child—protection and development agencies have avoided confronting social patterns that promote men’s sexual exploitation of childrent13
Factor: Contributing to Child Sexual Abuse
IF PROGRESS is to be made toward eradicating the global epidemic of child sexual abuse, insights must be acquired into the sociocultural factors that contribute to child sexual victimization. Three rarely discussed cultural factors that may contribute to such trends include sexual inequality in child-reating practices, a tendency of males to discount the pernicious effects of childhood sexual abuse, and some men’s neglect of the spiritual challenge of self-mastery. Sexual Inequality in Child—Rtan’ng Practices. Many researchers have suggested that childhood sexual abuse may be determined in part by the role the father plays in the family. Several studies have shown that sexual abuse of children is more likely to be perpetrated by men than women. In addition, abuse is more likely to be inflicted by males who feel little responsibility for the welfare of the abused child or children." Linda Gordon, a social historian, refers to such males as “social fathers" and has found that they are often in transient relationships with mothers and have only casual contact with their
12. See, for example, Herman, Fat/m—Daug/mr 1mm.
13. Linda Gordon, Heme; of Their Own Lines: 77): Politic: and Hittmy of Funny Viable: (Camden Town, London: Virago Press, Camden Town: 1989) 211—12).
14. See A. Browne and D. Finkelhot, “Impact of Child Sexual Abuse: A Review of the Research,” nyc/mlagimlBulletin 99 (1986): 66—77: M. A. Karpel, “Family Secrets. 1. Conceptual and Ethical Issues in the Relational Context. 2. Ethical and Practical Considerations in Therapeutic Management,” Famibv Prama- 19 (1980): 295—306; R. C. Terr, “Forbidden Games,” Jaurrml of flu American Academy of Child Psychiatry 20 (1981): 741—60; and Gordon, Hm Bf Their Own Lim- 211.
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ERADICATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
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children. As a result such men are less likely to have internalized a consciousness of the child's welfare."
Gordon’s research revealed that, while fathers living with their children might be expected to have more opportunity for an illicit sexual relationship, in fact incestuous fathers were less likely to live with their children than other types of abusive fathers. The best explanation for her findings, she suggested, “is that fathers living with their children had more responsibilities for and intimacy with the children than absent fathers.” If there is an “incest taboo," she continued, "that taboo grows from nurturant attitudes toward children, constructed through internalizing a conception of the child's interest as distinct from the adult interest.“ Gordon's perspective is supported by other studies that show that fathers in reconstituted families are more likely to abuse their stepchildren sexually and that such abuse is more likely to be severe.17
Thus it would appear that the greater involvement men have in nurturing children, the less likely they are to abuse those children. In most cultures women bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for the care of children. Many of the untoward consequences of such disparity in child rearing have been well—documented.“ One may well have to add to this list the specter of child sexual abuse.
Of course, a failure to nurture children is neither a necessary or sufficient cause of incest or sexual abuse. But it is important to note the bonding power inherent in sewing the developmental needs of others. While many men throughout the world have been able to establish intimate relationships with their children, numerous others have been described as “technically present but functionally absent" from the lives of their children.19 In the West, where rates of child sexual abuse are comparatively high, both men and women have become acutely aware of men’s alienation and disconnection from some of the more intimate aspects of family life. For example, on average, fathers spend a minimal amount of time during the week talking to or playing with their children.” For many men this is not enough time to build true bonds of affection and intimacy. Furthermore, within a cultural milieu that associates male expressions of intimacy primarily with eroticism, many males may have
15. Gordon, Heme: of Their Own Live: 212.
16. Gordon, Heme: of Their Own Lives 211—12.
12 D. Russell, “The Prevalence and Seriousness of Incestuous Abuse by Stepfathers Versus Biological Fathers,” ChiHAbwe Andthlertfl (1984): 15—22.
18. SeeJohn Richardson, AthieuingGmderEqualigr: TileRale anaIn:Summarleporr oftlr: lmmmm' Global Seminar (Florence, July: UNICEF International Child Development Centre, 1995).
19. Ralph I:Rossa, “Fatherhood and Social Change,n in Michael Kimmel and Michael Mcssner, eds. Mm} Live: (New York: Macmillan, 1992) 533, quotcd in Hoda Mahmoudi, “The Role of Men in Establishing the Equality of Women,” WWIdora'er. 26.3 (Spring 1995): 37—38.
20. Richardson, Athieuing Gender Equality.
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relatively few skills in relating to any females—including their own children.in nonsexual ways. Since the capacity for intimate relationships that are not exploitative is achieved through sustained, nurturing relationships, some men’s failure to develop such relationships within the matrix of the family may well contribute to a proclivity to seek closeness through sexual contact. Discounting the Damage Caused by Childhood Sexual Abuse. In addition to sexual inequality in childtearing practices, many have speculated that men’s discounting of the damage caused by sexual abuse does, indeed, contribute to the problem. In many societies men are taught to think of sex as the ultimate source of personal pleasure. Also, as studies have shown, many males hold erroneous beliefs about rape and sexual abuse that are easily translated into sexual assault and exploitation.2| For example, numerous studies have shown that males from a wide range of cultural backgrounds often believe that victims secretly enjoy being raped.22 In the United States evidence of the cultural discounting of the effects of sexual assault can be seen in the appallingly small number of convictions in cases of tape and sexual abuse. Throughout the judicial process people in positions of power such as legislators, attorneys, police officers, and jurors often discount the damage done to victims and even blame the victims for their alleged conscious or unconscious encouragement of the assault. Such misconceptions serve not only to disinhibit but to reduce awareness of the actual harm inflicted upon victims. Moreover, they account for the lack of justice in adjudicating sexual assault; it is estimated that only 1 percent of rape cases result in conviction and that the average time served in a United States prison for the crime of tape is twenty—nine months.23 Furthermore, a lack of understanding of the broad effects of sexual abuse can be seen in the perception that harm is limited to that which can be registered by the senses. 1f the abuser does not “see” that he is hurting othersif the abused do not show bruises or wounds or broken bones—abusets may find easy refuge in the belief that no real harm has been done. For several reasons this is particularly true for sexual abuse of children. First, sexually abused children are generally far too confused about their experiences to complain about them or to manifest outward signs of distress.“ Distress is thus often masked. Second, for a variety of reasons, sexually abused children often show unusual allegiance to and identification with the abuser.25 Abusers are
21. See, for example, M. L. Blumbetg and D. Lcsrer, “High School and College Students' Attitudes Towards Rape,” Adolmmtz 26 (1991): 727—29.
22. P. L. N. Dona: and J. D'Emilio, “A Feminist Redcfinition of Rape and Sexual Assault: Historical Foundations and Change," laumal Of Social Imm- 48 (1992): 9—22.
23. See Donald Meichenbaum, A Cliniml Handbank/l’maiml Thmtpitr Marmalfiw Anesting and Treating Adult: with Past—Tmumntic Syndmme (Canada: Institute Press, 1994) 71. 24. See Gordon, Heroes of Their Own Lima 25. Sec 1. L. Herman, Trauma anthmuny:
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ERADICATING CHILD SFXUAL ABUSE
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thus further supported in the belief that their actions have not been harmful. Third, through a variety of media including films, books, and music, men are conditioned to equate all kinds of sexual activity, including sexual violence, with pleasure rather than pain.“ Thus, even when actual violence is used, that violence is easily integrated into the abuser’s schema for pleasure. In the light of these realities, much more needs to be done by governments, local health officials, and community activists to familiarize men with the devastating effects of sexual exploitation on the lives and development of children.
One effect of sexual exploitation that is often overlooked is the profound injury to the spirit that results from being victimized by an adult whom the child has loved and trusted. Patricia Williams, a researcher from the Columbia Law School, suggests that spirit injury results from “disregard for others whose lives qualitatively depend on our regard.” It leads, she suggests, to the slow death of the psyche, the soul, and the identity of the individual.27 This concept is particularly applicable to sexually abused children and accounts for the gross distortion of the child’s psyche. Such injuries play out in children’s having difficulty in establishing trusting, loving relationships with themselves or others; mutilating themselves or allowing others to abuse them; and escaping mentally through dissociation.
A myriad of studies have found, with rare exceptions, that women and girls are not likely to rape or molest male children. An alarming number of men, however, from a wide range of cultural, economic, and ethnic backgrounds are apt to abuse their own children sexually, as well as the children of friends, family members, and strangers. There is, therefore, a critical need for men all over the world to confront honestly the challenge of self’mastery and to make such a goal a priority that at least equals the endeavor to master the environment.
Thtoughout history, in many countries around the world, young men have been taught that force is an acceptable and often necessary means of effecting one’s desires and achieving one’s goal. It is these qualities that have allowed many men to develop a level of control and even mastery over their environment. However, they have focused on developing a sense of mastery over their environment to the exclusion of mastery of self, limiting and prohibiting themselves from reaching their full potential. Men’s difficulties with selfmastery in relation to violent tendencies, sexual desires, and the like have resulted in their being the perpetrators of violence against women and children. Solutions to these problems of self—mastery may be found in lessons
26. K. Lanis and K. Covell, “Images of Women in Advertisements: Effects on Attitudes Related to Sexual Aggression," SexRa/e: 32 (1995): 639—50
27. Patricia Williams, “Spirit-Murdeting the Messenger: The Discourse of Fingerpointing as the law’s Response to Racism,” Univmig/ aniami LaanIiewéZ (1987): 151i
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concerning impulse control, proper expressions of anger and desire, and issues related to self—esteem and the nobility of self, all of which have important spiritual foundations.
Religion am! SelfManery CULTIVATION of the capacities necessary for achieving self—mastety have long been a central concern of the world’s religions. Indeed, for the past several thousand years religions have provided the most illumined discourse on the process of self-mastery. Most of them have linked the well-being of individuals and societies with the control, and/or proper expression, of desire. Islam encourages the followers of Muhammad to engage in Jihad, ot “holy war." While Jihad is frequently invoked to justify acts of terrorism and violence, the Jihad spoken of in the Qur’fin is concerned principally with the holy war to conquer one's self. One who engages in Jihad seeks to overcome his lower nature and to achieve a state of purity and self—mastery.
A fundamental assumption of religion is that it is impossible for human beings to attain self—mastery without spiritual perspective and assistance. This principle can be found in all of the world’s major religions. Hinduism teaches that, when humanity falls into moral decay, one of God’s human incarnations is sent to foster human upliftment and growth:
When goodness grows weak, when evil increases,
I make myself a body. In every age I come back
To deliver the holy, To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish the righteous.“ Centuries after the birth of Hinduism, the Buddha arose as another “incarnation of the Good” and revealed the “Eightfold Path” whereby His followers might be liberated from inordinate desire and attain enlightenment. Those who followed the teachings of the Buddha were recognized for their compassion, wisdom, knowledge, and trustworthiness. With such attributes of mind and heart they brought into being a new, mote enlightened culture and civilimtion}9 Likewise in a wide range of the scriptures of the world religions, including Judaism, Zoroastrianjsm, Christianity, the Bábf Faith, and the Bahá’í Faith, one finds restraints that render human beings free.
Given the civilizing influence of religion over character development, it would be no exaggeration to affirm that the spiritual training of humankind is as indispensable to the prevention of abuse and exploitation as are legal measures. Such a realization led the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá’í Faith, to write that no serious attempt to set human affairs atight can ignore religion: “That the perversion
28. Bbagamd—Gua, trans. Swami Pmbhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (New York: Harper, 1944-51) 60. 29. See Arnold Toynbee, A Smdy ainsmy (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1934).
"i
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THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ERADICATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
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of this faculty has contributed to much of the confusion in society and the conflicts in and between individuals can hardly be denied.” But no “fairminded observer,” the Universal House of Justice notes, can “discount the preponderating influence exerted by religion on the vital expressions of civilization. Furthermore, its indispensability to social order has repeatedly been demonstrated by its direct effect on laws and morality.”30 So essential is religion, Bahá’u’lláh writes, that, “Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.”31 The Bahá’í writings also say that The perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such circumstance, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human character is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured, conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished.32 Social historians and theologians have explored the transformative influence of religion on both individuals and societies. Historically, religion has provided the impetus for individual transformation and societal change on at least three levels. First, religion has provided the power of the written “word,” or documented teachings and ordinances, that initially shape the values and behavior of individuals. Later these teachings give rise to a distinct community of believers as well as to new institutions that together provide a transformative space for the renewal of virtues and the articulation of new, more enlightened modes of life. In the West where masses have embraced the teachings of both Moses and Christ many of the principles and laws first proclaimed by them have been incorporated into legal, political, and philanthropic systems. Likewise, in the Middle East, where Islam prevails, governments and judicial systems have derived their modus operandi from study and application of Quranic laws and values. Since laws provide an indispensable shelter for the protection of citizens from arbitrary abuse, it is unarguable that the world’s religions have been vital to the protection and promotion of human honor and dignity. Second, the religions of the world, perhaps more than any other institution, are responsible for directing humanity’s attention to the acquisition of moral
30. The Universal House of Justice, 77): I’mmise of Warldl’ma: To The People: of the World (Wilmette, Il.l.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985) 17—18.
