Information Tech XX

Some days it appears bleak. Freedom seems to be fading even in the most democratic states. In late 2011, draconian clauses encased in the National Defense Act were passed through Congress and signed by President Obama, and in early 2012, the Stop Online Piracy Act was seriously considered by the U.S. Senate before public outcry killed it. The two bills served to underline fears of conspiracy theorists across the country: the government does want to detain you without due process and restrict freedom of speech. The internet was, of course, in an uproar. Neocons hated the NDA specifically because Obama signed it. Left wingers hated it for ideological reasons. Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones raged that it was truly the end of America. Wikipedia, reddit, Boing Boing, and a host of other sites shut down for a day to revolt against SOPA and PIPA, and events like this are spreading across the globe in the EU, Russia, and the Middle East. There has been a consistent conflict between the liberal and realist philosophies of international social science over the last 100 years. This debate not only has been waged in the Modern world, however, but also far back into the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and early civilization. Inside this paper, I will briefly describe these eras, but what I really want to delve deeply into is this: there is not only a physical war being waged, but one inside all of our heads. It is the battle between the left and right hemispheres of our brain. On one side is the right, our feminine nature which is inclusive, wild, and nurturing, and on the other is the left, the part of us that wants to box, to fight wars, and separate the cosmos into pieces. This side has been dominant for centuries but it is no longer possible to deny the other hemisphere. The U.S., contingent on this hypothesis, must continue to utilize international organizations as globalization and information technologies will continue to link us together in profound ways, and these ways are of our feminine, inclusive, nature.

Feminist theorists state that realist international theory, based on go-it-alone individualism, is the way of the masculine brain's hierarchical nature. Nations, according to this theory, are constantly vying to maintain their relative position. It is a dog eat dog world out there, and a country will only succeed if it is able to overpower others in some way. This is opposed to the utopian liberal theory—one in which diplomacy and interdependence are the key. International relations interpreted through a female mind, many feminists make the claim, would be far more inclusive. Countries would be more empathetic, less likely to make unilateral decisions, and consider the good of the entire Earth. This idea is rooted in the ancient Goddess—she whose body we are made of. During the Paleolithic, Karen Armstrong opines, women and men held equal power. On one end, the men went forth into the wild (always the doer based on mythological symbols) to hunt and bring back the meat. These feats were far more dangerous and required a burst of energy and a great deal of guilt when the animal was killed. On the other end were the gatherers, the more traditional female role. Women would descend on the area around their particular base and find food to eat. This was less dangerous but allowed for a more stable food supply if the hunting did not go well. On top of this, the women gave birth, raised the children, and brought them to adulthood. In this scenario, both the female and male held equal power. Without either, a clan risked stagnation and death. The birthing process was also seen as supremely mysterious during this time. Men did not know that sexual intercourse caused conception. The symbol of the snake has been linked to the female. It can shed its skin, crawl along the earth on its stomach, and an umbilical cord looks very much like their serpentine structure. These symbols and dualities are depicted in Genesis.

However, with the advent of agriculture, women began to take control. Farming was a natural female occupation—it required nurturing over a long period of time, unlike the masculine energy which was based on pin-pointing a problem and fixing it. Many theorists, including Leonard Shlain and Karen Armstrong, assert that the male mind has evolved for precision and sudden bursts of energy, while the feminine one is geared toward a more conservative, nurturing nature that is the foundation which men can do their doings. Sean Kane opines in Wisdom of the Mythtellers that in Celtic mythology the world of men is where wars are waged, tools constructed, and where things are actually done. The Otherworld, on the other hand, is magical, powerful, and mysterious, influenced by the seasons and cycles. However, it is also ineffectual. During the Neolithic, gods and goddesses like Osiris and Isis, Baal and Astarte, and Adonis and Venus became popular. It was in these myths that the woman was supreme and the male her dying escort who passed with the seasons each year. What happened? Why did men gain control across the globe? Some theorists state that agriculture led to ownership, which led to laws, which led to states and armies to defend what was owned. This was a nascent masculine realist attitude, and it would dominate for centuries to come. In the Modern era and after World War II, the West had grown tired of the old ways of doing things. It could no longer pretend that states would do no harm to each other on the basis of their word alone. This was a reemergence of a feminine outlook—a new (old) way of doing things. Under their leadership, it would be a century of increasing interdependence which would drive everyone closer together, not just the political and financial elite. However, there have been growing pains. As I described at the onset of this paper, governments around the world are looking to curtail freedoms. The feminine inclusiveness is a terrifying prospect for those in control. However, the answer does not lay in feminist theory.

