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``Motherhood in the Context of Cultural Globalization"
Enola G. Aird, Director, The Motherhood Project*
I join this conversation as a mother. I am bold to say that I am just a mother. I offer no other credentials. I am a mother from the United States who is deeply concerned about the cultural
environment into which mothers in my country must today bring - and raise - our children, an environment that is spreading across much of the world through the forces of globalization.
The cultural environment I describe is known to you. It is increasingly degrading to the human spirit. And it is an environment that poses profound challenges to the work of raising human children.
I will argue as we begin this new millennium, these challenges cry out for a powerful mothers' movement expressly focused on the preservation of the humanity of children.
Let me sketch for you the challenges of cultural globalization from this mother's point of view.
I. The Money World vs. The Motherworld
I come from a country that, as you know, is unrivaled economically, militarily, and technologically.
The United States likes to think of itself as the world's most advanced free market economy. It is
a democracy. And it is leading the world in constructing a globalized culture that is spreading like wildfire.
in the United states, we are blessed with extraordinary material surpluses. But it pains me to have to
say that we are also riddled with profound spiritual, moral, and character deficits. We are losing touch - in important ways - with our humanity.
I come from a country in which the dominant cultural messages are: "Just Do It.", "Have It Your
Way.", "Follow Your Instincts. Obey Your Thirst.", "No Boundaries.", "Got the Urge?" These messages are all advertising slogans, and they promote a powerful world view holding that life is
about selfishness, instant gratification, and rampant materialism. A world view that degrades human sexuality, promotes the idea that our value as human beings is determined by what we buy and what
we own, and desensitizes our children to ever-increasing levels of vulgarity and violence.
I come from a country in which MTV, the flagship network for young people in the United States -
and increasingly across the globe - features what one commentator has called the "self as the star of the universe."
I come from a country in which a leading student of new communications technologies has written that through the internet "children can reach past suffocating boundaries of social convention, past
their elders' rigid notions of what's good for them. Children, he says, will never be the same. Nor will the rest of us." It is a country in which advertisers and marketers are unabashed in their efforts
to turn babies and toddlers into lifelong consumers and in which schools increasingly resemble commercial bazaars with all the companies selling their wares during the school day.
It is a country which is at the forefront in the fields of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and robotics - fields of science that raise unprecedented moral challenges. Biotechnology promises to "re-engineer
the human species." Scientists talk seriously of producing human clones and genetically engineering, or "custom-designing," children. They speak boldly and enthusiastically of projects designed to
overcome the limits of human nature and even death.
Cybernetics pioneers are aggressively working to "upgrade the human body with the use of
computer implants and other linkages between humans and computers. And, we are told that scientists are within 30 years of being able to design a "robotic replacement species."
It is a culture that believes in unbounded freedom, unlimited choice, radical individualism, and material success as an end in itself.
It is a culture in which virtually everything is now for sale. And in which according to the medical ethicist Leon Kass there is an "unlimited faith in technology and markets."
It is a country in which incidents of violent behavior by girls and women - once relatively rare - are now increasing at disturbing rates.
It is a culture in which parents find themselves less and less able to discern the difference between right and wrong and to teach it to their children. We are forgetting how to sustain commitments to
each other, and we have less and less faith that there is any power greater than ourselves.
In the pursuit of profits, American business - driven by technology - increasingly recognizes no
limits, no boundaries, no traditions. These are the driving values of globalization.
The values of globalization, or what the sociologist Robert Bellah has called the values of the
"money world," are increasingly at odds with the values necessary for raising human children, what I call the values of the "motherworld," values such as sacrifice and self-giving, discipline and
moderation, humility and forbearance, commitment and dedication.
The difference between the money world and the motherworld is the difference between means and
ends. For those of us in the motherworld, children are ends in themselves. They are gifts. They are blessings. Mothers are concerned for their children's character, for their dignity, and for their souls.
In the money world, our children are means to other ends. They are subjects of research. They are workers, consumers, and producers. They are means to maximizing sales. They are means to
advancing technological and economic progress.