3!. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablet: nfBa/nt 'u‘lUIr revealed afltr fitmwb—i—Aqa’ax, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice. trans. Habib Taherzadeh et aL, lst ps ed. (Wilmette, 11L: Bah“ Publishing Trust, 1988) 125.
32. Shoghi Wendi, The World Order afBahd‘u’lld/J: Selected 11mm new ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bah“ Publishing TruSt, 1991) 187.
16 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
and spiritual qualities: “The purpose of the one true God in manifesting Himself,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, “is to summon all mankind to truthfulness and sincerity, to piety and trustworthiness, to resignation and submissiveness to the Will of God, to forbearance and kindliness, to uprightness and wisdom. His object is to array every man with the mantle of a saintly character, and to adorn him with the ornament of holy and goodly deeds.”33
In His commentary on the revitalization of human civilization, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son and His appointed interpreter, notes that to oppose one’s passions “is the very foundation of every laudable human quality.” It is, He continues:
the impregnable basis of all the spiritual attributes of human beings . . .
the balance wheel of all behavior, the means of keeping all men’s good
qualities in equilibrium.
For desire is a flame that has reduced to ashes uncounted lifetime harvests of the learned, a devouring fire that even the vast sea of their accumulated knowledge could never quench. How often has it happened that an individual who was graced with every attribute of humanity and wore the jewel of ttue understanding, nevertheless followed after his passions until excellent qualities passed beyond moderation and he was forced into excess. His pure intentions changed to evil ones, his attributes were no longer put to uses worthy of them, and the power of his desires turned him . . . into ways that were dangerous and dark.“
Elsewhere ‘Abdu’l-Bahá points out that, while laws may prevent the commission of discoverable offenses, only religion has the power to train human character to prevent the commission of immoral deeds done in secret:
for in the world of mankind there are two safeguards that protect man from
wrongdoing. One is the law which punishes the criminal; but the law
prevents only the manifest crime and not the concealed sin; whereas the ideal safeguard, namely, the religion of God, prevents both the manifest and the concealed crime, trains man, educates morals, compels adoption of virtues and is the all-inclusive power which guarantees the felicity of the world of mankind.”35 Inasmuch as religion provides a potent mans for spiritual development, and since a basic result of enlightenment is self-mastery and self-restraint, the cultivation of spirituality is an indispensable component of the humanizing ' process. Again, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes,
33. Bahá’u’lláh, Cleaning: from 2/): Writing: of Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, lst ps ed‘ (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í’l Publishing Trust. 1983) 299.
34. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Secret afDim'm Civilization, trans. Martieh Gail in consultation widl Ali—Kuli lfltan, lst ps ed. (Wilmette, 111.: Bath!” Publishing Trust, 1990) 59—60.
35. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Seltm'am from the Writing: of Hbdu'l—Ba/Jd, comp. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, trans. Committee at the Bath“ World Centre and Manich Gail (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1997) 302-03.
THE ROLE OF RELIGION [N ERADICATING CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
17
It is incumbent upon human society to expend all of its forces on the education of the people, and to copiously water men’s hearts with the sacred streams that pour down from the Realm of the All—Merciful, and to teach them the manners of Heaven and spiritual ways of life, until every member of the community of man will be schooled, refined, and exalted to such a degree of perfection that the very committing of a shameful act will seem in itself the divest affliction and most agonizing of punishments, and man will fly in terror and seek refuge in his God from the very idea of crime, as something far harsher and more grievous than the punishment assigned [0 it.36 At the heart of a spiritual perspecrive is a mature and heartfelt sense of
values that, more than anything else, induces the desire for self-mastery. When this desire is awakened, individual behavior is conditioned not as much by the force of law or by the threat of punishment as by a deep appreciation of the beauty inherent in what the Buddha refers to as “Right Action.” A companion to Right Action and an anticipated fruit of self-mastery is what Marilyn Ferguson refers to as Right Power—“power used not as a battering ram or to glorify the ego but in service to life.”37
Criticism: of Religion as a Solution CRITICS of religion argue that not only is religion not helpful in finding solutions to sexual and physical abuse but that it has throughout history contributed to the problem. They argue that, although religion has demonstrated its capacity to aid in human transformation and development, it has also been invoked, perhaps more than any other institution, to justify abuse, tyranny, and oppression. Nowhere is this more evident than in the use of religion as justification for the mistreatment of women. In the United States, for example, where women were denied the right to vote until the twentieth century, disenfranchisement was often justified by religious scripture: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. . . .3“ Although Christianity neither advocates nor supports oppression, some of the chief perpetrators of violence against women and girls have been animated
36. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, quorcd in the Universal House of Justice, letter to a Bahá’í, 24 January 1993, in TheAmcrimn 31/147 23 Nov. 1993: ll.
37. Marilyn Ferguson, ThrAquar-I'an Camping, (Les Angeles: St. Martin’s, 1987) 190.
38. Eph. 5:22—25.
18 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
by religious zeal. In fifieenth—century Europe two Dominican monks, Heinrich Kraemer and Johann Sptenger, wrote the Mullen: Maqumrum, or the “Witches’ Hammer," a manual for hunting and disposing of witches. They contended that “All witchcraft comes from carnal lust, which in women is insatiable."” From the fourteenth to the eighteenth century the book served as a guide that resulted in the trial, conviction of witchcraft, and execution of more than one hundred thousand women in Europe and American colonies. Likewise, some who follow the teachings of Muhammad but who also trample upon the rights of women do so while invoking the holy Qur’án to support their oppressive behavior; “such men,” Bahá’u’lláh writes, “are they whose words are the pride of the world, and whose deeds are the shame of the nations."40
In the light of the fact that religious leaders have often promoted and sustained systems of domination and abuse, some have suggested that there may be a direct connection between religion and abuse of various kinds. Such critics maintain that traditional religious ideology tends to promote the hierarchical relationship of human beings to one another, an idea that suggests the “ownership” of women and children by men; consequently, this ideology has done much to set the psychosocial climate in which gender—based abuse and exploitation may occur.
However, despite the long history of violence and abuse perpetrated in the name of religion, a wide range of sacred texts affirms that a fundamental purpose of religion is to raise humanity to new standards of moral and ethical behavior. Religion loses its power to do this when its followers become attached to its outer form (rituals and ceremonies) while neglecting to cultivate its inner reality (the love of God, trustworthiness, compassion, and service to humankind). It is for this reason, according to Bahá’í teachings, that the true spirit of religion, even as springtime, must be renewed:
the Prophet, or “Manifestation of God,” is the Light—bringer of the spiritual
world, as the sun is the light-btinger of the natural world. Just as the
material sun shines over the earth and causes the growth and development of material organisms, so also, through the Divine Manifestation, the Sun of Truth shines upon the world of heart and soul, and educates the thoughts, morals and characters of men. And just as the rays of the natural sun have an influence which penetrates the darkest and shadiest comets of the world, giving warmth and life even to creatures that have never seen the sun itself, so also, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the
Manifestation of God influences the lives of all, and inspires receptive
minds even in places and among peoples where the name of the Prophet
39. Quored in David Rosenhan and Martin Seligman, Abnormal Bycbology, 3d ed. (New York: Norton, 1995) 26.
40. Bahá’u’lláh. Yablm ofBalm'u'ILth 61.
Hug,
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN ERADICATING CHILD SU(UAL ABUSE
l9
is quite unknown. The advent of the Manifestation is like the coming of
the Spring. It is a day of Resurrection in which the spiritually dead are raised
to new life, in which the Reality of the Divine Religions is renewed and
reestablished, in which appear “new heavens and a new earth.”1
With the renewal of religion from age to age, humanity is enabled to know its true self—which is fundamentally spiritual—to flee from that which is the cause of its degradation, and to move closer to its noble destiny. It is only as human beings progress on the path of true spiritual development that the specter of all forms of abuse may be eliminated.
Conclusion AS THE rates of child sexual abuse increase, individuals and communities are sensing an urgency to deal with this endemic problem and to encourage the process of putting spiritual solutions into practice. Around the world young children are suffering overwhelming and often unbearable abuse. As members of local, national, and international communities, one must ask “Why?” and must strive diligently to find the answers. As Alice Walker, author and poet, writes in her novel entitled Possessing the Serra! of joy: “These are the kinds of questions that my father taught me to ask, alas. He would say, What is the fundamental question one must ask of the world? I would think of and posit many things, but the answer was always the same: Why is the child crying?”42 From the beginning of humanity’s existence, God has sent His Prophets to guide and direct His creation. They have provided the tools for spiritual development, two of which are prayet and meditation, and have laid out the map for self—mastery. Bahá’u’lláh has clearly challenged the old structure of society, which has throughout history perpetuated various abuses, and 05ers the blueprint for a society free of abuses. His commandment of the equality of the sexes, in concert with His command for universal education for all, both material and spiritual; His condemnation of unbridled passion and lust; His outlining of the role of each parent, ensuring that bod] patents share responsibility for the welfare of the children; and His guidance and caution on the appropriate channeling of the sex impulse. All Creme 3 milieu in which dramatic social change is possible.
4L J. E. Esslemont, Ba/M’u’lldll and :heNew Em: An Introduction to the Babd’! Faith, 5th rev. ed. (Wilmette, 11L: Bah“ Publishing Trust, 1980) 4. 42. Alice Walker, Pmming ti): S:¢1:t]oy(New York: Harcourt, 1992) 161.
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A “(I szTQ-im em
.r‘t‘ '
t
m‘m‘xmw-mmw:mean: ‘9; v
21
Cold War Reflections on
Collective Security
BY MANOOHER MOFIDI
T HE post-Coid War period, which began
in the latter part of the 19805, marked a rebirth for the United Nations.‘ Hampered for neatly fifty years by ideological conflict and the gteat—powet rivalry of the Cold War
Copyright © 1997 by Manoohct Mofidi. This essay is based on a talk presented at the Conference on the New Wotld Order in Bahá’í Perspective hosted by the Institute for Bahá’í Studies, 26—28 January 1996, in Evanston, Illinois. I would like to express my gratitude to the WWHOrdcr Editorial Board for insightful tewmt mendations on eatliet versions of this article. I owe a particulzt debt of gratitude to Dr. Betty }. Fisher, whose guidance, encouragements, and kind petsistcnce made this publication a reality. Finally, I must acknowledge my deat brother and good friend. Dr. Mahyar Mofidi. whose example and constancy ate a daily source of inspiration.
I. From 1945 to 1987 (during the Cold War), the United Nations authorized fifteen peacekeeping operations. From 1988 through 1992 (the period coinciding with the end of the Cold War), sixteen mete were launched. exceeding the tom] numhet of operations of the past forty years
2. See. fut example, George W Downs, cd., Collecxiv: Security quna' :1): Cold W17 (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press. 1994). and Thomas C. Weiss. ed., Ca/llttinaw-ity in a Changing World(Bouldet: Lynne Riennet Publishers. 1993).
3. In faimess to the United Nations and the collective security ideal envisioned in its Chatter, it is necessary to point out that the Gulf War, which mobilixed the international society of states and brought to beat the collective security machinery of the United Nations againSt a tecalcitnnt state, represented only an approximation of the ideal, not its full realization.
period, the United Nations was perceived after the Cold War to be in a position to discharge its duties better and to accomplish the aspirations set out in its Chatter adopted on 26 June 1945. Never before had the United Nations been presented with such an opportunity to influence the international system, particularly in the resolution of the conflicts that emerged in the post—Cold War period. A robust, relevant, and responsive United Nations seemed, at last, realizabIe—ot so it was thought.
One dimension of the United Nations’ enhanced role in dealing with international peace and security that received and continues to receive much scholarly attention and analysis is the matter of collective security.2 The new spirit of superpower cooperation that was demonstrated in the 1990 Gulf War hinted at the possibility that the United Nations might at last be able to translate the vision of collective security, as set forth in its Charter, into a practical reality? However, subsequent developments in Somalia (199293), Bosnia (1993—94), and Rwanda (199495)——to mention but three prominent cases in which the United Nations was heavily involved—setiously challenged the expectations for the United Nations that emerged after the Cold War. The United Nations has been criticized, often vociferously, for not acting when strategic interests of leading states, especially the Permanent Security Council members, were not engaged (as in Bosnia
22 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
and Rwanda); for relinquishing too much discretion to a member to act militarily on its behalf (as in Somalia); and for encroaching on sovereign rights (as in Somalia).‘
In the mid—199OS discourse on the United Nations’ role in collective security has subsided. Skeptics argue that the logic of sovereignty—the major organizing principle of international politics (the proliferation of nonstate actors notwithstanding)—militates against collective security, rendering it moat.5 They ask how the United Nations, itself a formidable bastion of statism, can successfully resolve the tension between national and global interests inherent in the concept of collective security.
