Hi J Apple Muncy, long time no “see.”
“More than half of White women voted for Donald Trump, despite his obvious disdain for women. Why? Because in a dominance hierarchy, you want to try to hold onto the highest position possible in any way that you can. White women might be lower on the pyramid of power than elite White men, but at least they are still above everyone else. A study of exit poll data from the 2016 election confirms this hypothesis. If you can’t hold the apex position, at least you can make a deal for second place, and that is better than being even lower down, or worse yet, last. Higher up is a place that is not only more prestigious and comfortable but also a place that is safer. Being under the wing of someone in power is a better place to be than out in the cold.
Many women uphold patriarchy, despite the ways that it disadvantages them, because of the ways that it feeds into greed and fear but also an unwillingness to pay the price for bucking the system. Misogyny is the policing arm of patriarchy, and women who deviate from what is expected of them by patriarchal standards often find themselves facing censure and punishment for that — from men but also from other women. But also, this is the ocean we’ve all been swimming in our entire lives and all of recent human history. And because we’ve absorbed the rules (as stated above) through a kind of cultural osmosis, adherence to them is often subconscious.”
Lots of men no longer buy into the dominance hierarchy, because they’ve seen the ways that it hurts them too. It’s the new wave in business right now, to have more partnership-oriented working groups because they are a lot more agile and responsive.
“So, what does a contemporary partnership-oriented society even look like? Nordic countries such as Denmark have the closest approximation in modern times. Denmark is considered one of the happiest countries in the world by the UN World Happiness Report. One of the reasons may be that Danish schools teach empathy as a part of the regular curriculum, and provide weekly opportunities for students to help each other work through problems with the assistance of the teacher, based on listening to and understanding each other.
A key element of Danish culture is hygge, which could be defined as “intentionally created intimacy”. “In a country where it gets dark very early in the year, it rains, it’s gray, hygge means bringing light, warmth and friendship, creating a shared, welcoming and intimate atmosphere.” One of the elements of this is discouraging competition between individuals. Instead, students are asked to strive to do their best, using only themselves as a metric for improvement.”
I hope that Biden picks Warren also and that he wins, despite his obvious shortcomings.
