patriarchy

CHUNUPA WAKAN

The Sacred Pipe

Prayer

Prayer brings you to a state of peace, calm,

And awareness of higher power.

Sun 8.2.20

      I have been watching Michael Haneke films.  The first was his, The Childhood of a Leader.  In it, we have a family whose father is an American diplomat in France negotiating for president Wilson at the end of the First World War, the wife is European and their son is pictured above.  It is not a happy home, in a time when patriarchy ruled and this kid’s parents are uncaring rulers who are completely baffled by their unruly child.  You have to like the boy because he says NO, he embarrasses them, takes pleasure in humiliating them, pushes father to the point of physical conflict.  He will not play their game, but he’s not nice, throws rocks at parishioners coming out of church, is disrespectful, and will not be controlled.  He will do it his way.

      At a large and formal dinner party when negotiations have been settled and the war is over, there is celebration.  Father asks Mother to say the prayer.  She demurs, says she is not comfortable speaking publicly in front of all these people . . . but her son is at ease in such a setting and would he lead the prayer?  The kid will have none of it and screams out I DON’T BELIEVE IN PRAYERS, and he keeps repeating it at full volume.  The room is aghast! Father gets up to snatch him but the boy runs upstairs and locks himself in his room. 

      We are introduced at the beginning to a German, played by Robert Pattinson, who is a friend of the family anxious for the war to be settled and to go back home.  Afterward, in the film’s last scene you see him in a government limousine, one of many snaking their way to some officious building.  The German signals his driver to stop the car, he will walk the rest of the way, crowds on each side of the street, tall red banners hanging from buildings, Nazi-style and a last shot of the kid with his sullen snaky expression.  Is patriarchy at bottom of all our misery?

      Then I watched Haneke’s The White Ribbon which is essentially the same story but cast with early 20th century peasants in a rural community ruled by a triumvirate of mean-spirited patriarchs, the baron, the doctor and the pastor.  A few steps down the socio-economic ladder on this one, therefore an increase in the brutality meted out.  Again, it is the children who are culprits.  These children are much too controlled to act out publicly.  They work in secret.  The film ends with the declaration of war and the coming end of their present community.

      I am reminded of a true story about the Native American people.  When Europeans first arrived in America, the natives, all, called these newcomers “The People who Beat their Children.”  Tribe after tribe, whether in contact with one another or not, arrived at the same conclusion.  They couldn’t fathom why you would mistreat your own children. 

The patriarchy at our present moment is dominant.  You may do this, but not that, wear a mask, keep six feet apart, shut your business, close public buildings, public events, you may not eat in restaurants, go to the beach, meet friends for drinks and conversation, you can’t teach the kids, get your hair cut, you won’t have your day in court, you can’t even go to mass.  The list is endless.

      And now the children have taken to the street; they will take what they want; they will be leaders. They throw stones at parishioners who apologize for their sins.  Oh mother, where art thou?

The favorite essay this month has again been,The Karpman Drama Triangle