Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/Neutopia/TIME FOR EPOCH MAKING CHANGE

Text File | 1994-09-30 | 18KB | 329 lines

          Saturday, 2 July 1994 2:36:29 PM
          alt.save.the.earth Item
  From:           [e-mail] (Doctress Neutopia),internet
  Subject:        TIME FOR EPOCH MAKING CHANGE
  To:             alt.postmodern,internet
                  alt.romance
                  alt.feminism,internet
                  alt.prose,internet
                  alt.save.the.earth

                                        June 12, 1994
                                        289 Triangle St.
                                        Amherst, MA  01002


Dear Bruce,

     Thank you for the telephone conversation.  We certainly talked
about a wide variety of topics, from sex and intimacy to politics
and murder.  It sounds to me that we both have been in a privileged
position for quite a while.  And we both have felt a sense that we
had to work for the future of humanity with our time. This led both
of us to the problem of war which then lead us to visualize a world
of peace.  You call this state Amala and I call it Neutopia.  Amala
is your paradise;  Neutopia is mine.  Does that mean we are on
different islands of bliss somewhere in the Noosphere? What kind of
architectural structure have the people built at Amala? I must
admit to you that the word Amala has been flowing through my mind
since we talked.  Maybe the only way to "Creative Love 2010" is
through the ways of the lovolution (a non-violent world revolution,
the evolution of revolution, a planetary movement for world peace,
a romantic revolution).

     You write, "Although overpopulation, nuclear weapons
proliferation, etc. are certainly serious problems, the major
problem confronting humanity is disunity.  Warfare and arm's races
are but one of many harmful side effects of our disunity.  Our
disunity makes the search for solutions for all other problems much
more difficult."  The above thought resonates with me very much.
For decades, I have been analyzing this disunity by trying to
understand its root causes.  The reason why I was committed to the
mental institution back in 1976 was because I was "flipping out" on
my realizations.  As a student of Mount Vernon College in
Washington, D.C., I decided to drop out of classes so that I could
begin to focus on my own thoughts.  I began to cut out articles on
the nuclear arms race between the US and the USSR.  I was horrified
with the utter insanity of these governments. The only way I
thought that war could be stopped was through love.  This is when
I developed my intense interest in the phenomenon of true love.

     After much thought and study, I believe I now understand the
reason why we are disunited.  It seems to deal with the bad, that
is, sexist, mythology on which the foundation of the patriarchal
civilization is based. This false foundation inhibits true love
from being able to blossom between people. The true love thing is
an essential ingredient necessary to build a sustainable order in
the world.  Sorokin Pitirim writes in _The Ways and Power of Love_
that love is "one of the highest form of a unifying, integrating,
humanizing, creative energy or power" (6).  It would now seem that
we are in dire need of apostles of true love.

     You write, "Efforts by politicians to unify humanity at the
global level (e.g. the "United Nations") are hopeless.  National
leaders alone cannot unify humanity.  Some means must be found for
permitting anyone and everyone who wants to help unify humanity."
Yes, I think this is a very important idea.  To build peaceful,
sustainable ecocities (which is the long-term plan that, in my
opinion, will save us) will take the cooperation of all people who
believe in the betterment of humankind.  However, the problem of
the unity of the sexes is still not being addressed here.  This
primal unity seems essential for us to be able to develop a new
philosophy of a holocracy (government of whole systems).  I call
this new union, a telepathic hermaphrodite, or the Gaia Messiah.

     You might be interested in reading a copy of my dissertation
entitled, _Gaia, The Planetary Religion:  The Sacred Marriage of Art
and Science_. (If so let me know and I will send you a copy.) It is
an attempt at the re-unification of the species by tracing the pre-
history and history of architecture in hopes of finding the wisdom
needed to lead us into a new epoch of biospheres.  In order for
this to happen we need to be activists of the heroic myth, in other
words, we need not only filmmakers, but mythmakers.

     Back to the problem of disunity.  I have tried throughout my
life to form creative partnerships with various people.  They have
all failed because our ideas and life purpose did not form a more
perfect union.  The love power between us was not strong enough to
unify our ideas. I was starting to believe that I had no other
choice but to follow my consciousness and realize that I must work
independently in my goal of creating world peace.  This fate
puzzled me because world peace is about forming creative alliances
between people, so how could one do it alone?

     You explained to me over the phone that you were having
problems with finding people interested in exploring your ideas
with you.  You even stated that you thought that you would have to
mate with a woman whom you would not be able to discuss your ideas
with. You felt that you would have to seek other like-minded males
in which to discuss such matters.  So, what role would your mate
play in your life if not that of an intellectual companion?  Is she
to be your traditional wife and mother?  What would happen, then,
is that you would fall into the stereotypical roles of the sexes
which is controlled by patriarchal domination.  That is simply not
good since is it part of the war problem.

