When I was kid I had this deeply misunderstood radar for danger. I could sense danger, spidey senses for “shit is about to go south!” Growing up in trauma and tough circumstances, it wires you early on for the perils of your circumstances. You learn to hustle, you learn to survive, you learn to keep going…at least most of the time. This is often the artist journey, as well. Growing up half on the streets unsupervised makes you adept at knowing danger. My unusual ability of being a canary in human relationships takes me often on the outside of the codependent vortex. Being awake in a system of unconsciousness that bets on humans sleepwalking through life is both a blessing and a curse. As a woman in business (in finance, tech and music) the triple whammy of patriarchy, it leaves me 99% of the time deeply irritated and disturbed…and the entire reason I made EQ.
My experience has taught me 5 universal truths about the patriarchy (I know there are many more) but these are the most powerful abuses of the system. I might also add that this is most often used against women and people of colour. Those who have 3 layers of trauma to contend with (family trauma, intergenerational trauma, and cultural trauma). Before people write to me about the perils of being a white man and how they have trauma too…blah, blah. Stop. Don’t write me. This entire article is actually about them as well… just not in the way you imagine.
So here is how the patriarchy makes bets against a system holding true, every damn year, for hundreds of years (pretty much the world over). Yes, hundreds, most likely thousands of years:
1. Humans will often seek a saviour, the hero, the person/thing outside themselves. Accountability and responsibility are not part of this equation. The hunt will be for the saviour. Music, finance, tech, politics, all systems of true wealth generation and control know this to be true. They build the entire system on it. Tech and finance, being the ultimate players of this game, bet that you will want a “knight” in shining armour, when in actual fact Cinderella should have rode her own damn horse and left the prince with her shoe.
2. Humans enjoy comfort over discomfort, even if they live in discomfort, it is the shit they know. So they are betting you will not learn something new to save your own life. The patriarch assumes you won’t, so it will deprive you from the necessary knowledge you need to save your own life. We must get uncomfortable in our comfort to confront the system of patriarchy. Knowledge is often at the core root of this control. The famous saying that knowledge is power is true to the complete core. The patriarch has all this knowledge (which can be found freely now…thanks to a white dude’s invention called the Internet) and they play the same game over and over with each other. It is in plain sight yet they are banking you won’t do the homework…why…because our struggles to just survive make us too damn tired to get out from under the 3 layers of shit we are living in…so even when we have the play book, the knowledge, we won’t do the work to change. But we must! The only way to get out of a mountain of shit is to climb right through it to the other side. Cue Andy Dufresne…
3. Human behaviour can be predicted by the copendent vortex which is built in drama. There is always a predator to the story, a victim and a martyr (the power of ‘3’ rules in the drama just like baseball). As long as this drama stays in tact, humans will be addicted to that drama. This is where we stay too long in our own trauma story. After the immediate trauma has subsided we begin to either attract more of the same trauma or we create drama to stay in trauma. Hence why almost all creative stories contain the same story arch. On HBO this is super fun to watch. The trainwreck in action. But in the financial corridors of your life, not so much. If you have not watched Succession on HBO, now would be the time to see this entire dynamic on display.
4. Ego trauma will make 99% of your decisions, so you stay in trauma, thereby staying in the Bermuda triangle of drama. So basically, lost. The Toltecs called this the Mitote, the fog of perception. Trauma takes us two places: To the past where we often cannot forgive or forget or to the future searching for a saviour to our story. In both cases we are not present. We are either chasing ghosts or chasing our imagination that maybe this time the saviour shows up…Repeat, back to Step 3, 2, and 1… rinse and repeat. Most men in societies (generally white men) are taught to be the “saviour.” Hence, the patriarchy rules. They in turn create story after story to be the saviour. They create ENTIRE systems of control to live out this boyhood fantasy. It is in EVERY system where power is involved. Hence why the world is out of balance, most women and people of colour have had about enough. For the grossest example of hero complex in action see Elon Musk on Twitter, or Jeff Bezos giant penis flying to space (what would Freud say about this!).
