The cycle of Feast and Famine plays a very important role in the development and reinforcement of patriarchy. During a Famine people would choose their partners by stoutness and willingness to work. Men value strong “birthing” hips and women value security. As society shifts into the affluence of Feast, criteria shifts to traits of image, appearance, and social confidence. Slender, outgoing women and softer, more obliging men. Long periods of famine create a patriarchy. We have yet to discover what a long Feast would create.

For a society to endure past one cycle of Feast and Famine it must have a plan for social structures at both sides of the pendulum’s swing, as well as an awareness of the transitions going both up and down.

Eastern philosophy is divided into two parts; higher and lower. The higher is ethereal and not provable, while the lower consists of the practical and hard sciences. For example, The Tao te Ching is high philosophy, while The Art of War is low. Thus, a practitioner of Taoism would read The Art of War within the context of The Tao te Ching.

Imagine if there were an Art of Peace that was a companion to The Art of War. Then, The Tao te Ching would be the fulcrum of the pendulum, and The Art of War and The Art of Peace would be at either end of the pendulum’s swing.