Men As Leaders on the Planet?

Time for more women to lead

I will probably get criticized for this. If so, that’s good.

Because most days I watch the news, observe the world, see what is going on, and I am appalled. I am a sort of glass half full guy some of my days, and a glass half empty some other days. The rest of the time, I see a world that is a disaster.

It is because of men. And I am a man. I am just highly disappointed in our collective work in the world.

Men run the world. They have run the world for a long time now and they have run it into the ground. The air is bad, the water is bad, the soil is going bad, and the human species has no chance with men in charge. None.

And then there are other issues that compound it all. Here is what the World Health Organization says:

“Estimates are that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.

Worldwide, almost one third (27%) of women aged 15–49 years who have been in a relationship report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner.”

We know this is true too. Also, I spent much time in family courts and they are full of cases of men exacting violence against women. America has a law called VAWA which stands for The Violence Against Women Act.

On other issues such as climate change, it is still mostly men who are the problem mostly. Men run the countries who refuse to change their ways and abandon a carbon based economy. It’s men who keep mumbling nonsense about the transition to renewable energy but evidence of a real transition is non-existent.

There is no transition. If they had it their way, these countries and the companies who burn fossil fuels every day all day and would continue to pollute the earth until it is uninhabitable. They have little regard for human existence on the planet. They don’t care.

Here’s what NASA says about climate change recently:

“Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.”

Most of this damage and the policies and decisions that resulted in this damage was done by men. Of course there are women in the mix but men run most of the countries polluting the earth. Men run the governments backing the pollution with policies. This is on men.

And it is the same with violence and war. Men are responsible for wars and violence. Are women involved in this? Not very much. Women surely are far less likely to engage in random violence. Women are not running the countries that are invading other countries. This is a man thing.

Most of the police officers who kill people are men. Most corrupt politicians are men. It just goes on and on.

No one is asking for perfection either. Just sometimes can we resist our worst impulses? Can we do better not try to do better?

Can we wake each morning, challenge ourselves for that one day, and say — today, I will do my best not to be sexist or misogynistic or hurt a woman with my words or my hands?

Can I actually commit to saving the planet for human beings by working mostly on addressing how we live, and be done with chasing cheap profits that will not save human beings from extinction?

Can men do this? Can men stop solving their problems with violence and weapons?

All of this tells me that it is time to let women change the direction of the planet. It is time for a different flow of life on earth. In all countries on the planet, on all the organized continents.

Does this sound foolish in light of the state of things? Tell me.