Empire Is Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
To build the next world, we have to name the one that’s dying.
Saturday started with some scrolling of the Book of Face. And a friend shared that our current president is removing the “free park” visit from Martin Luther King Jr. Day and instead replacing it with his birthday1.
What the actual ….?
I was so shocked. I remember when people fought to get Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday. It was the late 1990s, and the university I attended threatened to dismiss it as a holiday if people didn’t do a service act, how it was sold at the time. Over the years, there has been growing respect for this day. And of course our current president would set us back — but I still didn’t believe it at first.
So, I started searching the news to verify this racist atrocity, and instead, I found that Trump plans to bring back the Monroe Doctrine2.
What the what?!
Instead of a passive act of racist disrespect, what I found was a policy direction that once again risks codifying genocide, erasure, and permission for more violence and atrocities.
This isn’t new. And I believe this is part of “Patriarchy’s Last Stand.”
Do you remember the Monroe Doctrine? I didn’t — I was remembering “Manifest Destiny.” Let’s take a walk through the history we weren’t taught to question, shall we?
In the 1400s, the Catholic Church established the “Doctrine of Discovery,” which gave Europeans religious permission to conquer non-Christian lands.
I remember learning about the Inquisition and the search for the Holy Grail — always wondering, “Why?” How is this part of Jesus’s teaching to turn the other cheek and love your neighbor as yourself? I remember thinking, “I don’t understand what’s happening here?”
Of course, I didn’t understand. When you’re inside a gaslit story, everything feels natural even when it’s not. People then — and people now — were taught to believe that claiming power over others was their sacred duty, as if domination itself had been blessed. It was manipulation dressed up as divine purpose.
This is a problem.
Next, in the early 1800s, we get the Monroe Doctrine, which just as Trump is claiming to do now (and he’s done this already by wanting to lay claim to Canada and Greenland and setting ships up in the Caribbean), the Monroe Doctrine claimed the entire Western Hemisphere as a U.S. “sphere of influence” — a sanitized way of saying control.
Later, in the mid-1800s, we get Manifest Destiny (I really thought that was the 1300s, so writing on this was a good history lesson for me, too). Manifest Destiny said it was our divine destiny to expand across the rest of the continent.
And, of course, there is our Imperialistic era from the 1890s to today. I remember studying this in history class related to Teddy Roosevelt. And, I also remember all these history lessons where no one else reacted. No one reacted with shock or horror about what was happening. We all took it in stride. “Oh, of course that’s what we would do…” because the culture was already baked into our beings. A part of us already believed it. This logic — that domination is permissible, even natural — is now baked into our social contract.
From the Doctrine of Discovery to the Monroe Doctrine to Manifest Destiny to our never-ending Imperial rule — Patriarchy’s Last Stand is trying to make explicit policy things like hatred, dominance, and hierarchy. And, this is our choice point. Do we accept or organize against for what we really want?
My thinking on this path began years ago, after I read Mysteries of the Dark Moon3 by Demetra George. George has so many gems and connections of how our world is showing up based on the larger lunation cycles. The audiobook is good, and the print copy is worth every penny paid because of the charts and graphs. This is my takeaway — Christianity emerged within the last 40,000-year larger lunation cycle, within the most recent 5,000 years. The last 5,000-ish years (the book was written in 1992), we have been in the “dark moon phase” of this larger 40,000-year lunation cycle. And, the last 3,000 years are overlayed with the “World Age” informed by processional motion. We are leaving the Age of Pisces (which corresponds with the dark moon phase, Christianity, and the death of goddess culture) and entering the Age of Aquarius (which corresponds with a rebirth of goddess culture and more).
We are witnessing in celestial time the rebirth of goddess culture and the death of patriarchy. And, patriarchy is not giving up without a fight. So, we see a lot of mess and terror. We see this division of us vs them. Maybe you were in a small town, like I was, where rivalries with nearby schools were an indoctrination and part of the social culture. Even rituals like that perpetuate the us vs them mentality. Hazing — where only cool kids or older kids can be in “the commons” reinforces pecking orders and hierarchy. These all normalize and shape our belief in insiders vs outsiders or who is a “real American” vs an invader, or civilization vs chaos — who is worthy vs unworthy, who is a savior or who is a threat. These patterns normalize our inability to see the gaslighting, the manipulation, and the baked-in cruelty.
Binary thinking is a tool of the patriarchy. Living in either/or, binary thinking fuels centuries of continuous war, naming war as patriotic, profitable, and inevitable. It builds our identities, keeps us distracted, and is highly addictive.
I was raised in the 80s and 90s, in the era where children were seen and not heard. I was raised with, “You’re gonna cry? Well, I’ll give you something to cry about.” I was raised with spankings, fear, and control. And, it came from all over — parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, media, teachers, etc. While I believe my parents, for example, leaned more towards understanding and less aversive methods than previous generations, it was still a normal tool used. We are continuing harm while trying to end it.
I see this now that we have a dog. Every Humane Society and both the American and International SPCA teach that “Positive Reinforcement Behavior Training” (PRBT) is the ethical and effective path. Anything lending to aversive (control, harm, etc) tactics only brings stress and fear to the animal. So if you use PRBT, you will get the end result of the behavior you are looking for with a much less stressed animal. So, why wouldn’t you want to do that?
