Systems of Power

“The only question of philosophy that matters is: why do slaves beg for their chains?”

Religion. Karl Marx described as the opium of the people. Romance is the religion of women. When used against her it induces psychosis. The way out of psychosis is not to prevent it, that would be impossible. But to see yourself, viscerally, in the moment where the abuse was so great that it broke your mind. Not to watch and judge from a safe distance but to step into her body, into her heart, wear her hands like gloves. The question is: can you tolerate the moment a free person became a slave? Can you tolerate the humiliation? To be her, to choose her in an unfree world is the path to freedom.

What force leads a woman to seek men for salvation? Captialism. Men and women are both enslaved under capitalism, but a man is not the direct path to freedom since ‘a slave does not seek freedom but for slaves of his own.’

The patriarchy is a system of power. Systems of power are not systems of truths, but systems of lies. More accurately it is a system of truth-consumption. It maintains its power by breaking down existing systems of truths. The mechanism of control is confusion. The system is present even in so-called feminist society. For example, we are told not to value male validation. Even this is used against us. That reveals another half-truth: it is not the validation of all men that is dangerous but the validation of one. Because the goal of the patriarchy is the servitude of a woman to one man, the patriarchy reduces her whole world and truth-system to the world of one man. If 100 men say she is attractive but her one partner does not, the partner’s opinion is truth, not the vote of 100. In being prevented to seek male validation we get trapped once again. 

The safest way to intellectually navigate the patriarchy is to assume the truth as your starting point: you are enslaved and you have no autonomy. Everything you believe is false. It is a realization both devastating and miraculous. The only thing you can trust is your body and your memories. What perceptions have you had that no one has ever agreed with?