The conquest of nature, of geography—and of intellectual, spiritual (and now outer) space—have been traditionally masculine enterprises. The world men created is hardly ideal in a normative sense, as the best possible world. In its shadow, women continue to embody the sustainable values traditionally considered humane and civic. These values now stand against the rapacity of an economic and technological warrior elite, who run the global society of mobile capital and a world arms industry on our behalf.

Historically, masculinity has often manifested as males acting out genetically-determined macho impulses or collective rebellion against nature. This is highly ironic, given the masculine ideals of conscious initiative and individual self-possession. The very essence of the solar, yang energy is supposed to be benignly proactive and protective. If we have not witnessed a world defined by women, neither have we seen one produced by a positive masculinity: one not defined against women, the body, and the Earth, nor one that is not controlled by oligarchs, technocrats, and power-crazed madmen. Surely a new type of advocate and protector is needed, a new vision of masculinity more in balance with the feminine.

Apart from male and female bodies, a feminine principle constitutes a vast untapped resource to nurture a livable human future. The repression of this principle is not a phase modern society has outlived, but is its very foundation, which has served to keep men in their place along with women. Male and female alike have been seduced by the masculine ethos as currently defined, by concepts and values (such as progress, power, success, consumerism) that are against common sense and the common good. Women have relative equality and safety in the modern Western world at the risk of being co-opted within male power systems, which they may embrace for the same rewards that men do.

The feminine is a worldview that has gone underground in the patriarchal era. While recessive, it remains everywhere potential. It is a sensibility, a mode of thinking, feeling, being, perceiving, acting—or not acting. It is as easily eclipsed by the masculine as silence is by shouting. Unless we consciously intend otherwise, it will always be dominated by men who are ruthlessly good at imposing their will, just as nature will continue to be overrun by technology, the passive by the aggressive. While the feminine is not better or worse than the masculine, there is an intrinsic imbalance between them because of their utterly different natures.

Apart from changing sexual and social identities, masculine and feminine are forces within the human psyche. Individuals participate in the dialogue between these forces, by communicating and cooperating with each across gender lines (or by obliterating such lines). Yet, there remains the task of an alchemical synthesis of masculine and feminine within the individual— and also, most urgently now, within society. Men must refuse the conventional attractions of money, power, sex, and violence, to become more original in their definitions of masculinity and success. Women must channel the feminine principle, as well as feminism, as a vision for the future. Neither sex must be a caricature of gender.

The ultimate defense of the dominated is to refuse to participate in the games defined by the dominant, and to be clear about the games worth playing. Rather than rush to a new frontier in space, or to some cutting edge of technology, we could pause to establish social equilibrium. “Growth” could slow, not only to regain equilibrium, but also because it is not what it seems; for, the promise of an expanding economy lies always in creating future wealth rather than redistribution now. Similarly, gratuitous novelty in technology (such as we see now in AI) masks ancient social problems which the technology could be used to solve, were it properly motivated. Perhaps the right motivation can only come through an integration of yin and yang.