The Editorial
By Scot Rhoads
Wicca 101
A couple of people have been asking about more introductory articles. There are a couple on the way, and I encourage readers to send us more!
Don Kraig Hiatus
Lately, Don has been busy with other things. This issue's article is a reprint from NMR 2:5. He should be back with us next issue.
Green Man
The publishers of the very spiffy SageWoman are starting up a quarterly magazine for Pagan men: The Green Man. For more information, you can write to them at: P.O. Box 641; Point Arena, CA 95468. Subscriptions are $13/year (+$1 in CA for tax).
Tribal Values
and the Melt-Down of the Nuclear Family
As an embarrassingly transparent distraction, the Republican party is waving about the issue of Family Values. The Democrats have their own version (something at least substantial, dealing with education and childcare, etc.), but the Republican idea seems to be a Fundie fantasy. The Family Values fanatics seem convinced that the nuclear family (mom, dad, 2.3 kids and their dog, all welded together in church sanctioned, autonomous unit) has been the only legitimate, natural and successful setup since the Dawn o' Time (which was 7,542 years ago, on a Tuesday, when God created Eve (Lilith probably preferred to be a single mother rather than allow God's appointed goon to order her about.)). Even ignoring the religious angle, the nuclear family is a very recent aberration. (I refer you to the latest Mezlim magazine where Don Kraig's article goes briefly into an accurate history of family units and the nuclear family's tiny place in it.)
The lack of values that the Fundies decry is not the undermining of Family Values but the fallout of this bizarre experiment with their nuclear family. Its failure makes the Republican's vaunted Family Values look like the Communism of social engineering. The nuclear family is highly unstable. The least bit of instability in any of its pitifully few members is readily passed on and can cascade into later generations. It hobbles socialization. It hides and fosters abuse and dysfunctionality. It is losing economic viability. Basically, it sucks. Obviously, more than just the size of the family unit is responsible for these problems. The main fault of the nuclear family lies in its being much too small to correct for, or even survive them.
The nuclear family has also fostered an adversarial mentality. People find it difficult to think beyond their own family. This makes it is easy for politicians to appeal to some groups at the obvious expense of others. It makes it easy to ignore others in distress. It makes it difficult to cooperate. Isn't it strange that neighborhood watch groups and the like seem `unnatural' and require enormous effort to organize?
Perhaps the most salient illustration of this alienation is Social Security. The elderly feel like they have to fight to retain every bit of government support they can. Worse yet, many seem more than willing to maintain their support if even the burden threatens the rest of society. It is as if they are old and will be going to heaven soon, so they don't care what happens to the Earth or other people's children. Members of a real family should not have to fight for support, and they should not demand support when it threatens the family's well being.
The family is now living through the Tower card. The solution is not to panic at the destruction and fight to put every brick back in its old unstable position, but to start planning the new structure we will build on the old foundation. Naturally, I have a modest proposal:
The autonomous family unit has to be larger to reduce pressures such as parenting and lodging. (The present solutions are things like government childcare, condos and government housing, and government healthcare.) The nuclear family is proving itself to be incapable of addressing these needs, but history is filled with units that handled them well (the ones that didn't seldom left much of a record). The extended family seems to be the smallest unit with any hope. My personal favorite is the tribe, which is like an extended extended family.
I am borrowing the term, though. For my purposes, I redefine it as a group (about the same size) united not necessarily by blood, but rather by purpose. The purpose can be anything the group chooses, but one hopes that it would be informed by an awareness of and compassion for the rest of the world. Just as members of the tribe would learn to cooperate for each other's benefit, I hope tribes would cooperate to further positive goals. It is like the ideal Coven, but larger and more tightly knit.
This is undeniably an idealistic dream. If it is even possible on a national scale, it won't happen for a while. What can we do now? Things like: network and seek out those who share our values, form groups (Covens), work toward relocating together, work toward having mutually supporting (or at least compatible) careers. All these things fit in easily with our present society. When such a group feels ready to go beyond that, they can pool assets. The legal entity closest to a tribe that our society will recognize is a corporation. Thus, incorporation is the next step. This will marry all the members to one another legally, but not irrevocably (allowing some freedom, but not caprice).
Of course, this would not be the kind of entity we now envision as a corporation—not even the benevolent Japanese idea. All adult members should have a voice, but there would have to be leadership to provide direction and maintain focus—particularly in the face of new membership that is likely to be less dedicated to the tribe's goals. From what I've heard of Native American societies, it seems that many of them offer ideas that would work well—when wedded to new rules to help deal with the unusual situations our present life creates.
This still sounds awfully idealistic, but I believe it is a reasonable start. I am sufficiently confident in this, that we are using it. We are now at the stage of trying to relocate. Once we sell our shop (we will still publish this magazine!) we will be able to complete this step. I'll let you know how things progress.
Blessed Be | 
