The Power of Partnership. . - book review

WIN News, Spring, 2002 by Fran P. Hosken

Once you begin to read this book, it is impossible to stop: it captivates all your attention. I was just going to take a "quick look" to get an idea what it is all about: But at 2 a.m. I was still reading: I could not put it down. Riane Eisler's extraordinary and interesting feminist research has been featured many times in WIN NEWS - for instance she wrote the editorial of the last issue. But everything she talks about in this book completely supports and reflects your own experiences and "what you yourself know deep down". Too often we ignore what we know deep down: but here it faces us and resonates with our own experience.

This book not only is essential for our own personal health and spirit, but it requires action from all of us: it is full of hope that indeed we can change our lives and our communities and eventually the world. It is all quite plausible - it can be done - starting with our own lives, families and communities.

The move "from domination to partnership" is explained in many different contexts, historical events and personal experiences that we all share so that we are drawn in and become personally involved and begin to understand in a new way what we experienced and "know" - but never before were the causes analyzed or the reasons why explained.

With hundreds of familiar examples from everyday life and history, Riane explains the difference between the two basic views and ways of life: one based on "domination" - ranking, oppression, and violence, the other on "partnership" - a democratic egalitarian social structure of equality between women and men, between child and parent between master and servant.

These two ways of life and structuring of society and government have now become glaringly obvious in the events of the past year: the Taliban and Saudi Arabia are vivid examples of the authoritarian top down, violent model that dictates all personal and community behavior, that ranks men above women who have no control over their lives and are exposed to constant male violence. It follows the traditional "master and slave" social structure. But a huge price is paid by the majority of the people living in "dominator settings" in terms of restrictions, poverty, lack of choice and opportunity that results in frustration and growing rage that is looking for violence.

For instance looking at present examples: instead of dealing with the real causes of restrictions the frustrations are skillfully channeled by the leadership intent on keeping their power to those unable to protect themselves, women, children, the poor and the "outside foreign influences" that promote very different and free ways of life: these are blamed and must be destroyed according to the beliefs of those who promote the jihad against the "infidels" - as a means to preserve absolute power.

The vast majority who organized the September attack were from Saudi Arabia, the country that today enforces the most draconian oppression and exploitation of women and the poor, where all the freedoms taken for granted by our children are quite unknown and where all menial tasks are performed by the poorest hired foreigners, from Pakistan and other poor Moslem countries.

These two completely opposite views of organizing society and life and government illustrate the two opposite views of life of the "dominator" and "partnership" society that this book so convincingly presents.

In most of the "Western world" the move towards a partnership society is well under way and has been immensely successful socially and economically especially in terms of our personal lives. How to successfully and consciously participate and indeed promote the Partnership way of life is shown and demonstrated in the remarkable analysis in this book. It shows us how we can participate in this change in making life especially for our children quite different from the dominator dictates which ruled especially in schools until quite recently (such as "spare the rod, spoil the child").

Besides this book - which is really a practical guide for a better future - Riane Eisler wrote The Chalice and the Blade - Our History, Our Future which has been translated into dozens of languages and distributed all over the world. Riane Eislers book on children's development and education "Tomorrows Children : A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century "where a partnership approach to bringing up children is successfully explored: it provides the essential background and guidelines to implement these ideas. And she has published many other important books - all listed in the last 40 pages of this book - all related to and supporting the Partnership Theme.

In fact the last chapter of the book provides lists of resources including "blueprints" for action and charts to further explain and document the ground-breaking ideas of this book and provide practical guidance. There are now Partnership groups all over the country (listed with contacts) and networks that support these ideas that you can contact and join to make "PARTNERSHIP" a reality.