Moving from Patriarchal Capitalism to Matriarchal Collectivism

We are living in a time of great evolutionary change.

What Eckhart Tolle called a New Earth , and what ecologist, Joanna Macy describes as the Great Turning - a shift away from an industrial growth society toward a more life-sustaining way of living.

On the outside, and currently playing out on the world stage it can feel chaotic, uncertain and overwhelming.

Crisis and chaos don’t just signal breakdown - they often precede transformation. They reveal what is no longer sustainable and expose the fault lines in many of the systems we are currently embedded in.

This is the nature of lasting change.

And while it may feel uncomfortable - this unravelling is necessary.

It is becoming more and more visible as it plays out across our world.

In politics, leadership, economic systems, healthcare, media and housing crises.

These crises are an invitation to question the very foundations we have built our lives upon - systems that are rooted in separation, power, control and extraction. We have been living, largely, within patriarchal systems -systems that have shaped many of our institutions as well as our inner worlds.

Patriarchal systems are characterised by hierarchy, separation, individualism, scarcity, domination and extraction.  These systems reward power, control and greed.

And because we have been embedded in these systems for so long, they can’t feel normal. Just “the way things are.”

And as they start to unravel, we are being given an opportunity to see them and name them. And to question whether they are life affirming for society as a whole.

We can see the imprint of these systems in how leadership is currently showing up on the world stage. Leaders like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are examples of a broader pattern - where influence, image, and dominance can override accountability, responsibility and a duty of care.

Even the ongoing questions surrounding the Jeffery Epstein case point to something deeper - how systems of power can protect themselves and how the care for human lives can so easily be discarded and sidelined.

These aren’t just systems “out there” on the world stage - these are systems we are living inside of, often unconsciously. They do not continue on their own - we participate in them. Which means we are the ones that can change them - first by becoming aware of them, and then by choosing differently. 

So the question becomes if we are moving away from patriarchal capitalism then what are we moving toward?

 I heard the term matriarchal collectivism last week, and something in me lit up. A way where power is shared, where care and community sit at the centre, and where flourishing is collective not individual. Not something we speak about but something we practice and live.

Matriarchal collectivism is characterised by community, regeneration, balance, reciprocity, heart, humility and integrity. 

And so, as we find ourselves here - 

in the in-between

Where the old ways are unraveling and the new ways are not yet formed 

To understand this time as a window of opportunity to be the change we wish to see in the world.

May the heart of humanity remember and rise. 

Because the bottom line is we are it.