Literacy, unlike orality which requires the use of both verbal and non-verbal cues, depends primarily on the use of only the left hemisphere.

Western culture, with its unique monotheistic religions, dualistic philosophies, and distinctive perspectivist art, advanced science, and written legal codes, I propose, is the direct result of changes occurring in the brains of the users of alphabets. While alphabet literacy has been an incontestable boon to humankind, women’s rights and images have suffered under regimes newly informed by alphabet literacy. It is the central thesis of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess that alphabet literacy, a form of information transfer that reinforces the left hemisphere of both men and women while denigrating the role of the right hemisphere of both men and women, caused the dominance of masculine thinking in the culture at large. This led to the downfall of goddesses, women losing important rights, and property passing not through the mother’s line but instead through the father’s line.

The Israelite adoption of the West’s first alphabetic sacred book introduced the Rule of Law and monotheism, but it was accompanied by an abomination of images and the goddess, and a curtailing of women’s property rights. Literate Athens was misogynist and patriarchal, compared to Sparta that left to posterity not a single literary work. Yet Spartan women enjoyed extraordinary rights.

Women enjoyed real power in the new Christian religion founded on the oral sayings of Jesus and watched it disappear following the transcription of Jesus’ spoken words into a sacred alphabetic text by the “Patriarchs.” Despite all the detail the gospel writers supplied about Jesus, none included even a sentence describing Jesus’ appearance. Like Yahweh and Allah, Jesus did not have an image. To know Him, one had to read His written words.

The central cause of the Dark Ages that followed the fall of Rome was the loss of literacy in 99% of the European population. It was during this period that the astonishing ascendancy of Mary occurred. Her image soon dominated the European landscape. This was also a time when abbesses headed monasteries, the Chivalric Code and courtly love honored women, and the Church revered its female Christian mystics. In the time of illiteracy, right hemispheric modes of love, intuition, mysticism, romance and mother worship were in evidence.

Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1454 caused literacy rates to soar. The primary motive driving literacy was people’s desire to read the New Testament.

Since the Scripture stresses love, kindness, and forgiveness, it would follow that the period following the printing press should have been characterized by these three traits. Rather, the printing press spawned the Protestant Reformation, which stressed reforms that included reading Scriptures, destroying images, and jettisoning Mary.

The outbreak of fierce religious wars among kinsmen was unprecedented. Neighbors burned neighbors at the stake. This sadistic carnage occurred in the same period that historians call the Age of Reason. Perhaps the steep rise of literacy in European society reinforced its left hemisphere at the expense of its right.

While the literate countries were bestowing on posterity the works of Galileo, Shakespeare, Newton, and Bach, the men suffered a psychosis so extreme they believed their women were so dangerous they must be murdered. The witch-hunts were the most virulent in those countries experiencing the steepest rise in literacy rates. Russia remained largely illiterate throughout this period and also suffered no witch hunts.

A colossal shift I call the Iconic Revolution began in the 19th century. The invention of photography and the discovery of electromagnetism combined to bring us film, television, computers, graphic advertising and the Internet; all of which are based on images. The increasing reliance on right brain pattern recognition instead of left brain linear sequencing has moved culture toward equilibrium between the two hemispheres, between masculine and feminine, between word and image. Since
the advent of television, women are reclaiming rights that they formally exercised. Women are serving as priestesses once again and literate cultures saturated with image information are once again embracing feminine values. The medium is the message. Perhaps, the thug who mugged the goddess was the invention of literacy.

99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf

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55th Anniversary Alfred Korzybski lecture by Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet vs The Goddess (PDF, 4 pages)

Link to internet file: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1aae/99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjv9djfjbvfAhXJwVkKHXXgBj8QFjAMegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw3gQNBNMy92bUJuD9NlXJ_O

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