An Emerging Initiative with Riane Eisler

The first cornerstone is childhood: Neuroscience shows that what children experience and observe, especially in their first 5 years, shapes nothing less than the architecture of our brains, and with this, how we feel, think, and act – including how we vote. So how children are raised is a key social issue.

The second cornerstone is the attitude toward gender: We’ve been taught this is just a secondary “women’s issue,” but it’s a key social issue. Ranking the male form over the female form of our species is a template for equating all differences with superiority or inferiority, dominating or being dominated, being served or serving — a model for in-group versus out-group prejudices: racism, anti-Semitism, and so-forth. Moreover, traits and activities that in domination systems are associated with real masculinity, such as conquest and domination, are ranked over those stereotypically associated with femininity, such as caring—be it for children in families or caring for our natural life-support systems. This negatively affects everyone, and must be transformed.

The third cornerstone is economics: Current economic systems, both capitalist and socialist, follow this gendered system of values, failing to adequately reward the work of caring for people and caring for nature in ways that put food on the table and a roof over people’s head. That’s why we urgently need a new caring economics of partnerism.

The fourth cornerstone is story and language: Many normative stories, whether original sin or selfish genes, present violence and domination as normal and inevitable — despite the evidence from neuroscience to the contrary. Not only that, the social categories provided by our languages fragment our consciousness, marginalizing or ignoring the majority of humanity: women and children. We must transform these as well.

• Unsustainable consumption and production
Unsafe and unsustainable consumption and production patterns can lead to toxic waste and limited resources that harm children’s health, development, and environment. This is addressed in SDG 12. 

• Climate change
UNICEF estimates that nearly half of the world’s children live in countries that are at an “extremely high-risk” from the impacts of climate change. 

• Education
SDG 4, “Quality Education”, emphasizes the importance of every child receiving a quality education so they can develop to their full potential and become productive adults. This is especially important for children who have been recruited as child soldiers or whose education has been interrupted. 

• Violence
Violence against children is a violation of their rights and an urgent global public health concern. It can adversely affect children’s health and well-being, limit their life opportunities, and undermine national development. This issue is addressed within the SDGs. 

• Child labor
SDG 8 aims to eliminate child labor, slavery, and the sale of human beings, and ensure a safe and secure working environment for everyone. 

The United Nations’ International Children’s Month serves as a platform to advocate for the rights of children as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). This includes rights to education, healthcare, protection from violence, and opportunities for participation and expression.

We need your help and your powerful voice.

In-depth research over decades makes a strong evidential connection between violence and trauma in the home and terrorism, war, crime, and other social violence. This evidence, including evidence from neuroscience, shows that it is through violence in the home that children first learn that violence by those who are bigger against those who are less powerful is not only normal but moral.

This is learned in the early formative years of life before our brains, including critical faculties, are fully structured. Recognizing this link is an essential step towards a more equitable world in which peace will not just be an interval between wars.

Our call to action to the global community raises consciousness to:

1. The enormous worldwide suffering and trauma caused to children, women, and men by violence in families

2. The scientific evidence showing the strong link between family violence and the violence of war, terrorism, and crime

3. The enormous personal, family, social, and economic benefits of stopping violence in families

We request you giving your support and endorsement of this initiative, which will change our language from the marginalized and often ignored “domestic violence” to “family violence” (which it is), shedding much needed light on the systemic problem of violence (and authoritarian rule), healing it at its source.

With humble thanks for your important work, we look forward to your support.

On a personal note, I am passionate about this initiative, not only as a social systems scientist but as a child Holocaust refugee, cultural historian, futurist, and mother and grandmother deeply concerned about our world and our future. I have written many books, including The Chalice and the Blade (now in its 56th US printing and described by the late Ashley Montagu as the “most important book since Darwin’s Origin of Species”) and most recently  (Oxford University Press, 2019), which draws heavily from neuroscience. My interview in the Scientific American noted below identifies me as “one of the most original thinkers of our time.”

Respectfully,

Riane Eisler

See a recent comprehensive blog post by Evolutionary Leaders Circle member Roger Briggs on Riane Eisler’s vision “From Domination to Partnership”:

See Riane Eisler’s publications and public activities on these issues at her Center for Partnership Systems www.centerforpartnership.org, and these important articles.

• https://centerforpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Protecting-the-Majority-of-Humanity.pdf;

• https://rianeeisler.com/articles-papers/#breaking-the-devastating-link-between-international-terrorism-and-intimate-violence

It is particularly important, since it is an Encyclopedia article:

• https://centerforpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Family-Structure-and-Family-Violence.pdf

And also because its lead author, Frances Kissling, makes a broad statement re reclaiming family values:

• https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-american-family-building-a-foundation-for-real-democracy-and-freedom/.

See also Riane Eisler’s article in the Human Rights Quarterly entitled “Human Rights: Toward an Integrated Theory for Action “ (https://rianeeisler.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Human-Rights-Quarterly-1.pdf). It was published in 1986 and pioneered what has since been called “women’s rights as human rights.”

Note this statement by the American Psychological Association (APA): “Physical discipline is harmful and ineffective: new APA resolution cites evidence that physical punishment can cause lasting harm for children” (https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/physical-discipline).

And, see this discussion blog from the work on the initiative to date: https://oneworld.earth/posts/call-to-create-art-for-a-partnership-culture