Possession of Another

“Goodbye Ruby Tuesday, Goodbye Ruby Tuesday,

Ruby, Ruby, Ruby will you be mine?”

This is the language of possession, MINE! We all use it unthinkingly – gotten used to it as quite normal. Possibly used as if meaning: move closer to me, be with me more. Not really meaning: be my slave and I’ll be your boss / your owner/ you have to do exactly what I say. Or do we?

The US. Civil War is not that far behind us – where people believed exactly that. Slavery has a long history where the literal concept of possessing another human being was taken as quite normal, and this in many many cultures. And which German Philosopher was it that had declared: “Christianity is the religion of slaves”. For Christianity has many of the markings of subservience, dis empowerment, and suffering. It struck me that the Protestants I knew when I was growing up were encouraged to read the Bible, but the Catholics were not. Interpreting the Bible was left up to the chosen few, and talking to God reserved for the Pope or the Bishops, not the rest of the flock: we were only to obey and pay our dues.

The fallout from the Patriarchy is still with us: look at our education system: what gets the highest marks? Rote learning and obedience and group-think. Learning to think for ourselves is no-where encouraged.

What’s the ideal marriage situation: ‘Pater Samilias’ is the head of the family and has the final say. (`Pater Knows Best’) The wife’s job was always : ‘Kinder, Kuhe & Kirche’. (Children, Kitchen and Church) Or the American phrase: Barefoot and pregnant“. Or the British: a woman’s place is in the home`. Sure we think we’re a little beyond that – but are we really.

Let’s look at the domestic abuse rates, the violence, the deaths – what’s that about? It’s about power and authority, if you ask me. The slave not listening to its owner. It’s about Patriarchy. We still haven’t fully awakened out of our slave mentality, accepting certain forms of violence / control. (I promise to love, honour and obey?) It’s time we stopped teaching our children obedience as more important than thinking for ourselves, and treating others as equals.

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