Here are three things, three symptoms, that seem to imply our culture is significantly changing direction.
The first indicator is that a US State (it could be any, but in fact it is New Hampshire) has just elected an ‘all female delegation’. The state will soon boast of having a female governor, two female senators, and two female congressional representatives.
What does this mean? It means simply that the patriarchal system is being replaced by people who are more in touch with their feminine side.
This means that decisions are likely to shift from being based on domination and control to being based on connectedness and relationships.
The second symptom is brought to us by Rachel Maddow.
She points out that:
“Ohio really did go to President Obama last night. And he really did win. And he really was born in Hawaii. … And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And…”
One of the things that really struck me towards the end of the campaign was hearing a republican saying that the polls showed Romney in front, in complete denial of reality.
As Rachel Maddow points out, the current worldview of many republicans seems to be based on many viewpoints that are simply mistaken. A kind of group think that has turned out not to bring them the results they want.
As a consequence, they are now going to have to face the cognitive dissonance between the way reality actually is and the way they would like it to be.
That will be painful.
But if they can do it, and get through it, then we can begin to work together to address the many challenges we now face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SVwXA7sHUlE
And my final symptom comes from Barack Obama.
He talks to campaign supporters about how, when he was their age, he moved to Chicago and started working as a community organiser in Chicago’s South Side.
And he tells them, “It’s not so much that you remind me of myself — it’s that you are so much better than I was.”
We are all part of the bigger process of history. And we are all positioned to make a better difference even than the President of the United States was able to, 26 years ago.
And if we all do that, then the effect is magnified, and we get a reinforcing, accelerating effect. A tipping point.
We elect women in New Hampshire. And we wake up, face the real facts, and work together to address them.