RE: Now that we Have a Better Understanding of Patriarchy and Matriarchy, What is your Ideal Societal Structure?
I so appreciate how thoughtful your comments are. It's really nice. I can use the example I talked about above to explain the difference between direct democracy and consensus. In this ecovillage there were people who were very committed to veganism and others who were very committed to bio regionalism and eating meat as a part of that. In both camps there were a number of people who were very militant and righteous in their beliefs. For real my way or the highway kind of people. Keeping animals to raise for meat became a serious point of contention. Consensus required they all come to an agreement. It just wasn't possible to bridge that gap. They argued for weeks, and eventually several people had to say they agreed to something they actually disagreed with in order to just move on. In my opinion, it's better to have a majority rule (or even 2/3 or whatever) so that people don't have to lie about their opinions. Also, it just takes way too long. Discussion is good. Two weeks of talking about the ethics of animal husbandry every day for several hours is ridiculous.
Glad the bit about balance was meaningful for you. I think it's really important.
Thanks @solarsupermama! Oh i see now! Consensus is that everyone must agree, not majority. Got it :) Thanks for explaining.. this example helped me see. It sounds frustrating to go through all that for everyone involved. I can see why you are not a fan of consensus! Too bad they couldn't find a way to both keep their ethics and also agree on a mutual way to live together without sacrificing their ethics of their own life choices.
Yeah. Community is hard. I think it's a lot easier when there is shared ethics. In that particular case everyone had to give a little bit, and I don't think anyone was particularly thrilled with the outcome.