Such questions are fair and legitimate, and any serious study of collective security must confront them. What would such a study look like? One approach might start by examining, in the context of scholarly literature, the concept of collective security, its theoretical requirements, and its role in the United Nations Charter. An analysis of the post-Cold War international system would then provide for an objective assessment of
4. See, for example, Michael N. Barnett, “The United Nations and Global Security: The Notm Is Mightier Than the Sword,” Etbia and International Aflizirx, 9 (1995): 37—54, and Saadia Touval, "Why the UN Fails," Foreign Afliu'ri (Sep./Oct. 1994): 44-57.
5. See, for example, Mohammad Ayoob, “Squaring the Circle: Culletu'vc Security in a System of States," in Collective Semn'ry in a Changing WWM 45—62, and John J. Mearshcimer, “The False Promise of International Institutions," International Security, 19.3 (Wntet 1994/95): 32.
6. There is no more compelling rationale for involvement in the discourse on collective security than the injunction of Bahá’u’lláh to “Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in. and center your delibetations on its exigencies and requirements" (Bahá’u’lláh, Cleaning: from the Writings ofBahd‘u’lldb, trans. Shoghi Effendi, lst ps ed. (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Ttust, 1983) 213).
7. Leon Gotdenket and Thomas G. Weiss, “The Collective Security Idea and Changing World Polititx," in Callem'uc Semrily in a Changing WM/d'3—4.
the feasibility of a viable collective security system with a revitalized United Nations as its focus. Finally, an examination of collective security in the Bahá’í framework would shed light on and point the way toward a more effective and consiStent collective security system.
An examination of the concept of collective security is important, for both inter- and intra—state conflict continues unabated in many areas of the world and stands to erupt in others. The serious challenges (such as state disintegration and other disasters) that these conflicts present have heightened the sense of urgency and have demonstrated the immediate need for an effective and comprehensive collective—secutity mechanism. Moreover, Bahá’ís and other individuals actively engaged in and contributing to contemporary discourse on matters germane to the pacification and betterment of global society stand to benefit from an analysis of collective security.6
The Theory of Collective Security THE concept of collective security has not enjoyed a uniform definition about which commentators and students of international relations can agree. In the absence of such agreement the working definition used by Leon Gordenket and Thomas C. Weiss, two prolific commentators on collective security and the United Nations in general, captures the central idea of collective security and is consonant with other collective security formulations: Governments of all states would join together to prevent any of their number from using coercion to gain advantage, especially conquering another. . . . Thus, no government could with impunity undertake forceful policies that would fundamentally distutb peace and security. . . . Any attempt to execute such policies would, by definition, be treated by all governments as if it were an attack on each of them.”7
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COLD WAR REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY 23
A suitable point for beginning a discussion of collective security would be to ask what is implied by the term “security.” The answer requires a consideration of international law and its subjects: sovereign states. International law is concerned with the reciprocal rights and duties of states. Under the rubric of international law, a state is understood to be composed of a defined territory, a permanent population, a government, and a capacity to conduct international relations. These elements together impart a certain mutual exclusivity to states that is commonly described as “sovereignty”
Broadly speaking, sovereignty involves the power of independent rule within one’s tetritorial limits; it represents a cluster of rights and obligations, central among which is the right to be free from the threat or use of
8. David C. Hendrickson, “The Ethics of Collective Security,” Ethics and lnternntionalAflhirx 7 (1993): 3.
9. Hegemony and political leadership—the original Greek word from which hegemony is detivcd—are used interchangeably
10. This proviso merits elaboration. A workable collective—secutity system would appear conceptually and practically to be incompatible with hegemonic power. Entwhat if the hegemon is in fiwar of collective action? One could argue that the likelihood of collective security is actually enhanced with a hegemon willing to undertake a genuine leadership role in responding to a breach of the peace. (This is one reading of the Gulf War: that the capacity for collective action of the international community was decisively augmented by the presence of a hegemon (United States) able to play a lending role in the campaign to reverse aggression. See, for example, Mark T. Clatk, “The Ptoblem with Collective Security", Orbit, 39.2 (Spring 1995): 244). That aid, the possibility of the hegemon to militate against collective security cannot be discounted.
ll. Theoretically, it is conceivable to have a collective—secutity system in a setting marked by a high level of armament. But a mllective-enfotcement campaign in sud) a setting would presumably be more prottaCted and bloody than if it were introduced in a setting marked by low level of armament.
force, for such would stand in clear violation of the territorial integrity of the state. “Security” captures the norm of sovereign statehood; it addresses the maintenance of the interests of individual states.
Collective security is predicated on the notion that a community of states exists and that each membet—state is accorded certain rights and responsibilities. According to David C. Hendrickson, an international politics theoretician, “The principal right each state enjoys is the ability to maintain its political independence and territorial integrity against external aggression; its principal duty is not only to refrain from aggression but also to aid the victims of aggression."
Requirements flJr Collective Security. The ostensible parsimony—even elegance—of the concept of collective security may result in underappteciating its complexity. But the complexity must be understood because the effective use of collective security depends on the satisfaction of an array of requirements. One is that power be widely dispersed. Such a diffusion of power would eliminate the possibility of a hegemons’ undermining the system (and thus its credibility) either by refusing membership in the system or even challenging it militarily.9 The objective is to safeguard the essential universality (collectivity) and theoretical parity of the system.m
Another important requirement for a workable collective-secutity system is a low or equal level of armament. For, if the units comprising the society of states are all militarily weak, the prospects of transgression are greatly reduced, as the potential aggressor or aggressots, fearing the overwhelming and superior military of the collectivity, would refrain from violating the society’s norms.”
Yet another tequirement—ensuting that collective—security enforcement is uniform and impartial—is a central decision—making organs Such an organ would be empowered
to establish legally the prohibition of
aggression; to demand and engage the com
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24 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
mitment of states to collaborate in the suppression of aggression; to determine when and against what state sanctions are to be initiated; to decide upon the nature of the inhibitory measures; to evoke the performance of duties to which states have committed dtemselves; and to plan and direct the joint action which it deems necessary for the implementation of collective security,12
To recapitulate, the theory of collective security requires the enforcement of the norms of the international society by the states comprising the international society through a preponderance of power to safeguard the international order. Its preferred setting is one in which there is both a dispersion of power and a general reduction of power in the form of low armament.
Collective Serurity and the UN. Charter Framework. What are the norms of collective security as conceived by the UN. Charter? What constitutional expression does the Charter lend the theory of collective security? The term “collective security” does not actually appear in the United Nations Charter. The Preamble to the Charter commits the signatories to unite their “strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure . . . that armed force shall not
12. Inis Claude, Swordr Into PIou/x/mm (New York: Random, 1971) 260.
13. Quored in Michael Howard, "The Historical Development of the UN's Role in International Security,” in United Nation; Divided World. Adam Roberts and Benedicr Kingsbury, ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993) 64.
14. The Security Council is made up of fifteen members including five permanent members with veto power: the United States, Russia. France, Great Britain, and China The ten other members are rotated every two years The Security Council can undertake military action if it secures nine of fifteen Vutes, including those of the permanent five. The concurrence of the five permanent members, therefore, is essential if the Security Council is to operate effectively.
IS. Claude. Sword: lulu Plambam 250—51.
be used, save in the common interest."13 The phrase “to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security” is believed to have captured the expression and intent of collective security.
The Charter obligates members to reftain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state (Article 2, section 4) and to settle disputes by peaceful means (Article 2, sections 3 and 5).
The Security Council has primary respon‘ sibility for maintenance of international peace and security (Article 24)." It has the authority to identify aggressors (Articles 39, 40), to decide what enforcement measures should be taken—these range from the severance of diplomatic relations to the imposition of economic sanctions to the actual use of force(Articles 41, 42, 48, 49), and to call on members to make military forces available (Articles 45—45).
Articles 39 through 51 (Chapter VII) embody the constitutional core of and provide the norms for collective security. Article 42 of this Chapter—which deals with “Action with Respect to Threats to the Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression"—confers on the Security Council the authority to “take such action by air, sea, 0: land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security."
Charter Anumptiam and Collectiw—Semritylmplimtiom. What can one deduce about collective security from the provisions of the UN. Charter? What are the assumptions upon which the Charter is predicated? It is clear that sovereign states represent the fundamental units of international politics and thus are the key agents of international order. It is also clear that member states, by becoming signatories to the Charter, register, at least in theory, their consensus on the “indivisibility of pence" and on the notion that any attempt by an aggressor state to destroy the fabric of international order constitutes a threat to all.ls
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COLD WAR REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY 25
Finally, it is clear that member states are not to resort unilaterally to force to defend their national interest or to promote purely national objectives.
From a purely textual point of view, the Charter seems a sensible and practicable
16. The North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 antded the United Nations its first opportunity to mobiliu its cullective—security machinery. Indeed, the United Nations did sanction forces to counter the aggression. But this was made possible only because the SovietUnion, in protest against the United Nation’s refusal l0 admit the People’s Republic of China, was absent From the Security Council ptoceedings that dealt with the Notth Korean invasion. In the absence of the ptospect of a Soviet veto. the Security Council quickly moved to endorse and thus legitimize collective action to repel North Korea. But this new—found vibrancy was to be no more than a pamxysm, as the Soviet Union returned to the Security Council, and the United Nations was once again immobilized
12 In August 1990, forty yeats after the Korean conflict, the next oppottunity for using the collectivesecurity machinery of the United Nations came with the Iraqi invasion and the subsequent annexation of Kuwait. This act stood in clear violation of Article 2, Paragraph 4, of the Charter, prohibiting use of force against “the tcttitotial integrity or political independence“ Of another member State. With the ideological Stalemate removed and great-pawet unity once again Established, the Security Council muld—and, indeed, djd—mave swiftly (perhaps even hyperactively) through the passage of successive tesulutions, culminating in Resolution 678, adopted 29 November 1990, which demanded Iráq’s withdrawal and authorized member sates “to use all necessary means” (Chapter VII of the Chatter) to force compliance and restore international peace and security in dte region. This United Nation:aurhnm'zai but UnitcdSmm—implemmted, mission, designated as a collective—security undertaking under the aegis of Article 42 of the Chatter, successfully implemented llS mandate. Monumental though it was, this use of collective security was not without its faults, including departutes from the provisions of the Chattct. Article 24 of the Chatter prescribes for the Security Council the “primary tesponsibility for the maintenance of international peace and secutity." But in the Gulf War the United Nations in effect divested itself of this responsibility, which was assumed by the United States. The Security Council, as mandated by Articles 46 and 47, should control the enforcement mwsutes
approach to collective security. But because the context of international politics has not been hospitable to collective security, translating the promise into reality has proved elusive. The fundamental problem was the deepening Cold War, which meant the absence of consensus and thus of concurrence among the United Nations’ permanent five members. The convergence of interest that had prompted the post-World War II cullaboration and the establishment of the United Nations evaporated during the Cold War. The deification of national interests tendered inoperative the mechanism of collective security, which required the harmonization of collective interests.
The veto power conferred on the members of the permanent five U.N. members, originally conceived as an assurance that no collective measures would be taken against its members, became a tool for the two superpowers to thwart each other’s ideologically and politically motivated policies. Furthermore, the capacity of the Security Council to undertake military action was effectively reduced to nil, as permanent members never equipped it with a standby force. Even in the two cases in which it was tried— the Korean Conflict and the Gulf Wat—it was not fully realized for one important reason: the United Nations, the institution designed to give expression to the ideal of collective security, has not been enabled by its members, neither militarily nor politically, to realize the ideal. Hence, the potential of the collective security envisioned in the U.N. Charter was never realized between the inception of the United Nations and the end of the Cold War."
Collective Security in the
Post—Cold War World
A BRIEF survey of the post-Cold War system shows that collective security is still not being realized in the manner envisioned in the UN. Charter.17 Both the Korean conflict and the Gulf War highlighted basic defects within
26 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
the structure of the Security Council. This structure with its five permanent members possessing the cherished veto itself requires alteration if it is to be a democratic and representative body and, by extension, if the collective—secutity machinery of the United Nations is to be successfully mobilized on a more consistent basis.m Thus the criticisms
under Chapter VIIi But an ad hoe coalition was formed, mobilized, and led not by the United Nations but by the United States, Resolution 661, adopted on 6 August, imposed sanctions on Iráq, consistent with Atticle 41. But the move from Article 41 to Atticle 42 (the tesott to the use of force) was made hastily and without proper determination and assessment of die adequacy (or inadequacy) of sanctions, 3 called for by the Chatter. Still more disconcerting was the failure of the Security Council to engage the input of its other ten members in the consultative phase. In short, it would not be wholly hyperbolic to sugest that the United Nations was reduced to the inconsequential “imprimatur of legitimacy” for the military operation. A closer and more sober inspection, therefore, reveals that what was hailed as a brilliant illustration of collective security proved to be at best only an approximation.
18. Calls to restructure the Security Council are not new, but they became particularly strident in the after: math of the Gulf War. The acquiescence of United Nations members (especially that of the Other members of the military coalition) to the United States in the implementation of the mandate to resmte peace and security in the region was perceived by many countn'es in the Global South as heralding superpower domination and manipulation of the United Nations.
