This is an image of a berserker, a Viking warrior who went into trance and fought in an enraged state. “In old-Norse sagas, they were warriors who dressed themselves in bear skins, to make use of the fear common people had for wild animals. They whipped themselves up to a sort of battle frenzy, biting their shields and howling like animals. They were ferocious fighters and seemingly insensitive to pain while this madness lasted; berserks made formidable enemies. In their rage they even attacked the boulders and trees of the forest; it was not uncommon that they killed their own people. [emphasis mine] "

[quote from the Encyclopedia Mythica; and image source here]

It never fails to astonish me whenever I encounter discrimination because we women have a “hormone problem.” True, I am delighted to be finished with menopause, never having to suffer the monthly curse again. True, whenever I had pre-menstrual syndrome I could be very irritable, moody and prone to wanting to chew glass. However, I never picked a fight or got violent.

The male of the species, on the other hand, is prone to violence -- lots of violence. Genocide is the favorite planetary sport. (And you thought it was soccer, foolish one.) The male hormonal standard is the one to which women are compared -- and found wanting.

So, I got cranky once a month. . . Prisons, and armies, are filled with violent males. Now, THAT is a hormone problem.

Lest you think I am singling out men, I would point out that nature did that first. It is unfortunate for our civilization that women who strive for success seem to try to be men in behavior because they see that the old boys’ club rewards male-centered thinking. Let me give you a couple of examples of the nuttiness of this kind of thinking that is endemic in our culture.

On its face, this seems like a good old bromide designed to teach children not to allow themselves to be pushed around. However, if you follow this advice believing it will make you strong, then you close alternate avenues of behavior -- not the least of which would be making the choice not to engage and to walk away.

Declining to engage is an act of personal power. It is an ego-less act. The Tao Te Ching, one of our world’s holiest books, speaks of non-doing, which is called wu wei. The Tao states: The sage needs to know like water how to flow around the blocks and how to find the way through without violence. Like water, the sage should wait for the moment to ripen and be right: water, you know, never fights. It flows around. (Chapter 8)

“Never start a fight…” Following this advice not only mandates not walking away, it also precludes you from ever initiating a fight. Granted, there is way too much fighting; however, there are legitimate battles. These valid reasons to fight are best left to the conscience of the individual luminous warrior, yet I would posit that a preemptive strike in defense of the helpless would likely fall into this category.

“… but always finish one.” With this, you give over to another your power of choice. Is it not strategically idiotic to allow another to choose for you where, when, why and with whom you will fight?

A dear friend of mine allowed another woman to goad her into a physical fight (yelling and pushing). This woman did it intentionally, knowing that my friend would engage in the fight and making sure it was staged in front of a witness. My friend was baited into pushing this woman into some bushes. Afterwards, my friend defended her own actions by saying, “I had no choice.”

Yes, she did. She could have just walked away. Instead, she allowed her strings to be pulled, her buttons pushed, her hostile reflexes triggered. She completely lost control of herself and of the situation.

This was expressed by Joe Wurzelbacher (AKA “Joe the Plumber”) in an interview on the Bill Maher HBO show on April 3, 2009.

If you don’t want to watch the whole eight minutes, fast forward (by dragging the button to the right of the "play" arrow) to three minutes and forty seconds (3:40), where you will hear him say you don’t want to show weakness to our enemies in the Middle East. This was in response to Obama’s recent statements that we Americans made mistakes in dealing with Middle Eastern countries.

Telling the truth is a sign of weakness?!? Silly me, I thought it was a point of honor and, therefore, strength. Strength of character, to be sure, but I am positive it is not lost on anyone that we have enough firepower to vaporize the human race. A past president, the great Teddy Roosevelt, said "speak softly and carry a big stick."

Europeans and Americans have been riding roughshod over the Middle East for decades, controlling the governments of its people, treating them like farm animals, pillaging their resources, and raping their self-determinism. Iran is rightfully pissed at us -- we put a corrupt and brutal Shah in power and trained his secret police in how to torture his own people. We did the same thing with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And now we are affronted because they don’t like us?

The Middle East contains very ancient and proud civilizations that have contributed tremendously to world culture. If not for the Arabs, we would still be making tally marks like you see on the wall of a prison cell counting the days. You cannot even do simple arithmetic with Roman numerals, which were nothing more than a way of recording total counts of things. ALL of our technology and science was made possible by the Arabs. When our ancestors in Europe were busy hunting witches and dying from the black death, Middle East cultures were blossoming and vital. They were far ahead of the West in science and medicine.

Obama is attempting to turn down the heat and scale down the bombastic rhetoric that has flowed from Washington, DC, for the past eight years. The world is drowning in testosterone. We must breathe, people. We need to acknowledge the accomplishments of Middle Eastern cultures and appreciate what they have given to all of us. We need to forgive their current violence and realize that we have pushed their backs to the wall. The violent males in their culture are behaving just like intelligent, desperate, violent males always behave. It is an evolutionary mandate of our lower brain functions (which, by the way, the higher brain functions can learn to control).

In order for healing to occur, we Westerners must acknowledge that we have a great deal of responsibility in creating the current toxic situation, if only by sitting, silent and in denial, while our governments carried out reprehensible acts in our name.

Below is a video Obama made to address the people of Iran on the occasion of Norouz, a new year’s holiday.  His address is one of a sane and compassionate man who acknowledges the connections we have in our human family. He is not a stupid American who does not know of the accomplishments of these people we have made into our enemies.

Personally, I love Middle Eastern food and music, their literature and spiritual philosophies. I have found their hospitality to be warm, magnanimous and unselfish. Even though I am Scots-Irish-Choctaw, I am proud to call the people of the Middle East my brothers and sisters. Mitakuye Oyasin. We are all related.

It is  not weakness to say these things in the face of hatred and hostility, of manipulative lies and violent rage. It is an act of courage and of unconditional love; it is a true gesture of transcendence.

Addendum
July 8, 2011

Last week, I went into Sam's Club and was greeted by a man of my father's generation. Somehow our short conversation got around to a woman being President of the U.S. He stated that no woman should be President because women do not have the strength to handle foreign affairs and make the tough decisions about war. I resisted the impulse to mention Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Condaleeza Rice, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meier and Queen Elizabeth 1 in rebuttal. I make it a point not to argue when faced with this much stupidity.

Yes, one could question whether or not a woman has the strength to be President. It is a valid question. But . . .

Perhaps a much better question is whether a man who would be President has the strength NOT to wage war. Waging war is easy compared to making peace. Peace requires talking through passionate grievances, confronting your own past behavior, being responsible for what you have done to create this enemy. I guarantee you -- for peacemaking, women do have the strength. And so do enlightened men.