     I, on the other hand,  explained to you how I was having
problems with most men still seeing me primarily as a sex object.
When I tried to discuss my ideas about love and Neutopia with them,
they don't want to hear it and insist I keep my mouth shut.  They
will accept me as their lover as long as if I look pretty and act
sweet, but if I dare express my opinions which are in opposition to
the patriarchy, they want little more to do with me.  I have very
much difficulty feeling erotic passion for a man without the
blending of ideas.  After all, isn't love the greatest of ideas?
Isn't sexual love the fusion of MIND, body, and soul?

     I have chosen to write about these intimate subjects which we
briefly discussed over the telephone because I think this is where
our social dysfunction stems from.  If you want to have a
successful film script, the question of intimate relationships
between the sexes must be addressed. I am in the middle of reading
a very interesting book by F. Muller-Lyer entitled, _The Evolution
of Modern Marriage:  A Sociology of Sexual Relations_.  He outlines
three different epochs of humankind in terms of geneonmical
development:  1) Tribal Epoch; 2) Family Epoch; 3) Individual or
Personal Epoch.

                          Tribal Epoch

     In _Nun, Witch, Playmate: The Americanization of Sex_, Herbert
W. Richardson says that the Tribal Epoch was the period when ethnic
loyalty and reverence for the Mother was all prevailing.  Muller-
Lyer states that during this period love was simply a biological
function composed of animal-like elements.  This instinctual
sexuality created a kinship society which mimetic conformity to
nature.  All life's activities and institutions were part of this
kinship system. In this epoch, man had not recognized his
individuality or personal love. Life was determined by the cycles
of nature of which he was part.  Life was temporal.  Change and
death were the natural cycles in his world of sensory perception.
Children were raised in kinship groups.  It was thought that the
king needed to be sacrificed at annual fertility festivals to
assure the continuation of the natural cycles. He thought that his
immortality depended on the fertility of the Great Mother.

                          Family Epoch

     In the Family Epoch, man, the king, begins to develop his "ego
consciousness."  The rule of mother-right is overthrown by the
concept of father-right. He began to differentiate and have an
autonomous calling from which he denied women. To do this, he
subordinated his instincts to his ego. He became the law maker and
the founder of the city and the state.  Urban patriarchy was
established as the king took over the Great Goddess' temple,
institutionalized the concept of money as the means of exchange,
declared himself and his temple the center of the Cosmos, and hired
priests to carry out rituals to the king's divine right.

     He thought himself free of the cycles of nature and that
through his will alone he would create voluntary activity without
the input of his sexual partner.  Richardson writes, "The Old
Testament God can be creative by the power of his will alone.  It
is the power of the biblical God to create alone--that is, without
a sexual partner--that is the key to biblical monotheism." As king,
he control the wealth and power.  Women, stripped of their social
status within the kinship system, were now under his domain totally
dependent on him for her basic human needs.  As man became more
aware of his role in the reproductive process, and as trade made his
household rich, he began to demand that his progeny inherit
his wealth.

     To assure that his progeny received his riches, the
institution of marriage was developed to legitimate his heirs.
Muller-Lyer writes, "By marriage woman passes from her father's
guardianship to that of her husband;  she must give him a vow of
obedience, exchange her name for his and from then on be subject to
his will; and the woman, her whole character, was changed by the
will of man." From then on, the concept of the urban city and the
private property prevailed.  Muller-Lyer says, "The State is the
political, the family the economic, heir of the clan (193). Woman's
duty was now to be his faithful wife and to care for his household
and raise his children. His duty of sacrifice evolved from
sacrificing himself for the maintenance of the natural biological
process of the tribe, to sacrificing himself in a holy war to
protect the new social unit--the "supratribal corporate societies"
of the city.

     Richardson outlines another stage in the development of the
the Family Epoch.  He calls this the rational stage.  In the Old
Testament preeminent status is given to all-male groups.
Biological family groups were replaced with "spiritual blood ties"
within male groups so that a universal community of mankind could
be established.  At this stage, the powerholders recognized through
mathematics, logic and rational order, that there was a changeless
spiritual order of the "Transcendent Eternal Truth."  For them,
knowledge was discovered through human contemplation in a
theoretical way.  This resulted in an abstract identity.  The way
to the holy life was thought to be through the denial of the sexual
self.  Holy men renounced desires for pleasure--wife, sex, and
progeny--for the monastic life.  The concept of sacrifice had now
developed into the sacrifice of one's sexual life and personal
happiness in order to manifest and bring into existence a universal
community of men bound by abstract ideology, such as the "holy
catholic church."