19. Restrucnuing the Security Council is a delicate matter. The problem is nor so much the lack of consensus that the Security Council needs reevaluation as it is the difficulty of generating a workable formula that can appeal ta both the majority of member states and the great powers who possess the veto and evidence little predileCtion to relinquishing it.
20. An evaluation of the incapacity of the United Nations to make its collective-security ideal a viable reality need not apply to the entire panoply of its Other peace and security funeticns—such as those involving peacemaking, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance. and post-conflict peacebuilding. To be sure, the end of the Cold War and its resultant altered and complex international security landscape will continue to mean a more involved United Nations, especially in the resolution of the increasing numbers of internal conflicts.
of the current composition of the Security Council appear to be valid. The current Security Council, reflecting and reinforcing a greatpower structure that is over fifty years old, is outdated and does not reflect the contemporary world, for it fails to account for new economic, demographic, and political realities. Moreover, the theoretical equality of the members of the Security Council is only that—“theoretical.” In reality, some of the members exert more influence on the decisions of the Security Council than do othets."
The Korean conflict and the Gulf War also brought into sharp focus the consequences—especially the lack of control over enforcement action—of not having a ready and available military force, a collective—secutity requirement provided for in Article 43 of the Charter. Presumably this problem could be overcome if states would abide by the provisions of Article 43 and empower the United Nations Military Staff Committee as specified in Article 47 of the Charter. But because member States are not currently prepared to place their soldiers under the command of an international body, the possibility for a United Nations force in the near future is slight.
Hence collective enforcement measures in the future, if undertaken at all, will be, at best, quasicollective security operations falling short of, possibly even oonttavening, both the letter and spirit of the Charter.”
For good or for ill, the United Nations remains, at least in its peace and security activities, an instrument of its member states. Until these members begin to view multilateral cooperation (through the United Nations) as consistent with their national interests, the United Nations will represent no more than a reflection of competing, often parochial, interests of its member states. To expect otherwise is to invite disappointment.
At this point one might ask: “How does one square this unfavorable assessment of the
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COLD WAR REFLECTIONS ON COLLECTIVE SECURITY 27
feasibility of collective security in the postCold War era with the notion that the Bahá’í Faith clearly envisions a system of collective security, one that represents an important component in the overall structures and processes of world order building?” Why and how is the collective security system proposed by the Bahá’í Faith more practicable than the existing one?
Collective Security in the
Babd’l Framework
BAHA’U’IMH, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith,
in His letters to the world leaders, foreshad‘ owed a collective security system:
21. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bnhd'u'lldb revealed after the thdb—i-Aqdw, comp. Reseatch Department of the Universal House of Justice. trans. Habib Tahemdeh et 11., lst ps ed. (Wlmette. 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1988) 165.
22. “All the forces of humanity must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most Greet Covenant. In this all-embtacing PaCt the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the ptinciples underlying the relations of govetnmenus towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of armaments of every gnvetnmcnt should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government latet violate any one of its provisions, all the govetnments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as whole should resolve, with every power at its disposed, to desuoy dist government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will temain eternally safe and secure” (‘Abdu'l—Baha, The Seem of Divine Civilization, trans. Matzieh Gail in consultation with Ali-Kuli 101m, 15! aed- (Wilmette. 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990),
—65).
23. Shoghi Effendi, The World Order nfBabd'u'lld/I: Stkrmilmm, new ed. (Wflmette, 111.: 331151 Publishing Ttuxt, 1991) 41.
24. Shoghi Effendi, Worldora'n afBahd'u'llA/IZOSt
25. What Shoghi Effendi said of the kague of Na
Should any king take up arms against
another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of
the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of
maintaining internal order within their
territories. This will ensure the peace and
composure of every people, government
and nation.11
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh’s son and the appointed interpreter of His writings, later explained the general character of the Bahá’í collective security system.22 Such a system would be underpinned by a universal covenant that would fix inviolable boundaries and establish universally agreed upon principles (such as negotiation, consultation, and peaceful means of conflict resolution) to guide the conduct of international relations and universally agreed upon obligations (such as refraining from the use of force, limiting the size of armaments, and participating in collective security if there is a violation of the covenant by a member state).
To ensure the efficacy and integrity of the proposed system, it will have at its disposal, as an enforcement mechanism, a military force comprised of “the combined forces of the federated units.”23 The imprimatur for the activation of this force would be provided by a world executive, which “will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth."“
At a cursory glance the Bahá’í principles of collective security may not look all that diiferent from those enshrined in the United Nations Chatter. But the collective-secutity system advanced in the Bahá’í writings differs in several important ways.25 Whereas the model in the United Nations Charter proposes what is essentially a secular/political vision of collective security, the Bahá’í writings proffer a radicalized, spiritualized one.
28 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
The collective-secutity system envisioned in the Bahá’í writings is undetgitded not by “political agreements alone” but by the concept of the oneness of humanity.26 It is based on a normative order in which ptinciples of justice, equality, and individual dignity are realized. The catalyst of the system is not only the commofstates—important though this is. Rather, it is a broader concern for the
tions may be applied to the United Nations as well: “There can be no doubt whatever that what has already been accomplished, significant and unexampled though it is in the history of mankind, still immeasurably falls shott of the essential requirements of the system which these words foteshadow” [the words of Bahá’u’lláh concerning collective security quored at the beginning of the section on “Collective Security in the Bahá’í Framewotk”] (Shoghi Effendi, World Order a/‘Ba/Id ’14 TM}; 193).
26. The Universal House of Jusdce, The Prom}: of WWMI’MM: Tb the People: of the World (Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’í Publishing Ttust, 1985) 27.
27. Claude, Swordr inn; Plawt/mm 250—51i
28. Shoghi Effendi, Tb: I’ramittd Day It Came, 3d ed. (Wlmette, Iil.: Bahá’í Publishing Tmst, 1980) 1299. This wider loyalty called for in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh was eloquently articulated by Shoghi Effendi: The Bah“ Faith does not “seek to undermine the allegiance and loyalty of any individual to his country, not does it mnflictwith the legi timate aspirations, tights, and duties of any individual state at nation. All it does imply and proclaim is the insufliciency of pattiotism, in view of the fundamental changes effected in the economie life of society and the interdependence of the nations, and as the consequence of the wnttaction of the world, thtough the revolution in the means of transportation and communication. . . . It calls fot a widet loyalty, which should not, and indeed does not, conflict with lesser loyalties‘ It insrills a love, which, in view of its scope, must include and not exclude the love of one's own country. It lays, through this loyalty which it inspires, and this love which it infuses, the only foundation on which the concept of world citizenship can thrive, and the strucmte of world unification can test. It does insist, however, on the subatdination of national considetations and particulatisric inteteSts to the imperative and paramount claims of humanity as a whole, inasmuch as in a world of interdependent nations and peoples the advantage of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole” (Pramitthayl: Cam: 1299.)
collective comtitme of humankind. This collective conscience recognizes that peace and security must be amplified to include issues such as human dignity and human rights that, while on the surface might not appear political but, nevertheless, have serious political implications. The movement from consensus of states to collective conscience of humankind may be said to represent the conceptual expansion of international politics from exclusive focus on relations among states to inclusion of factors that involve intethuman relations.
In the Bahá’í construct both governments and peoples of the world would evince a genuine recognition of and an unwavering commitment to the values of world peace and order. In this respect the postulate of the “indivisibility of peace” is so deeply embedded as to link positively the activities and relations of peoples and governments}7 Given this linkage, aggression anywhere in the system is conceived not only as an infringement on the rights of the aggrieved state but also as a flagrant violation of the very core values and norms of global society, thus requiring a collective corrective response.
Collective security in the Bahá’í framework requires the fostering of a “wider,” more expansive loyalty on the part of all states and all peoples to the values of the world community.28 This is in sharp contrast to the United Nations system of collective security in which the identification by states of their particular interests does not go beyond mete recognition of intetdependence. States, in the Bahá’í framework, identify their particular intetests so closely with the broader, general interests of humankind that the Conviction that what is good for world peace is necessarily good for the nation is a foundational animating principle.
Moreover, disarmament in the Bahá’í model is simultaneous for
it will not do if one [state] lays down its
arms and others refuse to do so. The nations
COLD WAR REFLECTIONS 0N COLLECTIVE SECURITY 29
of the world must concur with each other concerning this supremely important subject, so that they may abandon together the deadly weapons of human slaughter. As long as one nation increases her milimry and naval budget other nations will be forced into this crazed competition through their natural and supposed interests.” Clearly, such a comprehensive view stands in sharp contrast to the various disarmament schemes advanced today, which call either for unilateral or partial disarmament. The characteristic features of the Bath.“ model are universality and simultaneity. To be sure, a number of intermediate measures are required
29. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, quated in ]t E Esslemont, Baillu’lM/I and m New Era; An Introduction tn the Bahá’í Faith, 5th rev. edi (Wlmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1980) l69.
30. For Bahá’í views on disarmament, see John Huddleston, Athievingl’mu by thtl’mr 2000 (London: Oneworld Publications, 1988) 56-65. and 1. Tyson, erdl’mr: am! Warld Gawmmem: From Vision to Rm!ity(0xford: George Ronald. 1986) 5—18.
31. Toynbee, quoted in Claude, Swank [ma Plowxbam 252. The critics of collective security confuse the use of force to thwart aggression with aggression. Implied in this confusion is the erroneous idea that collective security is pacifism. Collective security renounces aggression, but it does contemplate defensive war to outrcct aggression, should it take place, Furthermore, the collective use of force to reverse aggression need not entail considerable human suffering, as any such action will he guided by the principles of restraint and proportionality.
32. The “dilemma of circularity" is the most rncritotious criticism one can direct at collective security The idea is best articulated by Claude (Sword Inn: waxbam 256): “Collective security cannot work unless the policies of states are inspired by confidence in the system, but it requires an extraordinary act of political faith for states to repose confidence in the system without previous demonsrmtion that colleCtive security wads. States ate, in effect, urged to assume the applicability of the notion of sclf-fulfilling prophecy; if they act as if the system will work, it will do so—orherwise it
will fail."
before this model of disarmament can be implemented. A useful starting point may be developing more effective methods for monitoring armament levels and full compliance with international agreements.” But, such methods, regardless of their particulars, must be developed within the overall context of an effective enforcement authority. In short, the focus must be on both compliance (to nudge states forward) and enforcement (to ensure the integrity of the system).
In the coherent and effective collectivesecurity model envisioned in the Bahá’í writings, the theoretical complications of and political obstacles in the model put forth in the United Nations Charter are overcome. For the normative order upon which the model is predicated fosters a more cooperative international environment, mitigating the competitive character of international politics and reducing the potential for violations of the norms of the international community.
But mitigation of bellicosity is not the same as its elimination, hence the necessity for a viable, credible, and responsive enforcement machinery both to deter a contumacious state and respond to such a state when a violation of the norms of the community occur. Thus, while war is renounced—not least because it contradicts the values of the global community—nevertheless, it constitutes an integral part of a credible system. As Arnold J. Toynbee explained: “We have got to give up war for all the purposes for which sovereign communities have fought since war has been in existence, but we have still got to be willing to accept the risks and losses of war for a purpose for which hitherto people have never thought of fighting?“
The broader loyalty called for in the model put forth by the Bahá’ís renders realizable the collective—secutity principles of universality and dissolves the “dilemma of circularity”; it positively transforms the character of both state behavior and perceived interests.“ The incentives inherent in the system inevitably
30 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
cultivate and promote cooperation among states. And through greater cooperation, trust, and collective conditioning states come to reformulate their previously narrow conceptions of national interest in collective terms. These two mechanisms are conceptually tied together and act in a mutually reinforcing manner. Thus participation in the collective security scheme is in the “national interest," more broadly defined, of the state.
Bridging the “Wm! 15” t0 the
‘What Ought Ta Be”
THE discussion of the Bahá’í model of col lective security begs one important question:
How can the requisite political will and re solve on the part of states be forged? Admit tedly, the model depends for its implemen tation on a number of political and moral
requirements that do not seem to be forthcoming anytime soon.33
33. The Universal House of Justice, in discussing the portent of the Gulf War, noted that “the international arrangement envisioned by Him [Bahá’u’lláh] for the hill application of this [collective-secutity] principle is far from having been adopted by the rulers of mankind . . .' The Universal House of Justice, Ride Message to the Bahá’ís of the World, The American BA/M'IAPL 1991: 1.
34. According to the Universal House of Justice, “it is this [paralysis of will] that muSt be carefully examined and resolutely dealt with. . . . This paralysis is rooted . . . in a deep‘sated conviction of the inevitable quarrelsomeness of mankind, which has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility of subordinating national self-intetest to the requirements of world order, and in an unwillingness to fact courageously the far-teaching implications of establishing a unified world authority" (Promise ame‘la'l’mce 23).
35. Nowhere has the patentially construcrive role of NGOs been more visible than in the various consciousness—taising global forums (sponsored by the United Nations on the environment, human tights, population, social development, and the advancement of women), where the consensus (however modesr) that emerged (typically in a blueprint for action) was the product of painstaking and indefatigable activities of participating NGOs.
