Androgyne

There cannot be a comfortable relationship between a woman who knows her mind and a man who knows his. By knowing one's mind, I mean the congnizance of all the factors that play a part in shaping the way we think, and the way other people do. Unfortunately for humans, the decree seems to be that understanding the world in its entirety and weaving the signals, the thoughts and other variables in the environment into the psychological process seems to be the woman's natural forte. It has been ordained that in knowing her own mind, the woman knows the man's. Wouldn't things have been so much prettier if the reverse were true?

Men might see the things that ought to influence their thoughts and feelings, not the least because it would help him understand woman better. But they don't see a point in thinking about things that don't patently have a tangible bearing on their lives. So it rests that a man would rather not be aware of how a woman's mind works because it is a rather inconvenient prospect to him, in stark contrast to a woman's quest to fathom why people are the way they are, say the things they say and do the things they do. And often times, know these things to the detail. He calls it reading too much into discrete elements of existence without seeing that nothing is discrete in a woman's mind. A man finds a woman's world disconcerting - the very fact that she lives many intertwined worlds disturbs him. He would would much rather stand on the outside and learn to deal with the implications of such on his life and act accordingly. She might try to live in the real, here-and-now world that a man knows and loves, but the more she resists the urge to interpret the myriad cues to life around her, the more unhappy she'll be. In striving to shield man from the intricate tapestry of her mind, she will do herself the grave injustice of leaving a work of art incomplete. And she will suffer for her loss.

There's always, always going to be conflict and disillusionment. How can one know, and yet walk a path that can bring nothing but grief?

We live in a world that is set in her ways. Men are not going to change, and neither are women. Men will never stop being driven instinctually towards sex, power and money, and women towards fighting tooth and nail for the not-so-palpable things they want and don't get. Since neanderthal times, men have considered themselves the key to all existence. Women have squabbled among themselves, putting each other down while men have hunted and rules together. The end could only be if men become substantially more powerful and women more subservient, or one sex takes control of things after a catastrophe. A bit like one of the means to world peace as envisaged by Bertrand Russell - one supreme power, country or group, at the helm of the world so there would be no need for weapons or war. There'd be factions and minor quibbles, but there'd also be obvious direction and perceptible authority. This authority would perhaps go the way of communism, but I think not, because it would be rather difficult to reduce the entire population of the world to serfdom. One of the visions of the world that H.Anyhow, G.Wells had in his Time Machine too, if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, the institution of marriage will dissolve, men and women will procreate and go their separate ways, their minds will soon blend into one another's because of the want of debate, they will each have one foot on Mars and the other on Venus, communities will breed children and there will be no more gender strife on the much-maligned planets. If we're lucky, we might just get a pellet of soma at the end of every day to pep things up a little.

That's the hope, at any rate!