Feminists are derided by most of the world, and this is often deserved. What the bra-burners preach is equality not based on differences but on how we are all the same. Sometimes they will even go on to say that women are the superior sex. It is true that as we continue to move into the 21st century, women will gain more power. Birth rates will continue to go down and women will continue to spend less time raising kids. They will also delay marriage as it increasingly becomes no longer economically necessary to do so. Clearly, women stand to gain more power in this new political and economic world. World Politics Trend and Transformation by Kegley and Blanton reports that "the repeated outbreak of war has led some, such as psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, to conclude that aggression is an instinctive part of human nature that stems from humans' genetic psychological programming" (253). A global outlook is, in the end, a result of the feminine right brain, and individualism that of the masculine left. Again, we see the war playing out both in the material and mental arenas. World Politics continues, "Most social scientists now strongly disagree with the realist premise that because humans are essentially selfish, they are also aggressive and murder and kill because of their innate genetic drives to act aggressively. Instead they interpret war as a learned cultural habit" or socialization (254). Feminist theory argues that war and conflict are "rooted in the masculine ethos of realism". It is true that one of the most tell-tale signs of an unstable country are its treatment of women—"where cultural norms condone the mistreatment of women and deny them opportunities for education and employment, the outbreak of civil war is high" (258).

International organizations like NGOs and IGOs are from the right hemisphere of the brain. They serve to link the world together and create ties to each other. According to constructivists, attitudes about what is right and wrong will shift in the coming years. I believe that shift will be towards the right brain. In this case, it will be increasingly necessary for the United States, which is being transformed by technologies like the internet, to rely on these organizations. It is no longer possible to go it alone. The U.S. learned this the hard way during the second Gulf War. It is also far more dependent on foreign debt to finance itself than it was just a few decades ago, with China owning seven percent of the total, and interconnected via trade blocs, treaties, and special relationships. This is not the point to shrink back and isolate ourselves. That would be the losing end of history.

New information technologies have transformed our lives. Multinational corporations continue to prosper as states fall by the wayside. The notion of 'state' itself may find itself changing as the constructivists have predicted. The world, indeed, is becoming smaller. The community is the realm of the female mind, and this will be a feminine century. Not only will women gain more power, but so will institutions which support their way of handling things. The mythological wood is the place in mythology where boundaries are broken. In Shakespeare's plays, such as A Midsummer's Night Dream and As You Like It, it the place where lovers go, where sex becomes confused, where women rule and magic still resides. In the city men are kings—Octavian, Theseus, and the Dukes—represented by geometry, stone, and hierarchy. The world is being transformed into a global wood with the ascension of information technologies. Some make the claim that it was the alphabet that led to the domination of the masculine left brain. If that is the case, then the internet, with its icons, images, and memes, is a return to the right hemisphere. This bonding together of community, as we have seen in the Arab Spring, in Russia's protests against Putin, and Occupy Wall Street, is a tide which cannot be stopped. How can governments counter this? They can increase their investment in international organizations. Make them really matter. Meld the world into a global community like there never was before. I call for a feminine individualism—one that seeks to balance both sides of the brain like Apollo's lyre—and for IGOs and NGOs that support this goal. It would be the home of compassion and truth, not senseless bickering and tit-for-tat diplomacy. I think everyone can agree that is something we want.