The depth of political, moral, and institutional development within and among states will determine the pace at which the road from “what is" to “what ought to be” (an integrated and comprehensive Bahá’í model of collective security) will be traversed. One thing can be said with reasonable confidence: the road is going to be long and bumpy.
Because the wide, though not necessarily unbridgeable, gulf between “what is" and “what ought to be” will be narrowed only when the necessary political will and resolve on the part of states is forged, it is no oversimplification to assert that the absence of this will constitutes a major barrier to appreciable advancement on the road toward the system of collective security envisioned in the Bahá’í writings.“
The formulation of consensus thus becomes the major challenge, since the discrepancy between awareness and consensus can be rectified if a conceptual framework for consensual response is fashioned. Consensus may be viewed as a prerequisite to the generation of the desired political will.
A resource that has not yet been sufficiently intellectually and pragmatically tapped for achieving consensus is the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). To do so requires the recognition of a new international relations paradigm that is not solely confined to relations between states but that both recognizes and cultivates the enhanced influence of relations among smaller actors in the global system. NGOs currently lack political leverage, but because they are often infused with and motivated by principles of human interest, they have the capacity to enlighten discourse and forge consensus. As one contemplates the potentially constructive role of NGOs at the governmental and policy—making levels, one is encouraged by the gradual enlargement of their spheres of influence from that of pressure groups to that of opinion and policy making.35
NGOs will be the linkages between “what
COLD WAR REFLECTIONS 0N COLLECTIVE SECURITY 31
is" and “what ought to be.” \Vtth the growing empowerment and emboldening of NGOs, it is not inconceivable to imagine the influence of NGOs surpassing that of states, even if states remain more powerful. In the years ahead one may well witness a fascinating drama between states and NGOs characterized by the interplay of power and influence.
How might the contribution of the Bahá’í International Community as an NGO contribute to the unfolding of this drama? The Bahá’í Faith will foster humane enlightenment; help sensitize humanity to its vision and animating principles of justice, equality, freedom, and individual dignity; and translate them into innovative and concrete plans
of action. It will continue to uphold steadfastly the importance of understanding the intimate relationship between the promotion of universal humane values and the establishment of peaceful societies. Knowledge and understanding will permeate rational discourse, prodding states to accept that humanity must transcend its atrophied ideologies and that they tenaciously embrace the preponderance of those ideals and endeavors that bind individuals and nations together, not those atavistic proclivities that separate human beings. How to establish the prevalence of commonalities is a moral, intellectual, and political challenge facing states and humanity as a whole.
[Page 33]
WC‘XAW
mum AW?
33
Coming Out of the Ice
A REVIEW OF RJANE EISLER’S Sacredl’leamre: Sex, Myth, and the Politit‘t of the Body (SAN FRANCISCO: HARPER, 1995), 401 PAGES PLUS TABLES, NOTES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX
BY JANE J. RUSSELL
HE pervasive disparity of status between
women and men throughout recorded history has tendered women vittually invisible. lfwomen are equal to men, where is the female Beethoven? The Bahá’í writings say “The difference in capability between man and woman is due entirely to opportunity and education."1 That being the case, the female Beethoven could well have lived in Vienna with no training to put her music on paper and with no one willing to hear it but her children.
In the 19705 the founders and activists of Second Wave Feminism made a disturbing discovery. Except for sovereign queens and some saints, except for a few memorable courtesans and the six wives of Henry VIII, women had been largely written out of history. This teviewer’s own presumably typical college American history text, for example, gave a mere half page to the American women’s suEmge movement, a movement that in its day was a highly publicized Seventy—five year battle.
Copyright © 1997 by Jane J. Russell.
1. ‘Abdu'I—Bahá, Thehomulgatian ofUnivrmzlett: 7% Delivmd by deu'I—Bahd during Hit Vui! In th: UM Stale: and Canada in 1912, Camp. Howard MacNutt, 2d ed. (Wlmette, lll.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982) l35.
2. For a review of the difficulties, see Jane 1. Russell, “Spiritual Vertigo at the Edge of Gender Equality," World ORI/tr, 27.1 (Fall 1995): 41—56.
3. John 16:12—13.
Concurrently. in the 19705 many Bahá’í’ls in the United States, energized by the Second Wave of Feminism, focused with increasing intensity on the Bahá’í writings concerning the equality of the sexes and called for accelerated implementation in their communities of this challenging spiritual principle. The work was, and is, arduous.2
About two millennia earlier Jesus had said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”5 In the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith (1817—1892), the spiritual truth of the equality of women and men is revealed. By implication humanity is capable of bearing itnot only capable of hearing and accepting this spiritual truth but of bearing the responsibility to manifest its reality in society. But the social and personal changes the principle requires are massive, weighty, and not so easy to bear.
Since the 19705 the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing and legislative body of the Bahá’í Faith, has called for increased participation by women in all areas of Bahá’í life. In 1986 it affirmed that
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the sexes, is one of the most important though less acknowledged prerequisites of peace.
The denial of such equality perpetrates an
injustice against one—half of the world’s
population and promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from
[Page 34]
34 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
the family to the workplace, to political life, and ultimately, to international relations.‘
That the efforts resulting from this call to action, ranging from local conferences to national campaigns, have varied in their immediate effectiveness is only to be expected of a large-scale human endeavor the success of which requires attitude changes within individuals.
In any period of transition new ideas must coexist with old ones. If the old ideas are deeply learned, they can be tenacious. In humanity’s past many beliefs have arisen to justify male superiority and male control of females. Such beliefs, long held by both men and women, may have become virtually axiomatic. So long as they are held, the conflict between the old and the new will impede pmgress. The beliefs from past ages that appear most frequently in present—day discourse on gender equality are these:
1. Men have always dominated women; therefore, male domination must be inevitable.
2. Male domination is natural; therefore, it is unchangeable.
3. Men protect women from physical danger; therefore, women must be subordinate to men.
As justifications for female oppression, each of these statements fails. Objectively, however, each contains an element of truth. It thus appears that, to overcome the retarding effects of such beliefs, one does not need to achieve the logically impossible result of disproving the truth but to identify the misapplication of the truth that has been used to justify female inferiority
4. The Universal House of Justice, Tb: Promise af WorHPaue: 772 the People: of the World (Wilmette, IlL: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1935) 26.
Two additional factors influence the transition to gender equality:
1. Women’s rage, not only and not necessarily over what has befallen them personally, but over the subjugation of their sex for millennia—tage magnified by frustration with the slowness of progress toward change.
2. Men’s guilt, not only and not necessarily over what they may have done personally, but over how theii' sex oppressed women for millennia—guilt magnified by fear of the consequences of losing male power and privilege.
Women’s rage and men’s guilt are reversals of traditional gender norms that punish rage in women and acknowledgment of mistakes by men. Both women’s rage and men’s guilt, because they require a break with traditional habits, may well constitute essential emotional gateways that open the path to gender equality in the present age of transition. Rage motivates women to reject sexism and gives them the courage to oppose it. Guilt informs men that sexism is wrong and motivates them to abandon it. In the long term people cannot remain in these gateways, but it can be argued that people must pass through them, however covertly, to begin the journey.
The literature produced from the Second Wave of Feminism has served many needs. Some books have inspired women to action and exposed the injustice in the present system. Others have inadvertently written women into blind alleys. Some have begun the process of writing women into history. Others have reported on the emotional and intellectual eercts of the old system. Still others have investigated the subjugation of women throughout history and attempted to make sense of it.
Riane Eisler falls into the latter category. In both The Chalice and the BM: Our Hi:tary, Our Future and Samdl’lemmSex, Myth, and the Politic: of the Body she attempts to develop an expanded picture not only of hu 3 fl
manity’s recorded history but of its archeological prehistory, free of male—dominant and dissonance—reducing axioms.s
In The Chalice and the Blade Eisler populatizes a series of atcheological studies begun in the 19705 that deal with the origins and development of Western Civilization with focus on how male dominance achieved hegemony. In Sacred Pleasure Eisler moves on to explore in detail the price humanity has paid at the hands of dominator societies, costs that she asserts include loss of freedom, distorted intellectual and emotional development, and the descent into an inverted value system that ranks pain over joy and death over life.
The Chalice and the Blade, published ten years ago, lays the foundation for Sacred Pleasure Central to The Chalice and theBladc is the exposition of discoveries and interpretations in archeology and anthropology that have led to, in Eislet’s description, a “new study of human society . . . that takes into account the whole of human history (including out prehistory) as well as the whale of humanity (both its female and male halves)." The “Chalice” in the title refers to the ancient symbol for the “life—generating and nurturing powers of the universe,” while the “Blade" symbolizes “the power to take rather than give life that is the ultimate power to establish and enforce domination.”
Eislet writes that
The underlying problem is not men as a
sex. The root of the problem lies in a
social system in which the power of the
Blade is idealized—in which both men
and women are taught to equate true
5. Riane Eislet, The Chalice and the Bkde: Our Hi:Wot Our Future (San Francisco: Harper, 1987)» and Riane Eisler, SmedPIeamrr: Sat. Myth. and the Palitiu ”ffthodflSan Francisco: Harper, 1995).
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 35
masculinity with violence and dominance
and to see men who do not conform to
this ideal as “too soft” or “elfeminate.”
Eisler further proposes that there are 0an two models of society: the dominator model, based on the ranking of one half of humanity averthe other, and the partnership model, based on the linking of one halfof humanity to the other. Dominate: societies alwaysrank men over women, as can be seen in the popular term patriarchy—that is, the “rule of the fathers.” Furthermore, dominator societies ultimately rely on fire: or the threat offmce to enforce socially approved behavior.
Eisler’s assumptions carry her a considerable distance, but their limitations should be noted. Although her statement that “the problem is not men as a sex” is clearly a heartfelt attempt by one who likes men to avoid thoughtless attacks on men, her alternative assertion that the painful aspects of human history can be explained by socialization is inadequate. Socialization is a process, not a cause. Furthermore, Eisler’s definitions of partnership and domination not only fail to distinguish between power and leadership and between unjust and just exercise of power. Her consistent linking of “force and threat of force” with the subjugation of women throughout The Chalice and theB/ade and Sacral Pleasure implies that, if power exists at all in a society, it will inevitably be held by men and be used unjustly.
Both the dualistic structure implicit in “only two models” and the narrow definitions of the models themselves introduce further limitations. Eisler's models fail to accommodate the range of human interaction. For example, into which of Eislet’s models does the following transaction fit? A female professional terminates her male secretary for incompetence. Since the employer is exercising power (apparently equated by Eisler with force or the threat of force), the transaction does not fit Eislet’s model of partnership. Similarly, since in this instance the woman outranks
36 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
the man, and since the exercise of power is just (incompetence is a legitimate cause for dismissal), the transaction does not fit Eisler’s model of domination.
Eisler claims to establish that matriarchy never existed and is an anthropological myth created by scientists unable to think beyond the dominator model when faced with evidence of partnership in prehistory.
Eisler further proposes in The Chalice and the BLuz'e that "the original direction in the mainstream of our cultural evolution was toward partnership but that, following a period of chaos and almost total disruption, there occurred a fundamental social shift,” resulting in a “bloody five—thousand year dominator detour.” Applying chaos theory to these two ideas, Eisler posits partnership and dominator models as two powerful attractors, either of which may determine the course of cultural evolution after a period of social disequilibrium.
Eisler’s theory on the shift from the partnership to the dominator model appears to fit the archeological data she presents on Western Civilization. Her assertion that “this change in direction from a partnership to a dominator model was roughly paralleled in other parts of the world,” however, is supported only by a footnote referring to one paper about the Aztecs and some commentary about the Chinese.“ Without corresponding data from other parts of the world such as Africa, the Pacific Islands, Asia, and North and South America, the generality of cul 6. Eislet, Chalice nmh/yeBlade 205, n. 6.
7. See, for example, Marija Gimbutas, Tb: Goddesses and Gods of 0141' Europe: 7000—3500 B.C. (Berkeley: U of California 1’, 1982) and James Mellaart, CamlHuyuk (New York: McGraw, 1967).
8. “Paleolithic wall paintings were interpreted as relating [0 hunting even when they showed women dancing” (Eisler, Chalice and 2/7: Blade 4).
tural transformation theory remains to be shown, and Eisler’s assertion of generality is premature.
Eisler bases cultural transformation theory on archeological data and mythical and historical sources, depending on the period under discussion. The archeological evidence, derived from the work of Marija Gimbutas, James Mellaart, and several others, is extensively annotated.7 In Gimbutas's work the strong male bias traditionally applied to archeological evidence is questioned. Previously, to give a representative example, Paleolithic cave paintings were assumed to have been done by men only and to relate to hunting.“ The stick-and—line forms that have been labeled as weapons, including “arrows, barbs, spears, harpoons,” could just as well be “plants, trees, branches, reeds, and leaves." In Eisler’s view, “this new interpretation would account for what would otherwise be a remarkable absence of pictures of such vegetation among a people who, like contemporary gathererhunter peoples, must have relied heavily on vegetation for food.” Similarly in these newer archeological interpretations, Paleolithic and Neolithic art that appears to relate to human reproduction, particularly that portion represented by females that was previously overlooked or minimized by conventional archeology, is brought to the forefront and found significant. Eisler notes that these interpretations are controversial and attributes the controversy to resistance on the part of conventional archeologists to any shift from malecentered understanding of past history.