5. Money and the allure of money will trump 99% of your decisions which most saviours use to “save” you from your life. Wave the carrot and most will stay because the carrot is so powerful. We stop trusting our own power and we hand it over to those who make these “promises”. Most of the intense traumas of our lives have money at the center (not enough or too much). We often make money our saviour; thereby, giving our power over to it. So those who have money use it to control you and those who don’t can’t stop chasing it. Money allows those to come in and control you…this is the true betting cycle of the patriarchy.
By the way, I would like to tell you that most of these men in the patriarchy are “masterminds.” Hilariously, they are not. We are ALL active participants (often unconscious) in this system and the maintenance of these systems. Why? Read the steps above. They too are in the same vortex, repeating cycles, lost in trauma…many are NOT happy or reaching their true human potential…BUT…the system happens to benefit them over others and overlooks anything that is “unsavoury” as their “genius” gives them a trump card…that is the main difference. The system was built for them to thrive and keep the saviour complex going…which equally can be awful but only if you are awake to even consider it a possibility. As a collective society for true change, we must all OWN our roles which we have played -and decide to play- a new ball game. You do have the power to choose regardless of what has been said, done or happened to you.
Much of our society’s financial systems, most of Web2 technology and much of the music industry, seems predicated on one universal truth:
Where there is confusion, you will find thieves! Period.
Homer warned of this truth. Every story in history has provided the warning, yet many of us don’t heed the warning. Why? Please read the steps above again. In fact, do not stop reading them until you see your own truth.
So here is the ultimate play…and WHY I had to make EQ:
- Contracts: Confusing…
Patriarch: Here, let me take that off your plate. So you never read the fine print and you don’t know what you don’t know. - Technology: Confusing…
Patriarch: Here, just use it but you don’t need to know how it works just come here every day all day with your talent and content and put it on my site! (WTF) - Web3: Confusing…
Patriarch: You will not understand it so here, just use it. You won’t get it…
In the meantime, the patriarch is MOWING up all things of value so that by the time you get here, much of the real estate is gone. Same as Web2. Rinse and Repeat. - Finance: Confusing…
Patriarch: So “we” -aka WHITE MEN- make rules and regulations that, unless you look, act and make as much money as we do, or attend our colleges, we will make those financial decisions for you.
Almost all financial regulations are built on the assumption that THEY are protecting you from yourself. It is literally written in the law.
ALL BULLSHIT.
So here I am, the canary in the coal mine, saying hell no! So how do we do that with EQ…a hundred steps to go but here are the first ones:
- EQ is built on “smart contracts” this automated code (technology) that does two things really well and FULLY transparent. It handles payments (so everyone gets paid immediately) and data (it is your DATA and you own it). In music it seems the primary fight has been over payments and data/IP ownership.
- Equity. Equity. Equity. All artists have creative IP (intellectual property). This is yours. It is your equity that can increase over time BUT not if you gave it away before seeing the value rise. The real wealth paydays are in the equity not the pay cheque.
- PayDay Loan system in music must die. A payday loan system is the most predatory system. It is the waving of one thing while taking something else when you are not looking. It is the ultimate hamster wheel that artists have been on for decades. For that matter, most people who fall outside of the 1%.
- Financial education. You are an artist but you must learn the business if you want a career. Do not use the excuse “I am an artist and I don’t care about business”. Ok. This is your first mistake. You leave yourself vulnerable immediately. Why do that with your greatest legacy of art? This is your first born, your baby, your child. Get uncomfortable and take a minute to get the facts down. EQ will be this champion for artists until my last breath.
- Own your OWN way (thank you Stevie Nicks). OWN it. Don’t stop owning your IP, your mistakes, your life, your choices. OWN AND KEEP OWNING. That is how you change your life. EQ will be here to create a space where you OWN. The great equalizer. GO YOUR OWN WAY.
EQ is the culmination of my own struggle through that mountain of shit, to my human observations over a lifetime of trying to always get to the core root of understanding, and empathy. Most of all, this inner urge to seek truth and justice has made me the canary I am today. Today I fondly call my canary, Esther. Inside each person is an Esther: Born For Such a Time as This.