In describing the essence of globalization economics, James Surowiecki, a writer for Slate Magazine, has said: " innovation replaces tradition. The present - or perhaps the future - replaces
the past. Nothing matters so much as what will come next, and what will come next can only arrive if what is here now gets overturned. While this makes the system a terrific place for innovation, it
makes it a difficult place to live."
II. The Challenge to the Humanity of Children and the Need for a "Revived Motherhood"
Mothers are charged with what Pope John Paul II has called a "singularly important role" of safeguarding the children entrusted to our care. We must therefore be urgently concerned about the
nature of the place we bring our children to live.
As a citizen of the United States, which is at the cutting edge in cultivating the values of
globalization, I can attest that the culture that it has wrought is, indeed, a difficult place in which to live. It is an especially difficult place in which to raise children.
Let me explain further.
As adorable as they are and as much joy as they bring us, our little babies come into this world as bundles of self-centered instincts, needs, and wants. Without loving guidance and moral teaching
that channels their instincts into a recognition that others exist and that others are to be valued and cherished, these little babies will grow up to be little more than adult bundles of self-centered
instincts, needs and wants.
As we all know, in order to become fully "human" beings, little babies must be loved, they must be
nurtured, they must be guided and helped to understand virtue and to live virtuous lives. They must be humanized.
Mothers are vital keepers of the stories and the traditions that impart virtues to children and help
them learn how to be human. We are charged with the profound responsibility of helping our children to unfold - to become all that they are meant by God to be.
In the Christian tradition in which I stand, the blessing of motherhood calls mothers to the sacred task of lovingly guiding children to a deep and abiding knowledge of Christ as Son of God and
Redeemer. In the words of John Paul II in the 1995 World Day of Peace message, we are called to "direct the mind and heart of the child to God."
In fulfilling the vocation of Christian motherhood, mothers contribute to the spreading of the Gospel by transmitting to our children a sense of themselves as vital parts of the community of the faithful.
We are to be partners with fathers in bringing our children up in the knowledge and love of the Lord in order to give shape and ultimate meaning and purpose to their lives. We are to help them come to
know that they are created in the "image and likeness of God," that they do not belong to themselves, that they are not self-created or self-sustaining.
We are called to draw our children, through the daily, often mundane, tasks of mothering, into an ever-deepening relationship with Jesus Christ by teaching and showing them through our words, but
mostly through our deeds, who and whose they are and how they are to live.
Largely due to the influence of Judeo-Christian values, an important part of modern Western
History has been a story of human beings aspiring - though not always succeeding - to higher and higher levels of moral behavior. But now, it appears that human beings are in grave danger of abandoning that aspiration.
As we consider the values that have already shaped people in the United States and are increasingly shaping people in the rest of the world, we can see formidable challenges to the continued ability of
mothers and fathers to raise moral children, and therefore, formidable challenges to the humanity of children.
It seems to me that we humans have - through a good part of modern Western History at least -
aspired to walk a path away from self-centeredness. But, as we stand at the beginning of this Third Millennium, we are at considerable risk, driven by the technological and marketplace forces inherent
in globalization, of abandoning moral aspirations altogether - turning around and aggressively walking a path back - aspiring to self-centeredness, and away from moral and fully "human" behavior.
In the United States, it is becoming harder and harder for mothers and fathers to teach their children the virtues of patience, self-discipline, empathy, humility, and concern and care for others. A
majority of adults in a recent survey expressed concern that "too many children are not absorbing the moral lessons that will allow them to grow into respectable, respectful, compassionate, and honorable human beings."
We are at a perilous juncture. We are abandoning moral aspirations at a time that poses the most profound moral challenges in human history.
The value system of the money world is redefining how our children view themselves, others, and the meaning of life itself. It is hollowing out our conception of the human person. The cultural trends
that I have described are pushing people toward an understanding of human beings as nothing more than self-created, self-sustaining bundles of instincts, needs, and wants.
Our conception of childhood, too, has been hollowed out. Childhood is regarded by many primarily as a time for promoting children's cognitive development to maximize their ability to
succeed in school and work. This shallow and dehumanizing view of childhood focuses exclusively on the material success of children and woefully neglects the development of character and morality.