The story of the shift from partnership to domination in Europe proposed in The Chalice and the Blade is high drama. In the interest of verisimilitude, Eisler’s nineteenth—century romantic tone is retained in the following condensation: Contrary to what one learned in school, civilization did not begin in Sumer in 3100 BAC.E. Rather, an entire civilization began around 7000 B.C.E. in Europe and around the Mediterranean. For some thirty %
[Page 37]
five hundred years this civilization, organized
on partnership principles, grew in complexity and sophistication, developing, Eisler says,
“all the basic technologies on which civilization is built.” They made painted pottery.
They spun thread and wove cloth. They farmed and domesticated farm animals. They
generally lived in unfortified villages and towns
in beautiful river valleys. They created metallurgy (initially copper, later bronze) and
used it to make tools and ornaments.
Eisler is not clear about what, if any, weapons they made. It would seem they must have made some, if only to rid their fields of animal pests. Gimbutas notes, however, a “characteristic absence of thrusting weapons” in a number of Danubian excavations and interprets such absence as indicative of an absence of the sort of weapons designed to kill people and thus an indication of the absence of warrior culture.
The Old Europeans had boats and deep sea navigation. They believed in God as creator and nurture: of life, conceptualized the creator as female, and built religious temples in which both women and men served as priests. They created rudimentary writing for religious purposes, and they engaged in trade. What they did not have, Eisler asserts, was male domination, or female domination, or hietaxchies devoted to domination, or chronic violence, or chronic warfare.9
The Old Europeans were not alone. On the Steppes of Asia, in the deserts of the
9. Eislet proposes that there are two kinds of hierarchies: 'Dnmination hx’erarchiufwhich are “systems of human rankings based on force or the threat of force,” “1d Malt'utian binartbies,”such as the ranking of "molecules, cells, and orpns of the body: a progression toward a higher, more evolved, and more complex level or function' (Chalice and the Blade 105—06).
10. Eisler points out thax Indo-European now refers Only to the language group, the reference to the people hams been discarded as racist.
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 37
Middle East, in the matches of northeastern Europe lived nomadic pastoral peoples of a very difiemnt character, whose society, as Eislet describes it, may have represented the dominatot model in its pure form. Summarized under the label “Indo—European,” these were “the Aryans in India, the Hittites and Mittani in the Fertile Crescent, Luwians in Anatolia, Kurgans in eastern Europe, Acaeans and later Dorians in Greece.”‘° Other nomadic invadets included the Hebrews, a tribe of no small influence in history, whose appearance in the story seems to disturb Eisler a great deal. Of them she writes:
The moral precepts we associate with both
Judaism and Christianity and the stress on
peace in many modern churches and syna gogues now obscures the historical fact
that originally these early Semites were a
warring people ruled by a caste of warrior priests. . . . Like the Indo-Eutopeans, they too brought with them a fierce and angry god of war and mountains (Jehovah or
Yahweh). And gradually, as we read in the
Bible, they too imposed much of their
ideology and way of life on the peoples of
the lands they conquered.
Eisler’s implication that the Old Testament is nothing more than a record of everincreasing imposition of imperialist subjugation is an incredible oversimplification. The present example illustrates some problematic trends in Eisler’s work: She treats the world's great religions as if they were entirely human creations, not only in their institutions but in their origin, an approach that may result from a process she describes as reading the Bible as “normative social literature." Furthermore, when she refers to the holy books, she seems to be searching for nothing more than support for her theory. In so limiting her avenues to truth, Eisler limits the power of her insight.
Parallel to the conclusion that the absence of fortifications in the settlements of Old Europe indicates the absence of chronic
38 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
warfare, Eisler, Gimbutas, and others conclude from the high frequency of fortified dwellings on militarily defensible hilltops that war was frequent among the nomadic pastotalists. Their primary interest in metallurgy, Eisler asserts, revolved around the creation of sharp-edged weapons with which to “kill, plunder, and enslave.” ” Gimbutas concluded from drawings of weapons found in Kutgan cave engravings, in rock carvings in the Italian and Swiss Alps dating from after the Kurgan invasions, and in Indo—European religious practices that indicate weapons were held sacred, that these people worshiped the very blades themselves.l2 Chattel slavery dates from these people. So does the subjugation ofwomen, whom they reduced to male—owned tradable commodities, an economic relationship intimately bound up with the cult of female virginity. ‘3
Beginning about 4000 B.C.E., the dominator pastoralists invaded and conquered the partnership agrarian peoples in succeeding waves lasting for about fifteen hundred years. The archeological evidence appears to support Eisler’s claim that these invasions occurred. However, in giving virtually no space and even less sympathy to the possible causes of the nomadic migrations on the one hand, while showcasing the nomads’ preoccupation
11. These people were sheepherders whose knives were aLso used for the nonlethal shearing of the sheep.
12. Weapon worship lasted long, as can be seen in the magical sword of the legendary King Arthur and the reverence for the Samurai sword. Children’s cartoons, Renaissance feStivals, and other entertainments repeat the theme, as does the attachment to firearms seen in segments of present—day American society
13. The preoccupation with virginity continues into the twentieth century. For example, a common explanation of college boys in the 1950: for why they, who prided themselves on their self-advcttised sexual expioits, wanted to marry virgins: “Why buy a used car if you can get a new one?"
with weapons on the other, Eislet leaves the impression that they just woke up one morning and went raiding for fun and did not stop for fifteen hundred years.
But to return to the narrative in Eisler’s terms: Typically, Eisier says, the nomads killed the men and children, raped the women and abducted them into marriage, slavery, 0r concubinage, and then settled down and stayed. The transition populations were made up of Old European formerly high-status women, invader dominator men, and the children born of these unions. Consistent with the theory is Eisler’s view that the paramount social change the invaders had to impose on Old Europe was the subjugation of its women and the eradication of women’s influence, since anything less was antithetical to dominator society and threatening to the power of its leaders.
Eislet’s analysis of the events recounted above illustrates the aggressiveness of her exposition. Of Mesopotamian myth she writes:
These are the stories from which biblical
scholars now believe the Old Testament
myth of the Garden of Eden in part denves.
Viewed in light of the archeological evidence we have been examining, the story of the Garden is also clearly based on folk memories. The Garden of Eden is an allegorical description of the Neolithic, of when men and women first cultivated the soil, thus creating the first “garden.” The story of Cain and Abel in part reflects the actual confrontation of a pastoral nomadic people (symbolized by Abel’s offering of his slaughtered sheep) and an agrarian people (symbolized by Cain’s offering of the “fruits of the ground” rejected by the pastoral godJehovah). . . . As will be detailed in succeeding chapters, these stories reflect the cataclysmic cultural change we have been examining: the imposition of male dominance and the accompanying shift
1;.
[Page 39]
from peace and partnership to domina
tion and Strife.
Eislet’s soulless account of the tragic story of Cain and Abel adds little to our understanding. Her reasoning by analogy from Gimbutas’ and Melaart's digs to the Garden of Eden, while imaginative, appears speculative.
C. L. Sulzbetger, a columnist for the New York 77mm, wrote that “Triumph in battle offers twin trophies to the victors. Their writets can impose on history their version of the war they won, while their statesmen can impose the terms of peace.”H Eisler, while never defining the issue as crisply as Sulzberger, proposes that such a process occurred in Western Civilization. Eisler devotes the balance of The Chalice and t/JeBlaa'e’s 261 pages, including 56 pages of notes, bibliography, and index, to the marshaling of mythical and historical sources in support of her theory that dominator cultures, triumphant in battle, institutionalized their values and resulting social practices in Western culture, that dominator influences were resisted for millennia but ultimately prevailed, and that their success continues to shape modern history as seen in the creation of totalitarian governments at the very time that modern technology has created weapons capable of destroying human life on earth.
What does The Chalice and the Blade contribute to the advancement of gender equality?
Does the archeological evidence cast doubt on the belief that men have always dominated women? Yes, it does appear to do that. If the Neolithic agriculturists did not dominate women, they can be considered a sig
14. The American Heritage Picture Hixmy of Work!
War II. ed. Ce L. Sulzbergcr, David G. McCullough,
ed‘.i.‘)New York: American Heritage Publishing Co”
IL 17
15. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Pramukatian 76.
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 39
nificant contrary example. The chronological coincidence of the end of the agricultural societies with the beginning of recorded history would explain why this was not previously knowni
Does the archeological evidence cast doubt on the belief that male domination is natural? Yes, it does. If one significant culture can be found in the deep past in which men did not dominate women, domination is not a biological imperative.
Does the atcheological evidence cast doubt on the belief that, since men protect women from physical danger, women must be subordinate to men? In this case, not only does it not Cast doubt on this belief, but rather nebulously, seems to confirm it. The implication that women, if given access to power, will create a society that cannot defend itself, is too important for Eislet to have let it stand without comment.
Finally, The Chalice and theBlade contains all the elements needed to increase female rage and male guilt. In view of the role of female rage and male guilt as engines for change, this cannot be seen as a negative factor.
71v Chalice and the Blade is immensely popular, even beloved. A recent sales flier announcing the issue of the book on tape states that over 500,000 copies of have been sold worldwide. Beyond its faults, what does the book offer?
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son Bahá’u’lláh and the appointed interpreter of His writings, made a statement that provides some insight: “In brief, the assumption of superiority by man will continue to be depressing to the ambition of woman, as if her attainment to equality was cteationally impossible; woman’s aspiration toward advancement will be checked by it, and she will gradually become hopeless.15
In refuting the claims that men have always dominated women and that male domi nation is natural, The Chalice and the Blade
40 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
offers hope to women. The sales figures indicate that the need for hope is widespread.
In SacredPlauurcEislet pursues her theory of cultural transformation into the realm of human sexuality. Her basic assumption is that the dominator and partnership models must inevitably result in different views of human sexuality and different sexual norms. Eisler characterizes sexual relations in partnership societies as a mutual exchange between men and women in which mutual pleasure is a significant component. In contrast, Eisler characterizes sexual relations in dominator societies as an arena of male domination and female submission, in which mutuality is lacking, and in which sexual pleasure for women is absent or suspect. Consistent with cultural transformation theory, Eislet posits that in the wake of the nomadic invasions a shift occurred in Western Civilization away from partnership sexuality toward dominator sexuality, accompanied by a corresponding shift in sexual norms.
Eisler divides Sama/Plemreinto two parts. In Part 1 she moves from theories on the evolution of primates through Ice Age art to a review of early mythology as it relates to sexuality. The invasions recounted in The Chalice and III: Blade are revisited with a focus on their implications for sexuality and the changes that resulted from them. Chapters 6 through 8 constitute Eisler’s review of the increasing hegemony of dominator values over pattnership elements in Western Civilization with the corresponding subjugation of women.
16. For example, the maIe-suprcmacist theories of Robert Ardrey, Robin Fox, Lionel Tiger, and Sherwood Washbum (see Sma'l’lmmrt 38—39).
IZ FJaine Morgan, 7}): Damn: of Woman (New York: Stein and Day. 1972), and Elaine Morgan, The AquatirAp: (New York: Stein and Day, 1982). Morgan
coined the term “Tananist.”
In Part 2, Eisler reviews attitudes toward sex and sexuality as seen from the Middle Ages to the present day, with illustrative examples of a general movement for several hundred years toward partnership sexuality that has met with corresponding resistance not only from institutions but from traditions established in the high—dominator past that persist in people’s minds today.
In Eisler’s discussion of primate evolution her eEotts to dispose of Tananist assumptions of male—hunting behavior as the chief determinant in human organic evolution are hampered by the fact that biologists have buried the alternative explanation.[6 In 1972 Elaine Morgan developed a strong theoretical foundation identifying the behavior of female: as the chief determinant in human organic evolution. '7 Morgan’s theory, far more biologically sound than ideas focusing on Man the Hunter, was ignored. Most biologists have never heard of Elaine Morgan. Eisler cannot be faulted for not finding her.
In Eisler’s discussion of cultural evolution her support of her theory of sharply differing human sexuality arising within partnership and dominator societies rests on considerable data. For example, in discussing the Paleolithic, EisIer sees as significant the frequent appearance of female imagery and in particular imagery directly representing female teproductive anatomy. She concludes from these images that
Paleolithic peoples saw the original source of life on this earth not as a divine Father but as a divine Mother, as the life-force so dramatically manifested in a woman’s body. And they did not, as the Judeo-Christian Bible does, try to pretend that in the creation of human life woman was a mere afterthought. Quite the contrary, the creative sexual power incarnated in the body of woman was for them one of the great miracles of nature.
Eislet’s characterization of the creation story in the Bible is incomplete and careless. Genesis
%
[Page 41]
contains not one but two creation stories.
