No. It’s not. There’s a difference between hierarchy and patriarchy, you along with many men have confused the two.
Hierarchy does lead to an organizational advantage. But hierarchy means you have a chain of command. Leaders rise to the top and are the decision makers. It’s not the best system in all situations, but there are clear advantages. Those leaders that rise to the top do so because they are leaders, meaning they have the capability to get people to follow them because those people know that it’s to their advantage to do so because it will increase their likelihood of survival and success. In other words, it’s based on merit and only merit. Anyone in society who shows leadership skills can rise to the top. This is good for society. You get the best of the best. Everyone wins.
Patriarchy on the other hand places certain people, in our case white men, in power to make decisions for the group because they are men and because they are white rather than instances of merit or even a desire to truly lead rather than act exploitatively. People follow them because they have to, at the expense of being killed, brutalized, disenfranchised, ostracized, etc., if they do not, not because they particularly want to or life is better for them in this arrangement. It’s not, as it does not improve your chances of survival or success because the largest portion of those things go to those at the apex. Only white men win while the rest of us are left to beg for scraps. That’s fun, right?
Patriarchy is the worst form of hierarchy because it limits the pool of potential good leaders and ideas from rising and it relies on violence rather than merit. Oftentimes the best potential leaders never get a shot because of their skin color and reproductive process. Patriarchy leads to mediocrity. Patriarchy is a hindrance to the health and advancement of society. It is a resistance to our future success as a species.
This is not a slight difference or semantics of terms. It’s a foundational difference. Given the challenges coming down the pipe with climate change we cannot afford as a species or a society to continue pandering to a poor dynamic. We need the best and brightest minds to rise to the top to see us through.
Get the difference?