Because we want results now. And, “Do what I say because I’m the adult” is still embedded in our DNA. And, in Patriarchy’s Last Stand, the desire for control will continue to come up.
We have a choice. Leading with fear is a choice. Leading with love and kindness is a choice. Seeing and naming what is going on or succumbing to it with no action — these are all choices.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a sustainability conference where Winona LaDuke4 was the keynote speaker. She talked to us about a choice point for our world — continue endless development, pollution, and extraction of resources on this “path of concrete”, or we choose a world of sustainability and regeneration, a “path of green”. This path choice point aligns with how patriarchy is breaking, ending, and we are entering into a new era. But we have choices to make along the way on the kind of fabric we want this new area to be built upon. The more intentional we can make these choices in leaning into values we want to continue, the better off this next era will be.
Things that are waning from the Age of Pisces include hierarchy, martyrdom, and savior-ism. Things that are rising through the Age of Aquarius include collective consciousness, decentralization, innovation, and shared responsibility. Regardless of what the stars say is leaving and coming in, we also have to make an intentional choice to bring in what we want our world to become. We have to be active in ushering in the world we want.
I want our world to lean into care, mutual aid, personal freedom and choice, bodily autonomy, open borders, just to name a few. That means I need to take an active role to describe and help implement these values — choosing action in some way. Wishing for these things to happen and burying my head in the sand will not bring these things to fruition.
It is clear to me that the path of concrete will lead to the collapse of our world. The path of green is one of reciprocity and regeneration. It weaves in other ideas of making sure we learn from past generations and think well beyond our own to make thoughtful, careful plans as we move forward. The path of green means we are choosing deliberately to usher in a new world as Patriarchy dies.
We started with the Monroe Doctrine — a redeclaration of “western expansion.” Trump is now laying the groundwork to claim three continents. The only way to do this is with force, manipulation, and other cruel methods. This is not how I’m raising my kid to be. Not how my mother raised me, nor my grandmother, her. He’s the president of our nation — and if we don’t want that behavior to continue, we must act. We don’t have a choice in deciding to act or not; we must.
But how we act is another story.
Power is the ability to act. As an organizer, I lean into the definition that power is organized people and organized money.
This new Monroe Doctrine leans into worth being defined as white, male, wealthy, and a form of Christianity. It centers worthiness on who can be a citizen and lifts up only heteronormativity. These hierarchies all determine who deserves safety, care, rest, and belonging.
I believe everyone has the right to care, rest, safety, community, and democratic participation. I believe everyone has the right to clean air, water, and clean soil. I believe we all deserve to live on a livable planet. I believe we all have a right to a future beyond extraction. Not just a few “sacred few” who are identified differently depending on who’s in charge. We have to name what is happening, because, like a good therapist knows, it is much harder to treat the thing if you don’t name it.
By naming what is happening, we break isolation, shame, and this authoritarian spell-craft. I am naming what is happening and the world I would rather usher in. And, I am inviting you to name it and act on the world you want, too.
It can’t be said enough: we have to act. We have to choose our lane. Not everyone has to be on the front lines, but doing something to actively usher in a world that is centered around care and rest — we all must take part in that. Here’s a short list of some things you can do:
Write about what is happening and tell your story
Call or email your elected officials and other decision makers
Show up at protests and direct actions
Serve as a notary or document support for undocumented people
Show up as a court accompaniment
Provide childcare for organizers and leaders
Cook meals for mutual aid
Host or join a study group and political education circle
Monitor policy or translate it for other languages
Redistribute wealth through fundraising
Create art and media that tell the truth
Build spiritual resilience
Support mental health, grief, and other emotional endurance work
Everyone has a lane. And everyone must act. No lane is too small. And, you can choose a big lane, step back, choose a smaller lane, and walk in and out of the lanes as your world shifts.
So, what’s next?
Engage with me — in this space or on social media. (Remember, only paid subscribers can comment (it’s one way I protect this space)). Meet with people in your area. Reader, I want everyone one of you to find a power-building organization in your area. Work with them. Let’s continue learning together. Participate in “Know Your Rights” trainings, refresh your understanding of civics, and read Black women authors who’ve worked on civil rights for years.
A really important thing to anchor in on is that we are not powerless. We have power when we act together. And this next cycle? It depends on the path we choose, together.
Wong, Kathleen. 2025. “National Park Scut Free Entry for MLK Day, Add Trump’s Birthday.” USA Today, December 5. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/national-parks/2025/12/05/national-parks-free-entry-days-2026/87631147007/.
Ali, Idrees, Matt Spetalnick, and James Mackenzie. 2025. “Trump Strategy Document Revives Monroe Doctrine, Slams Europe.” Reuters, December 5. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/trump-strategy-document-revives-monroe-doctrine-slams-europe-2025-12-05/.
George, Demetra. 1992. Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Power of the Dark Goddess. Harper Collins Publishers. * (pages 71-74, 90-91)
La Duke, Winona. 2017. “Prophecy of the Seventh Fire: Choosing the Path That Is Green.” Thirty-Seventh Annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, MA, November. https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/prophecy-of-the-seventh-fire-choosing-the-path-that-is-green/.
*This was not the conference I attended. The one I attended may have been a month earlier in Portland, Oregon. But the concepts shared were the same.