Introductory Note:
I initially intended the piece below for my own blog as it seemed only tangentially relevant to the theme of this one. However, on thinking a little more about the subject, it occurred to me that one of the things preventing any kind of spiritual awakening is precisely the false view of human beings first, and men and women second, that feminism promotes and, with that in mind, I feel its inclusion here is justified.
Because feminism has defined itself as the search for equality a lot of people, particularly men, are reluctant to criticise it even when they have reservations about some of its effects. But for anyone who looks at life spiritually rather than materialistically or politically, the relationship between the sexes is best defined in terms of complementarity rather than equality, and, in that light, feminism contains many errors. Of course, it did initially supply a corrective to an over-balance on the male side but it has long since gone beyond that, and now it seems that its destructive aspects considerably outweigh its creative ones.
Strong words, perhaps, but let us consider the facts. The more feminists are given, the more they want. They claim only to want equality but this word, which is actually meaningless in the context of men and women who are fundamentally different and therefore can never be equal, is used as an excuse to put forward a constantly expanding list of demands. And yet perhaps that is ultimately a good thing because a metaphysical error is best exposed when the results of its expression are fully manifested. Until the consequences of its errors are seen, it can seem plausible. But once we see what the practical applications of the theory lead to then we can see the inadmissibility of the theory in the first place.
This is one argument against modern feminism but you might think it applies only to the extreme form or feminism gone bad. However, there is another point to consider, and this applies to feminism even when taken at its own estimation.
The basis of the feminist claim is equality but the fact is that a culture based on equality (and if you have equality in one area then, by definition, you must have it in all) leads inevitably to decline since, by its very nature, it celebrates mediocrity and attempts to outlaw the exceptional and the challenging. The culture produces a society in which the safe and agreeable is prized more than the exceptional or the new or what might initially seem dangerous because it disturbs the status quo. Such a society might be peaceful outwardly but it will tend to stay exactly where it is and never really progress in any way. Equality leads to stagnation and decline.
For, like it or not, it is the male that drives progress and evolution while the female stabilises and contains that drive. The one is expansive and seeks change and growth while the other is contracting and seeks to preserve and maintain. Clearly you need both. But the same impulses in the male that can lead to violence when misdirected can also, when disciplined and pointed upwards, be highly creative. Of course, women are creative too but generally they are so in a more conformist, less exploratory way. They are less concerned with trying to grasp the truths of the absolute or bring fire down from heaven. Their focus is more on feelings than truth, but a preoccupation with feelings keeps one identified with the earthly persona and what causes it pleasure or discomfort. Yet identification with this part of our nature is precisely what needs to be transcended if both individuals and society as a whole are to advance, and if we are to go beyond what pleases us to what is actually true.
Why do the dark forces that are seeking to bring the world under their domination appear to target women to such a degree, offering them the temptation of a false equality? Remember this was their tactic from the beginning. It is because their aim is to disrupt the natural order of being. They seek to foment rebellion against true order wherever possible, and the proper relationship between the sexes is the foundation of everything else. Disrupt that and you have gone a long way towards unbalancing creation and separating human beings from their roots in God. All humans are the losers in this but perhaps women are especially so as any material or personal gains they might make as a result are more than offset by their spiritual losses. Just what equality has a woman gained when, to achieve it, she must imitate a man and sacrifice the truths and values of her own womanhood?
We know that the family is the ground in which a spiritually healthy civilisation may flourish and grow. Not only is it the best framework for human development as it gives a background of love and security, but it also reflects the divine reality. That is why the devil has relentlessly attacked it, usually in the name of a spurious higher ideal. Feminism is intrinsically destructive of the family because it sacrifices the family, of which the mother should be the heart, to personal ambition. So once again, it is about power not love.
