Patriarchy

Many, especially among men, make the mistake of regarding patriarchy as a personal problem that may be corrected if individuals who practice and benefit from it stop their meanness and greed. “If evil exists in the world, it’s only because there are evil people who have entered into an evil conspiracy (Allan G Johnson, Patriarchy the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us. 1997).”

Allan G. Johnson argues that patriarchy should be examined as a system in whose light such social institutions as family, religion, and economy can be studied and understood. A system is a different entity from the sum total of the individuals that comprise it and acts independently from them. Individuals in a system unconsciously form their personalities and regulate their interactions in accordance with the roles that are expected from them by the system. It lives on even as individuals that make it up may change their minds about it. Such individuals are then pinpointed by the system as anomalies and abnormalities.

An individualistic perspective fails to account for such patterns of behavior as rape, sexual harassment, wife beating, macho violence, male anger, etc. it is only by understanding patriarchy – the larger encompassing system – that we can understand in what context and to what end such patterns of behavior exist and even flourish despite legislations that outlaw them.

To understand patriarchy, one needs to identify what its components are and how they are tied together to form it. “Patriarchy’s defining elements are male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered character.” Patriarchy closely associates manhood and masculinity with humanness. It is this viewpoint that puts the control of everyone and everything in the world, including women, in the hands of men. “Patriarchal culture is about the core value of control and domination in almost every area of human existence.” In this system having power and being ready and willing to use it is a value and characteristically “masculine.” Lacking power and reluctance to use it is regarded as weak and characteristically “feminine.”

Patriarchy empowers the males and in return feeds on their desire to continue to cling on to the position of power and domination, and it lives on in this way. “By participating in patriarchy, we are of patriarchy and it is of us. Both exist through the other and neither can exist without the other.”

Immigration

Unlike race, nationality is not a genetic trait imposed upon humankind by fate. One has no option as to the choice of one’s race. Nationality, on the other hand, just like religion, ought to be one of choice, a freedom that every human being ought to be afforded by international laws. A breach of this freedom ought to be considered a human rights violation, and those policies and laws that aim at containing this freedom, regardless of what country puts them in place, should be considered contradictory to basic human rights, and strongly campaigned against.

Many generally endorsed documents of the United Nations, including the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, clearly support the right of individuals to travel and to choosing the place of their residence. Article thirteen of the latter document, of which the United States is a signatory, clearly articulates the basic right of human beings to travel and to choose their place of living:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”

Pursuit of happiness is a generally accepted right of every man and woman, of every race and ethnicity, regardless of language and place of origin. People ought to be able to freely move from any part of the world to any other part of the world in their never-ending quest for better lives.

Thousand of years ago, the European ancestors of many present-day Americans, migrated from an area east of the Caspian Sea to what later came to be known as Europe. All Americans living in the United States today, with the exception of the native aborigines already living on this continent, are the descendents of immigrants who ran away from the despotic political systems of Medieval Europe to pursue happier and freer lives here in the United States of America.

The plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty boasts a poem by the 19th century American poet, Emma Lazarus, with words that will forever reverberate throughout the world:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your Huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

What happened to that spirit? Whatever became of the safe haven for the poor, the tired?

Today, the rhetoric in the media is relentlessly targeting the very people that make up the United States of America, the immigrants, portraying them as the cause of the misery and pain that the lower middle class in this country is grappling with. Politicians of every political party and inclination tend to find a scapegoat in the people whose only fault is their attempt to secure better lives for their families – pursuit of happiness.

Criminalizing immigration is a violation of the very laws that this country was founded on. It is the breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But perhaps more importantly, it is a shameful attempt by politicians to divert the public attention away from the main causes of the economical pain and misery that are taking a toll at their wellbeing.

Are immigrants the reason why Americans are losing their jobs? Are immigrants accountable for a shift from manufacturing industries and production to financial institutions and banking in this country? Are immigrants to be held responsible for “wealth fare” programs and policies put in place to ensure that the one percent wealthiest Americans continue to accumulate more wealth at the expense of the socio-economically poor and needy masses who have to struggle at multiple jobs to barely make ends meet? Are immigrants the reason why welfare programs are constantly being truncated? Why does the average American worker have to work harder and more hours than his/her European counterpart?

The corporation-owned media and the politicians stop short of nothing to give the public to think that “illegal aliens” are responsible for their misery. Yes, they are the ones that are depriving you of your jobs; if they are thrown out of the country, you will be able to fill up the gap. They are taking advantage of your resources. They are like leaches.

And, unfortunately, in the absence of a class struggle awareness, as a result of years of anti socialism rhetoric of the cold war era, the American public is entirely blind to the fact that the cause of their misfortune is not immigration – documented or undocumented – but rather the very people who take advantage of the immigrants as long as they need them for their modern day model of slavery, and throw them defenseless at the mercy of an ignorant populace when they no longer need them, or when they intend to divert the attentions from an ill-fated war, which is gnawing at the resources that would otherwise enhance the lives of the general public.

So frankly, the question should not be whether or not the United States benefits from immigrant. It is obvious that this country benefits from immigrants. Anyone that dispels this fact closes his/her eyes on the very nature of this country. The question is why, every now and then, the immigration issue is put at the foreground of the conflicts present in this society, and who benefits from doing so. The culprits are not the immigrants but those who attempt to criminalize immigration despite the very nature of this society.