     When children are born into these Christian families which was
the sole purpose of marriage, it was the duty of the parents to
sacrifice their happiness in order to devote their time and energy
to their upbringing.  This false devotion to the transcendent God
created an unhappy situation between the sexes. Muller-Layer
explains, "Consequently, as both were animated by entirely diverse
interests, they lived within marriage without any understanding of
each other, and in a state which often resembled secret warfare
wherein man was not always the actual victor" (74). No wonder men
sought out extra-marital affairs with women artists and
intellectuals who were more independent than their wives!

           Personal Epoch or the Romantic Revolution

     Yes, now we have reached the best part of the our love story
which happens to be the motivating factor!  In _Love and Ethics_
Ellen Key writes, "When we have got to the point at which love is
regarded with religious reverence as the necessary basis of the
"sacredness of the generation," a large part of the present social
rescue work will be rendered superfluous. The number of degenerates
and erring will diminish in proportion as love becomes one of the
means of man's bliss, not the sin that causes his fall (42)."  So
here we are at the beginning of a new epoch, an epoch where
"society must be so adjusted as to make the happiness of the
individual subserve the betterment of the species" (Key 1911, 11).

     Muller-Lyer calls this epoch the Personal Epoch.  The key to
understanding this epoch is the struggle for the rights of women.
This epoch is about the differentiation of women as they begin to
gain a unique personality with "will and choice."  Muller-Lyer
describes marriage in the personal epoch as two independent
personalities coming together for the "common spiritual life of two
people" (175). In principle, it is hoped that this union would have
lifelong commitment, however the marriage would be dissolvable if
there where unreconcilable differences.

     How I and others see this epoch is that sex would be a melting
of ideas and sensuality, what has been called "erotic
spirituality."  Sexual fantasy becomes uplifted as it is understood
that the purpose of the union is for the betterment of the entire
human race, not just to the tribe or the state, but to the whole of
humanity.  Intimate relationships are an expression of this
wholeness.  Intimate encounters are conducted as expressions of
this personal conversation with the planet.  This planetary
understanding gives the capability to experience both the self and
the other as the unification of sex and love occurs. Sexual orgasm
is thought of not as an end, but as the means to spiritual
communion.  In order for there to be a lifelong union, the insights
gained during intimate encounters must be acted upon in everyday
life.

     Now, we have gotten down to the problem of everyday life,
economics. Muller-Layer writes, "According to a general law of
sociology, new stages of civilization always arise in the following
way:  first, economic advances are made, and on this basis then
rest of the social functions likewise make decisive advances.  A
new economic system leads us to expect a new geneonomy" (170).  I
don't see how this new loving couple can survive in a capitalist
world.  Our society has not evolved to the point of realizing that
we must work in communal ways if we wish to live in healthy
communities where people are free to make spiritual partnerships.

     This carries us back to the idea of sacrifice.  In order for
us to reach this new epoch of romantic love, we must be willing to
sacrifice our current way of life for one that is based on communal
values.  We can see that the evolution of sacrifice has then gone
to various stages: the tribal stage where one sacrificed oneself to
the cycles of nature, the family stage where one sacrificed oneself
for the preservation of the state, and the personal stage where we
must sacrifice our personal habits of greed and selfishness for the
survival of the planetary health and happiness of all creatures.
This means that we must sacrifice our modern consumers habits of
homeownership, individual cars, private bank accounts so that we
can move into a social system which supports our daily life needs
so that everyone may become free, individualized spirits.

     It is clear to me that if we are to save love, we must rebuild
the world using ecocity designs.  There is no union without a
common vision.  We also need a common spiritually which can inspire
us to build the kind of world that is worthy to being call a new
epoch.  Muller-Lyer concludes, "Just as man in general is dependent
upon the society in which he lives, so also are the two sexes destined
for each other; man and woman are physiologically and psychologically
dependent on one another.  Such an interdependent relationship leads
in itself to an antagonism that strives in every way towards a
solution, a settlement" (238). These new settlements are the ideal
Ecocities, the dream of building a place where free marriages based
on love can be a foundation of planetary peace. Only then we will find
Neutopia and Amala. Only then can our dreams become One.

     This letter turn out to be much longer than I ever expected.
One never knows where inspiration will lead us!  Thank you for
giving me this chance to write about these exciting visions.


                                        Eye of the triangle
                                        Doctress Neutopia














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From: [e-mail] (Doctress Neutopia)
Newsgroups: alt.postmodern,alt.romance,alt.feminism,alt.prose,alt.save.the.earth
Subject: TIME FOR EPOCH MAKING CHANGE
Date: 2 Jul 1994 04:36:29 GMT
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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