The feminist revolution may seem reasonable if one has adopted a materialistic worldview but, when you understand its effects on society and individuals, it is highly corrosive spiritually. However, men must accept that if the masculine sex had been true to its (rightful) position of spiritual authority and leadership, and if it had not abused its power, then feminism would have had no soil in which to grow. It is no coincidence that the female revolt against the male followed the male revolt against God. Men cannot blame women for this. By not living up to their responsibility, they have helped bring this situation about, though it has certainly been encouraged by the dark powers who, among other things, have promoted the illusion that one is somehow less valid a person as a wife or mother than as a unit of economic productivity. Only a materialistic age like ours could believe such an idea.
If you see yourself as both a spiritual person and a feminist you should consider the following. Feminism arose from a materialistic conception of what a human being is. It has no proper spiritual basis to it. Certainly, people have created a modern feminist spirituality put together by human beings from various sources including paganism (as understood in the 20th century), left wing ideology and occultism (as understood in the 20th century), but this has no grounding in any revelation or divinely inspired truth. It has been manufactured by human beings who have largely projected their own desires onto the spiritual world. (Other forms of spirituality do this as well, of course.) This is not to dispute that the universe is constructed from the interaction of complementary, masculine and feminine, principles but feminist spirituality has no real sense of transcendence, reducing the spiritual to the merely supernatural and then seeing the supernatural largely in terms of the natural.
A piece like this that criticises feminism might seem, to those who see things as they want to see them, to be criticising women. Of course, it's not. What it is criticising is that which attempts to destroy the idea of the masculine and the feminine as divine realities, each with its own role in the scheme of things, and which seeks to remake reality according to a corrupt agenda of a false equality. As so many people have pointed out, feminism is actually anti-feminine so the most you could say about this piece is that it criticises not women but female egotism and the search for power for which feminism is often an excuse and a front. Is that criticism a bad or a necessary thing? Bad, if you think there is no such thing as female egotism, necessary if you think it exists but is largely unacknowledged.
But basically, like much that I write, this article is intended to point to the anti-spiritual nature of modernity of which feminism is merely a subset, albeit an important one. It is one more thing to be thrown off before true spiritual awakening can occur.
Concluding Note: I think it worth adding to this piece a comment I made on one of Bruce Charlton's recent posts on a similar subject which is that feminism was initially a good thing, in that it sought to restore a proper complementarity between the sexes, but it was soon misinterpreted as the search for equality and then twisted further into the quest for power. So there was at the beginning an evolutionary impulse behind it but human ego and, very probably, demonic distortion rapidly muddied its waters and misdirected its course.
A piece like this that criticises feminism might seem, to those who see things as they want to see them, to be criticising women. Of course, it's not. What it is criticising is that which attempts to destroy the idea of the masculine and the feminine as divine realities, each with its own role in the scheme of things, and which seeks to remake reality according to a corrupt agenda of a false equality. As so many people have pointed out, feminism is actually anti-feminine so the most you could say about this piece is that it criticises not women but female egotism and the search for power for which feminism is often an excuse and a front. Is that criticism a bad or a necessary thing? Bad, if you think there is no such thing as female egotism, necessary if you think it exists but is largely unacknowledged.
But basically, like much that I write, this article is intended to point to the anti-spiritual nature of modernity of which feminism is merely a subset, albeit an important one. It is one more thing to be thrown off before true spiritual awakening can occur.
Concluding Note: I think it worth adding to this piece a comment I made on one of Bruce Charlton's recent posts on a similar subject which is that feminism was initially a good thing, in that it sought to restore a proper complementarity between the sexes, but it was soon misinterpreted as the search for equality and then twisted further into the quest for power. So there was at the beginning an evolutionary impulse behind it but human ego and, very probably, demonic distortion rapidly muddied its waters and misdirected its course.
2 comments:
''A piece like this that criticises feminism might seem, to those who see things as they want to see them, to be criticising women. Of course, it's not''
Now what happens when you flip the sexes
''A piece like this that criticises ***** might seem to those who see things as they want to see them, to be criticising men. Of course, it's not''
Its quite peculiar why there is no caveat necessary for the male sex.
Yes, an interesting point which illustrates the one-sidedness of the argument. Unacknowledged prejudice drives feminism today.
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