But it is increasingly clear that the development of character and morality is the only thing that can preserve our children's humanity in the wake of what has been called the "creative destruction" of
globalization. The journalist Thomas Friedman, a leading student of globalization, puts it this way: "the best thing parents can do to prepare their kids... is to stress more old fashioned fundamentals...
the faster they can get online, the stronger must be their own personal software...and personal software can only be built the old fashioned way: by stressing reading, writing, arithmetic, Church,
Synagogue, Temple, Mosque, family. "
III. The Seeds of a Mothers' Movement
This world stands in dire need of a re-assertion of the sensibilities, the voices, and the energies of
mothers. As guardians of childhood, mothers must claim a central role as keepers of the sphere of values essential for raising distinctively human children. We need urgently to build up the values of
the motherworld as a bulwark against the increasing encroachments of the money world.
The construction of this bulwark will not be easy because of the steady erosion of tradition and
values that is endemic to globalization. It will require extraordinary resolve, patience, and heroic efforts on the part of mothers. But the clear and present challenges of globalization demand no less.
These challenges call for an urgent mothers' movement to preserve the humanity of children in the age of globalization.
In small ways, this movement has begun. I will mention just two examples from the United States. Mothers in Scarsdale (in the state of New York) are rebelling against standardized tests as a sign of
their growing dissatisfaction with the drive for more and tougher assessments of their children. These mothers are concerned that the tests are undermining a vital part of their children's humanity: their
creativity and imagination.
Earlier this month, a group of mothers of diverse perspectives, facilitated by the motherhood
project, declared themselves "in rebellion against the popular culture that is waging war on our children." Mothers issued an open letter to advertisers called Watch Out for Children, a document
that says to advertisers: You are teaching our children values that are antithetical to the values we are trying to teach our children. You must stop. We will not allow you to raise our children. Back
off and let us raise our children in peace.
These mothers asserted themselves and raised their voices in defense of childhood as a time for the moral and ethical formation of children, and they served notice on advertisers and marketers and on
the rest of the united states of their renewed commitment to strengthen their children's moral foundations and to stand between their children and any force that would diminish their children's humanity.
These are small steps. But they are important. These mothers are saying, "enough." We do not bring our children into the world for this. We will not allow you to treat them as means to other ends.
These are small steps. But they indicate that mothers are awakening to the threat to their children. And when mothers rise up to protect their children, god only knows what they can accomplish.
Although I myself am a Protestant, I am deeply grateful that Catholic Social Teaching, in general, and the "new feminism," in particular have so much to offer to inspire this nascent mothers' movement.
I have only recently been introduced to the social teaching of the Catholic Church, but it seems to me to offer a great well of wisdom and truth. It is bold to remind us all that mothers are vital
guardians of their children's humanity - that mothers play a critical role in shaping the uniquely human character of children.
As Pope John Paul II observed in Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of
Women), "motherhood in its personal-ethical sense expresses a very important creativity on the part of the woman, upon whom the very humanity of the new human being mainly depends."
The "new feminism" reminds us of the special contribution that mothers make to their children, their families, and to the human family. It draws us to a realization that, again in the words of Pope John
Paul II on the dignity and vocation of women, motherhood "gives rise [within a mother] to an attitude towards human beings-not only towards her own child, but every human being..."
Motherhood, we are reminded, develops the vital human predisposition to "pay attention to another person." Motherhood and mothering orient mothers away from self and self-centeredness outward
toward others. Motherhood and mothering also encourage and empower mothers to help those around them move away from self-centeredness as well.
The new feminism helps re-focus mothers' attentions on the very important fact that in their daily work with their children - which requires in abundance the qualities of patience, sacrifice, self-giving,
and so much more - mothers are cultivating precisely the virtues that the world most needs at this critical moment in its history.
By calling to mind the fact that "the history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman's motherhood," modern Catholic social teaching elevates motherhood and the work of
mothering and dignifies them in ways that invite mothers, who are profoundly devalued in so many places across the globe, to see themselves in a new light - as valued, as vital to the well-being of
their children, to society, and to humanity.