The first chapter shows God creating man in
His image, male and female together and
simultaneously with full and equal sovereignty over the earth. The second chapter
shows God creating Eve after He created
Adam, but it has been scriptural literaiists
who have used the account to justify male
supremacy, not the Bible itself. Although
Adam does not actually speak in the text, one
can almost hear him crying out, “Oh, God,
you have given me the whole world, and yet
1am so lonely!” God gives him Eve because
“It is not good that man should be alone."m
Such a gift is no mere afterthought.
Even if one reads the Biblical creation stories only as myths rather than as Divine revelation, clearly the first chapter of Genesis may have come from the partnership peoples, while the second chapter may have come from the dominator peoples. It is interesting to find what may be both traditions side by side in the Bible, at a time when civilization might have been undergoing the transition of which Eisler speaks. It seems odd that Eisler did not note this possibility in support of her theory.
Furthermore, in discussing the Neolithic agriculturists, Eisler makes some sweeping claims that lose coherency if discussed piecemeal. To summarize them: Neolithic peoples did not divide their life experiences into the carnal and the spiritual. Sex, she speculates, was a mutual, joyous, and pleasurable activity, containing elements of neither iicentiousness nor of Puritanism. Sex and birth were seen as part of life and, as gifts of God, sacred, spiritual, and natural. Death was part
\ 18. Gen. 2:18.
. 19‘ One may ask, to which goddess is Eisler refer nngt Astana? Isis? Eisler refers to many female reP'e‘
sentations of the divine and finds in their individual
stories illustrations of her theory.
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 41
of the cycle of nature and, likewise, sacred, spiritual, and natural. Expected rebirth completed the cycle. These beliefs, Eisler claims, formed the foundation of Neolithic religions. Eisler further asserts that Neolithic peoples represented the creative force of the universe as female—that is, the Goddess.'9
In support of the idea of sexual intercourse as sacred and natural, Eisler cites the frequent findings in widely dispersed sites of the little “Venuses,” the often pregnant female figures in which the vulva is emphasized. She provides a wealth of examples of representations of the vulva as a recurring theme and writes that, “Since prehistoric art is primarily concerned with myths and rituals, there is little question that these vulvas are of religious significance.” Here Eisler appears to be hedging. In fairness, if she is to claim, as she does in The Chalite and the Blade, that the Indo—Europeans were worshiping weapons, it must be concluded that the Old Europeans must have been worshiping vulvas.
Eisler goes on to report that depictions of the phallus are also found, as are depictions of the union of the phallus and vagina. Eisler’s discussion of the ancient myth of the heir»: games, or “sacred marriage,” of the male and female principles in creation is clearly intended to bring a plethora of findings together, but it is too scattered to make the point. The failure to articulate clearly the very concept on which the title of the book is based is unfortunate.
Eisler’s view that the Neolithic agrarians saw death as simply a part of the cycle of nature—with its implication that fear of death was ameliorated by expectation of bodily reincarnation—rests on the existence of round tombs with small openings facing the east, which have been found in excavations in Minos and other early Aegean sites. The uterine shape of the tombs is identified symbolically with the womb of the Goddess, while the orientation toward the sunrise is
42 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
speculatively linked to the sun’s life—giving powers. Eisler offers little else in support. Thus a significant component of the contrast she makes between the agriculturists and the Indo-Europeans, which is their different understandings of death and the afterlife, appears at present to test on very thin evidance.
The Indo-Europeans, Eisler claims, had a very different world view. Eisler’s primary sources are Matija Gimbutas’ studies on recent Indo-Europmn archeology and Gimbutas’ papers synthesizing the findings in the field.20 The central points Eisler presents are as follows:
In contrast to the Old European symbol ogy of a female Creatrix, in Indo—Euro pean symbology male deities created life.
. . . And rather than 3 Goddess taking life
back into her womb, here, as Gimbutas
writes, “the frightening black God of Death and the Underworld marked the warrior for death with the touch of his spear tip, glorifying him as a fallen hero.”
Eisler goes on to say that,
Not surprisingly, this idealization of weapons and glorification of heroic warriors went along with an obsessive preoccupation with death. Since the Indo—Eutopeans did not believe in the cyclic regeneration of life, provision had to be made, particularly for fallen heroes, in the dank and dark underworld of the dead.
20. Of Gimbums' later boolu Eisler cites Th: Language of theGada'm(San Francisco: Harper, 1989). Th: Civilization Of the Gaddw (San Franciscan: HatperSan Francine, 1991), and many Gimbutas papers in scientific journals.
2]. For an insightful analysis of warrior culture, sec Mary Edwards Wemch, Militaryflmts: Legacia ofChildham' Inside the Forms: (New York, Haxmony Books, 1991 ).
Eisler concludes her description by noting that provisions for the “dank and dark underworld” often included the warrior’s belongings, such as his weapons, his horse, and his household, which is to say, his wife and children.
Eisler's ranking of the Old European conception of life and death as a process entailing nevet-ending rebirth back into this material life, as superior to the Indo—European conception of living on in another place, is flawed. To put it simply, and with an admittedly modern twist, most people would rather not be teenagers even once more, much less over and over. The Indo—European’s envisioning another life in another place is not inherently more frightening. Eisler’s own characterization of the pastoralists as engaged in chronic warfare is sufficient to explain evidence of preoccupation with death.
Moreover, Eislet’s stark characterizations of the warrior as preoccupied with nothing but killing, are off balance. Fundamentally, a soldier’s duty is not to kill but to face death and, if need be, to die. The psychological consequences of living with such a challenge are far more complex than Eisler acknowledges."
From nomadic pastoralism Eisler derives the dominator societies characterized by cruelty, slavery warriors, the despoliation of the planet, the subjugation of women, and what Eisler views as a distortion of sexuality. Correspondingly, she traces all the problems of modern life back to the btonze-age pastoralists.
Eisler’s assumption illustrates the paradoxical nature of her work both in The Chalice and thtBladeand in Saflthlcm‘urt. Although her arguments are logically consistent and may yet be established by disciplined research, Eisler’s exposition of crucial issues is couched in such extreme terms that one cannot separate truth from hyperbole. A further confounding factor is that Eisler systematically portrays the nomadic pastoralists as if they
[Page 43]
lacked human dignity. Bias of this magnitude weakens Eisler’s argument.22 In fairness,
the following are what appear to be the key
Paragraphs in Eisler’s exposition:
Pastoralism relies on what is basically the
enslavement of living beings, beings that
Will be exploited for the products they
produce . . . and that will eventually be
killed. . . .
This would also help explain the psychological atmoring . . . that DeMeo believes characterized the origins of patrist or dominator societies.23 For it is difficult to permit oneself to feel empathy (much less real love) for little creatures that, no
22. If one is to claim scientific validity, as Eisler does in deriving her theory from atchacological data, on: is bound by the ethics of the profession. The nomadic pastoralists, notwithstanding the fact that they have been dead for millennia, constitute Eisler’s subjects. In speculating to the degree that she does on the cognitive dynamics of nomadic pastoraliSts, Eisler has ventured beyond sociology into psychology. Therefore, two provisions of the Ethical Principles of Psychologim and Code of Conduct, American Psychological Association, 1992, apply: (I) In conduCting research, scholars must show due concern for the welfare and dignity ofall of the participants. (2) Research must be planned to minimize the possibility that results will be misleading. A critical factor in eliminating misleading results is avoidance of bias Careful analysis of the two Eider books under review indicates insufficient attention to either of these principles (Maxgaret Stack, Ph.D., Andante Professor of Psychology, University of De. (toit-Metcy. Denoit, Michigan, telephone conversation with author, 6 August 1997).
73.1mm: DeMco, “On the Origin and Diffusion of fan'um,‘ dist, U of Kansas, 1986, and James DeMeo. The Origins and Diffusion of Patrism in Sahamsia, 5. $1100 H.CJ-L," Worldflmm 30 (March-May 1991): 247 24. Here is a strange juxmposition. Eisler does not mention that in Orthodox Judaism animals are slaughtued by Tl! Shout using only the sharpest possible ’m‘f‘ '° SP’IIC the beam needless pain, in accordance With kosher law.
25. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, hamulgan'an 166.
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 43
matter how endearing, must be killed.“
When Eisler describes the “domestication” of women, she writes:
In other words, under the man—made rules of this rigidly male—dominant society, terms like Immr and dishonor, mural superiority and infefiofigl, responsibility and dependence, are used to mask the brutal reality of absolute Iife-and-death male control over women, and with this, over women’s sexuality and reproductive powers.
Although Eislet’s analysis and the Bahá’í teaching of progressive revelation rarely overlap, Bahá’í readers will notice an occasional compatibility of views. One such intersection concerns the equation of morality with the suppression of women in high-dominator cultures‘ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that “The status of woman in former times was exceedingly deplorable, . . . Woman was considered to be created for tearing children and attending to the duties of the household. If she pursued educational courses, it was deemed contrary to chastity."s Parallel is Eisler’s report of the Greek historian Theopompus, who in the fourth century B.C.E. wrote disapprovingly of Etruscan wives “dining, reclining, and toasting publicly with their husbands on banquet couches.”
When Eisler traces the progressive application of law, both civil and ecclesiastical, to the subjugation of women in Western civilization, her outrage is evident. Both in her style and in her focus on abuses to the exclusion of positive achievements, Eisler, in effect, kills the sacred cows of Western Civilization and serves them up raw.
Focusing on abuses is useful. If humanity is to move forward and emancipate women,
eople need some measurement, indeed some feeling, of the length and scope of the damage. To achieve that, women do need to be written into history. With only a few isolated exceptions, subjugation has been women’s history. As Bahá’ís are aware, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that, "When men own the equality of
44 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
women there will be no need for them to struggle for their rights!”26 Without a clear sense of what life was like for women in cultures that still directly or indirectly influence today’s thinking, men may find it quite difficult to own the equality of women. Although Eisler’s squeezing of the entire history of Western Civilization into her model of the suppression of female sexuality and the aggrandizement of male sexuality is rather narrow, the history of the abuse of women by men in Western Civilization that she reports needed to be written and deserves to be read.
In her extensive discussion of the status of women in Ancient Athens Eisler reports that women were not persons under the law. Indeed, the Athenian legal term for wife derives from the root meaning “to subdue" or “to tame.” Women in Athenian households were segregated in special women’s quarters. There was in Athens, Eisler writes, “an official women’s police, the gynaikonomai, which, as Aristotle wrote, served to restrict the movements of women in order to ‘protect their chastity.” Women were barred from all public life, excluded from social events, deeply socialized never to voice their own opinion to a man for fear of being considered “castrating,” married 01? at a young age so that, as Socrates said, she “would have been seen and heard as little as possible," and utterly deprived of education?"
Eisler’s recounting of the low status of women in ancient Athens, factually in accot 26. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, I’m} Elks: Address Gium by Zbdu'l—Ba/Id 12th ed. (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995) 50.14.
22 The use of the term “castrating” is Athenian, not an imposition of modem terminology. For an account of both partnership and dominator aspects of ancient Athens, see Eislet's source: Eva Kuels. Tb: Reign Of 2/1: Phallus: Sexuall’alitia in AncimtAtbm: (Berkeley, U of California Press, 1993)4
dance with other accounts this reviewer has seen, is so focused on the odious that Eisler misses the opportunity to address the greater question of how a culture that contributed so much to Western Civilization could have simultaneously treated its women so badly. The question of how great brilliance and great degradation can coexist in a single culture may be a question of some philosophical depth. Eisler’s attribution of all that was good in Athens to surviving partnership elements and her corresponding attribution of everything else to the increasing influence of dominator elements fails to satisfy.
Eisler is nevertheless making an important point. To the extent that conventional historical treatments of ancient cultures have failed to recognize the significance of women’s subjugation, have minimized it, and have attempted to justify it, they have failed to give full and fair disclosure, which is to say they have failed to reveal relevant facts. If such historical treatments were investment prospectuses, the Securities and Exchange Commission would reject them as incomplete and as attempts to perpetrate Fraud.
The reviewer’s observations accord with Eisler’s view that the painful reality of women’s lives in history has not been fully and fairly disclosed. Sacra! Pleasure contributes to teporting that reality. Eisler’s treatment is unbalanced, but so has been traditional history. One cannot reject Eisler on grounds of lack of balance without rejecting traditional histories on the same grounds. The cultural achievements of ancient Athens have been adequately covered elsewhere.
Eisler finds in the Old Testament not the transcendent divine messages ofAbraham and Moses but only a grim history of male supremacy and female commoditization. She writes with noticeable bitterness. It may be that Eisler is, in fact, trying to make sense of a paradox that has troubled many: If God is real, and not just man’s creation, and if God really spoke to Abraham and Moses, why
didn’t God make men stop subjugating women?
The answer to that knotty question is found in Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings on the progressive revelation of spiritual reality. In effect, Bahá’u’lláh says that humanity has not always existed in the relatively advanced spiritual condition that it does now. Human beings have had to grow up and become spiritually educated. God’s divine Messengers have been our educators from age to age. The Bahá’í teachings leave no doubt that God gives humanity all it can learn at each stage of its spiritual evolution. If humanity could have borne the spiritual responsibility of the equality of women and men before Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation, God would have given it to us. Moreover, there is a distinction between each revelation of God and the institutions that follow it. Up to the Bahá’í revelation these were left to humankind to create. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has discussed both these points:
The greatest bestowal of God to man is the capacity to attain human virtues. Therefore, the teaching of religion must be reformed and renewed because past teachings are not suitable for the present time. . . .
