20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MAY 14-20, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com touch them. I also loved going with my father for green ice cream, pistachio, at a konditorei. We had to leave everything behind. All of these experiences led me to questions: When we humans have this capacity for caring, for love, as I saw with my mother, and for courage, why has there been so much cruelty and so much violence? We’re told it’s original sin, selfish genes, inevitable, just “human nature.” Or is there an alternative? How did you get interested in human prehistory? The first time I learned about prehistory was in Cuba. There was a teacher who taught about prehistory. I was fascinated by this long period of human existence that we never hear about. One of my first jobs was for the Systems Development Corporation, an offshoot of the Rand Corporation. I learned what they considered “systems,” which, of course, left out women, children, the usual. But I learned the methodology. Then I woke up, along with thousands of women in the Western world, to the feminist movement. I realized that as much as being born Jewish had affected my life and death, being born a woman at that time completely affected my life options. I could see that the conventional categories— right/left, religious/secular, Eastern/ Western, capitalist/socialist—are not helpful. First of all, there have been horrible regimes under both capitalism and socialism. But secondly, they both marginalize the majority of humanity: women and children. Even feminism is marginalized in the academy—it’s “women’s studies,” when it should be our history. You think domination is cultural, as opposed to being part of our DNA. This is my main message: It doesn’t have to be this way. We have an alternative, but we haven’t seen it because of our fragmented consciousness. The people pushing us back today toward domination have a frame. It includes family and childhood. It includes gender. It includes economics: top-down, with the gap between haves and havenots growing like crazy. And, what’s very important, it includes story and language. Our job right now is to show that there is a better, more peaceful— not perfect, but better—alternative, and what it is. We seem to be culturally regressing, and yet you’re still hopeful. Yes, but the regression is really a reaction to movement after movement for the last 300 years. What we know from systems theory is that during periods of disequilibrium, things shift. The rights movement challenged the so-called divinely ordained right of kings to rule their subjects. Then came the feminist movement, challenging the so-called divinely ordained rule of men over women and children. Then came the abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, challenging again the divinely ordained right of a so-called superior race to rule over inferior races. The peace movement challenges fear and violence, which are built into the domination system. How else do you maintain a system of rankings? It starts with “Godfearing.” Then it’s fear of the government, fear of your employer, fear of your parents. And we mistake fear for respect. Beyond The Chalice and the Blade, which of your books do you consider essential to your legacy? Certainly, Chalice has stood the test of time. It’s the book I want as my legacy. If I live that long, I’ll write another epilogue for the 35th year. I did one for the 30th year, which takes it through the Trump years. It’s certainly the book I want as my legacy. I’m also redoing Tomorrow’s Children. There will be two books, one geared to Montessori and private schools, and the other to public schools. And I’m revising The Power of Partnership. I’m overloaded and working too much. What about The Real Wealth of Nations? Someone could run on this book as a ready political program. Yes, my book on economics. I think The Real Wealth of Nations is very important in terms of introducing the kind of economy we really need. The argument between capitalism and socialism is a distraction. When that book was published in 2007, what did it even mean to put caring and economics in the same sentence? That has changed. I think the book and the ideas in it have influenced politics. In California, I know it has had influence—we now have parental leave. What do you think about the distrust of so-called experts in the avalanche of expert voices, including those pushing humanity in the wrong direction? Academia. Yes, I’ve questioned it. But I am somewhat academic myself; I’m an independent academic working on systems analysis and whole-systems transformation. AI and the people who push it in the wrong direction worry me. With AI, an economics of care is essential, because that’s the work that distinguishes human capacity. I know in Japan there are robots caring for people, but that’s not what people need. People need real care from real people. That’s the one thing we humans can do that machines really can’t. How do we change the world? You have to intervene at inflection points. Family and childhood are one; we know from neuroscience that’s an inflection point. Intervene where your heart takes you; get involved with issues that move you, such as gender, sexual assault, abuse of children. In all these spheres, violence gets normalized. Have a frame that’s different, operate with the idea of partnership “The argument between capitalism and socialism is a distraction.” COURTESY OF RIANE EISLER Between the 1970s and now, Riane Eisler has written over 10 books and contributed to countless other publications. Her 1987 book, The Chalice and the Blade, became a national bestseller. A selection of other titles since then are shown above.
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