Our sights, once elevated, can help us to develop a clearer sense of purpose, passion, and power
about our work as mothers. This helps us to see so clearly that motherhood is truly vocation. The new feminism helps mothers to see the work of mothering as a true calling and encourages a bold
activism by mothers on behalf of their children.
Catholic social teaching also offers a richer, deeper understanding of the human person that can help
inform what the economist and author Sylvia Ann Hewlett has called a "new language of nurture," a
new vocabulary of "mother love" and ""mother service."." As a tradition that honors and celebrates motherhood and mothering, Catholic social teaching can help inform the idea of a "servant
motherhood" which will be needed as we build a mothers' movement focused on developing within mothers the spiritual, emotional, social, creative and moral qualities necessary for raising children of
virtue in this demanding global age.
The challenge before mothers in the age of globalization is to help develop for ourselves, for our
children, and our societies fresh and captivating models of being and living that truly value - and defend - the virtues of the mother world.
In this quest to rededicate ourselves as mothers to the crucial vocation of motherhood, the new feminism's emphasis on the dignity inherent in giving of oneself to others, and its commitment to
supporting the work of mothering as of first importance in a mother's life, will be of great inspiration.
III. Conclusion
Even in the face of a globalization which seems inexorable, a growing number of mothers in the United States and across the world are asking fundamental questions of themselves and of their
society: What are we becoming? What kind of people will our children be if we continue along this path? And, most important, how can we as mothers create spaces of peace and effectively
challenge the societies in which we live so that we can teach our children the virtues that will reverse our culture's slide toward a radically diminished conception of what it means to be human?
We mothers have been slow to answer the challenge of globalization because, as mothers in a world that devalues mothers, we have not always trusted ourselves. In a culture that gives greater
credence to the voices of experts, we have been reluctant to raise our voices as mothers. We have in recent years grown unclear about our role and responsibilities, and uncertain of ourselves. With
the dizzying pace of globalization, it has been hard to understand all the implications of the changes confronting us. We have lost sight of how important we are to the fulfillment of god's plan.
But we are finding our bearings and our voices, and we do intend to make ourselves heard. We are determined to chart new paths in the quest to preserve the humanity of our children.
We are determined. We will rediscover, reclaim, and reassert the essential values of the mother world.
To conclude, I want to share a story with you. It is a tale about a village long, long ago. Every night
the people of the village would gathers around a campfire. The mothers and fathers would surround their children and sing and dance and tell stories teaching values and passing on traditions - all while
holding hands against the edge of the darkness.
The people made this circle around their children every night for so long that there came a time
when no one could remember why they made the circle. Not even the oldest member of the village could remember. So the people decided to stop making the circle. And they did.
That was the night that the bears came.
The children, never having seen bears before, thought that they were friends and went out to play with them. And the children were slaughtered. The bears came back night after night unchallenged.
And the mothers and fathers forgot that they had ever lived in peace surrounding their children, singing and dancing and telling stories, teaching values and passing on traditions - all while holding
hands against the edge of the darkness.
Like the people of that village, we in the United States and in many parts of the world, have
forgotten the importance of the circle. It is only through the nurturance and passing on of humanizing values and traditions that we can preserve the humanity of our children - and save them from the bears abroad today.
It is vital that the circle be remade. And in this, women, in general and mothers, in particular, have a crucial role to play. We know in our hearts and souls what our children need most. We must
rediscover it, and having rediscovered it, we must teach it to the world again.
Time is of the essence. We are the last generation in which there is a critical mass of people who
remember - who remember that there was a time when we knew the difference between right and wrong; who remember a time when materialism did not reign supreme; who remember a time when people feared God.
Our children do not remember. They have not lived in such a time.
Because we remember, we bear a special obligation at this moment in history. For unless we revive
the memory, when we die, the memory will die with us. This realization gives me a most profound sense of mission and urgency. I know that it does the same for you, and I thank god for that.
Thank you very much.
*This talk was give at the International Congress "Woman and Cultures: From the Perspective of a
New Feminism" at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome on May 22-23, 2001.
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