This has been the case also with the religious teachings so long set forth in the temples and churches, because they were not based upon the fundamenml principles of the religions of God. . . .
Therefore, Bahá’u’lláh appeared from the horizon of the Orient and reestablished the essential foundation of the religious teachings of the World.”
Eisler allots extensive space to what she sees as the final suppression of partnership
\ 18. ‘Abdu’LBahá, Pramulgation 378-79.
29. A few examples from a large field: Kate Millett 0“ P°fn<>graphy in serious literature (Sandal Politic:
COMING OUT OF THE [CE 45
values in medieval Christian doctrine. She concludes that “It is in medieval Christianity that the split between body and spirit and between woman and man reaches its apex.” In describing Medieval Christian society, Eisler sums up her view:
In short, it is a nightmare world where
pain is not only ubiquitous but exalted, a
world in which man is constantly exhorted
to turn against man, against woman, and even against himself—against his own body, which (along with woman) must be dominated and controlled. For both are now seen as lowly and disgusting, as is everything that is not of a higher “spiritual” realm in this earthly “vale of tears.”
Eisler’s characterization of Medieval Europe is a distortion by omission and by exaggeration. Although she supplies relatively unreported information and thus fills a gap, Eisler distorts Christian doctrine, imputes evil motives to the Church, and gives no credit to Christianity for creating a monotheistic culture in Europe after the fall of the pagan Roman Empire. As to her implication that no one in Medieval Europe ever had any fun, Carmina Burana might convince otherwise.
Part 2 of SacredPltamre represents Eisler’s view of the history of sexuality since the Middle Ages as an ongoing battle between dominator sexual tepressiveness and partnership sexual expressiveness. The discussion is an encyclopedic and factual account of sexual perversion, sexual dysfunction, and sexual abuse of women. Notwithstanding the limits of Eislet's dualistic and materialistic approach, readers who are willing to face the full measure of the negative effects of male supremacy on human moral development and on simple human happiness will find in Part 2 of Sacred Pleasure a mother lode of information. Although in virtually all instances this material has been covered elsewhere in greater depth, its sheer concentration within the covers of one book makes it a valuable resource.”
46 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
In attempting to find a path to gender equality, Eisler fails to provide new insight. The partnership—dominator dichotomy does not encompass human society or human sexuality, and Eisler’s forcing of human experience into what amounts to neatly labeled little boxes limits consideration of further options. Eisler never effectively addresses the question of just how humanity is to manage the sex drive, a drive that does, after all, exist in a social context, without some form of social control.
Instead, in her final chapter, Eisler can only appeal to humanity to search the dust of the deep past for partnership elements in their dominator traditions and from the imputed beliefs of the primitive Neolithic Bronze Age Goddess«wotshiping pagan farmers to seek solutions to the transcendent
[New York: Simon 6; Schuster, 1969]); Naomi Wolf on women under d1: male gaze (T beBeauty M116 [New York: Doubleday, 1992]); Carol Gilligan's second book on how adult women indoctrinatc preteen girls into self-silencing (Lyn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan, Meningat tlnCnm-mad: [New York: Ballentine, 1992]); Shulamith Fircsmne’s Marxist analysis of female subjugation (TIMDia/tm't q)" S“ [New York: Morrow. 1970]); Glenna Matthews on the seclusion of women (szkiye ofI’uHitWaman [New York: Oxford UP, 1992]): Katha Pollitt on “diEerence feminism” as a female abandonment of the struggle for gender equality (Rzmomzbk Crralum [New York: Knopf, 1994]); Dana Crowley Jack on clinical depression arising from women attempting to achieve intimacy in an unequal marriage (Silenring lb: Self[New York: HarperCollins. 1991]): Susan Faludi on resisunce to gender equality (Badth—szUndtrlamMRAgaimtAmtv-imn Warner: [New York: Crown, 1991]); Gloria Steinem on how society shapes women and men to male—suprcmacy, written with manifest affection for men (Rma/utianFrom Within [Bostom Little, Brown, 1992]); Colette Dowling’s The Cina'nrlh Complex (New York: Summit Books, Simon 8: Schuster, 1981); and Carol Tavris on myths of female sexuality ( Tb: Mixmmrure of Woman [New York: Touchstone Books, Simon and Schuster, 1992]).
30. C. S. Izwis The Lion, the Witch, am! lb: Wardrobe(New York: Harper, 1950) 19.
problems humanity faces today. Notwithstanding Eisler’s evident concern for the future of humanity, this will not be sufficient.
The questions of whether men have always dominated women and whether men's domination is natural are not applicable to SacredP/easurz. The question of whether men’s protection of women justifies men’s suppression of women runs through Sae‘rm'l’lemr: like the soft throb of a distant bass drum. Eisler never engages the issue.
In spite of theirlimitations, both Tthbalice and the Blade and Sacral Pleamrt raise a number of important issues related to power, sexuality, and public safety. Although Eisler does not address them effectively, these questions are critical to discourse on human advancement and the achievement of gender equality.
Eisler’s dominator and partnership models are most usefully considered not as the “only two basic models of society” she claims them to be but as simplified descriptions of a major development in early human history the consequences of which are still with humanity. Thus both models instruct humanity in what not to do. The Indo-Europeans and their descendants did too often abuse power, did too often engage in military conquest, and did subjugate women. On the whole, they have given us a world rather like C‘ S. Lewis’ Narnia, where it is “Always winter and never Christmas.”30 It is time to come out of the ice. Yet the partnership peoples evolved a society that was demonstrably unable to defend itself, an obvious weakness in their system, and a clear disservice to themselves. Both cultures represent humanity’s spiritual and, indeed, social immaturity. Consequently, neither culture as it existed, nor some combination of both of them, can carry humanity forward. It is not enough to identify what not to do. Humanity must know where to go from here. New information is needed, especially concerning power, sexuality, and public safety.
[Page 47]
The Bahá’í writings contribute new infotmation. In Eisler’s dominatot model the
existence of rank implies the presence of
power and a corresponding abuse of power.
in contrast, in the Bahá’í system, in which
both tank and power exist, rank is linked
strongly with humility and service, behavior
that is quite the opposite of that so often seen
in history. Furthermore, unlike ptevious
political systems of human creation, Bahá’u’lláh has built certain safeguards into His
administrative order. the system of Bahá’í’
governance, that prevent the compounding
of abuse of power, should it arise.
Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings proclaim the equality of men and women, and the Bethe“ administrative order, reflects that reality. Women have full rights of participation in the administrative order and in the affairs of the community. Women serve at all levels, be they local, national, or international. As to the one body on which women do not serve, which is the Universal House of Justice, Bahá’u’lláh gave no reason for confining membership to men but assured the Bahá’ís that the reason would become clear with the passage of time. In view of Bahá’u’lláh’s extensive teachings and laws proclaiming and upholding gender equality, such a restriction, which may also be seen as an exemption, cannot be interpreted as a rejection of the principle.
In the realm of sexual expression and the creation of unrepressive but effective social norms, the Bahá’í teachings affirm the insti \
, 31. On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, letter to indi“dufll: 5 Sept. 1938, in “A Chasm and Holy Life," “'11P- Resmch Department of the Universal House of Justice, in TheCnmpihtian af Cnmpi/atiomd’rtparm'b' hr Univeml House of [write 1963—1990 (Australia: Bill“ Publications Australia, 1991) 56, not 145.
32. ‘Abdu’LBzha, Hbdu ’l-Babd in London: Addmm MM)!“ nfCam/mm'am (London: Bahá’í Publishing Tnist, 1982) 19—20.
_
COMING OUT OF THE ICE 47
tution of marriage. Interpreting Bahá’í views of sexuality and marriage, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, states that
The proper use of the sex instinct is the natural right of every individual, and it is precisely for this very purpose that the institution of marriage has been established. The Bahá’ís do not believe in the suppression of the sex impulse but in its regulation and control."
The Bahá’í teachings are clear that husbands are not to dominate their wives, nor are wives to dominate their husbands. Instead, the point is made that, when a decision involves only two people, there can be no majority rule. Therefore, there will be times when he will defer to her, and likewise there will be times when she will defer to him.
The Bahá’í marriage laws establish a safe and spiritual home for sexual expression. There is in them no sacrifice of the principle of gender equality, a reality that in this age of transition sometimes makes Bahá’í marriages dramatic fields of battle. But as humanity struggles toward and achieves a deep understanding of the significance of these laws, the abuses of women that have occurred so often within marriage in the past will end.
Finally, how do the Bahá’í writings address issues of public safety? The writings condemn war in the strongest terms and forecast that in the future war will end permanently. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that “Wat shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.”32
The end of warfare, however, will not be achieved by repeating the mistakes of the Neolithic agriculturists and evolving a society that cannot defend itself, even if that society is global. Such a world would be inherently unstable, open to attack and to inevitable defeat by any nation determined to impose its will on its neighbors by force
_— '
48 WORLD ORDER: SUMMER 1997
of arms. To prevent such instability Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed the principle of collective security: “Should any king,” He wrote, “take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him."33
Repeatedly the Bahá’í writings affirm that the full participation of women at all levels of society will constitute a powerful force for the end to war. For example, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that “Mothers will not give their sons as sacrifices upon the battlefield after twenty years of anxiety and loving devotion in rearing them from infancy, no matter what cause they are called upon to defend.”34
Neither of Eisler’s books sheds light on the ancient belief that, since men protect women from physical danger, women must be subordinate to men. But the Bahá’í writings do. They separate the true premise from the false conclusion in the statement. Men do protect women from physical danger. It is part of their responsibility. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that military defense of one's country is men's duty but not women’s.35 To conclude, however, that male military duty renders men superior to women, or that male military duty has ever justified men’s control ofwomen, is an error. The Bahá’í teachings are perfectly clear.
It is obvious within the Bahá’í community, however, that men and women see the
33. Bahá’u’lláh, Gkaningxfi‘am theWriIing: afBaML u’llA/I. trans. Shoghi Effendi, lsr ps ed. (Wilmette, lll.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1983) 249. For “kings” it is appropriate to conclude that Bahá’u’lláh also means “heads of state."
34. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Pramulgan'nn 175.
35. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talk: 59.6.
male protective function very differently. When women discuss gender equality, they almost never mention men's duty to protect them. Men, however, frequently mention it, and it seems deeply felt. Typically, women angrily assume that men are asserting the entire ancient belief and thus men’s protective function as justifying men’s oppression of women. Such may not be the case. What are the men saying that the women are not hearing?
What the men may be telling the women is this: If there is a war, men have [0 be willing to die for women, but women do not have to die for men. This is men's duty, and if they are to be able to discharge it, women must compensate in some way. Women’s subjugation is not and never has been legitimate, but their giving honor to men’s potential sacrifice is. Men, in the Bahá’í writings, are charged with honoring women’s childbearing and child-rearing functions by according them prior right to education and eConomiC Support. Women Can be reasonably called upon to honor men’s protective function by publicly acknowledging its value and expressing their gratitude.
Sacred Pleaxure, notwithstanding its limitations, is an important book. If one strips away Eisler’s materialistic treatment of religion and her savaging of warriors, she does prove that human happiness has been truncated and human sexuality has been distorted by male supremaqr. Equally important, Sacral Pleamrt contributes to writing women into history, an element essential to progress. Sarrm' Pleasure cannot be dismissed for its lack of coverage of the positive achievements of men, unless one is also prepared to dismiss Th: Grapes of Wath because John Steinbeck failed to include a nuanced portrait of the California farmers who abused the Okies.
Authors 8C Artists
MANOOHER MOFIDI, who makes a first appmmnce in Wor/dorder, is a].D./Ph.D. candidate in international law and international politics in the College of Law and Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. His interests include international law and organization, international politics, and Greek political theory.
MICHAEL L. PENN, a regular contributor to MRIJOrder, is a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. He is currently working on Hope, Hopclmnm, and American Raw Relatiom, a study of psycho-histotical attitudes about the viability of healthy relationships between blacks and whites during the last three decades, His Dem-mtion Of the 72mph, an examination of the global problem of violence against women and girls, will be published later this year.
MARZIEH RADPOUR, a first—time contributor to XVar/dorder, is a clinical social worker who has, for the past several years, been a rape crisis counselor for Family and Children’s Services, Inc., in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ms. Radpour has recently entered the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Brigham Young University.
JANE J. RUSSELL, whose “Spiritual Vertigo at the Edge of Gender Equality" appeared in World Order in Fall 1995 issue, is an investment advisor. Her interests include military history, film, and music.
ART CREDITS: Cover design by John Solan, cover photograph, Steve Garrigues; p. 1, photograph, Steve Garrigues; p. 6, photograph, Glenford E. Mitchell; pp. 20, 32, photographs, Steve Garriguesi
