Men adrift 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A bit of a kerfuffle blew up along political party lines when Oliver Anthony released this song, "Rich Men North of Richmond." 

"Nine million views in five days"-- that tells you it went viral. Lots of people like it because it hits a nerve with them, i.e. they identify with its message. His video inspired this comment from a viewer: “And just like that you became the voice of 40 or 50 million working men” (this comment was liked by 11,000 other viewers).

If it weren't for this article, "Distress Music," I would have missed most of the meaning of the whole thing. The article says these men are no longer respected and paid well for the important physical work they do (the chart in yesterday's post shows some of these jobs). They feel ignored by the "rich men north of Richmond," that is, the powerful elite in Washington D.C..

It seems to these distressed men as though our culture is "structured in such a way that young men with strong backs find it hard to prosper by using their traditionally masculine attributes of strength and endurance."

It's one reason why so many men are adrift. But there's more.

from Salvo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Men adrift 1

A system of patriarchy was the arch-villain in the Barbie movie (or so I've heard), a system where men hold the positions of power and women are oppressed. It's a core belief of feminists that we live in such a system and that it ought to be "smashed." But some men take that notion way too far. They back down completely from power, from achievement, and even from supporting themselves.

Millions of young men have opted out of the labor force, seven million in the prime of life, who depend on someone else to support them. As a percentage of the whole number of able men who could work, it's as bad as the Depression years of the 1930's.

Even feminists who want to smash the patriarchy couldn't have had this end in mind. Idle and unmotivated men without purpose, without responsibility, without vision, should be nobody's ideal. 

Something awful - something no one wants - is going on with too many of our young men in this culture. They're getting a bad message. We'll pursue it in future posts.

from Labor Day Report (in the U.S. Senate)

Men adrift 5

Follow-up to this post

Conventional wisdom says that men generally still achieve and succeed in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math). But even that generality, which used to be true, is being challenged. The challenger is Lawrence Krauss himself, a very big name and authority in science.

In an article published last month, he says "Men are missing in academia." Decades of affirmative action programming and cultural shift have left men behind even in STEM, the subjects where they used to cluster and achieve. 

How did that happen? Krauss says DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) bears some blame. The "vast bureaucracy" of DEI resulted in disturbing new trends: "In a desire to include women and minorities, white males are often excluded . . ."

An unnatural absence of men in education has been noticed. The president of Purdue University says, "Where are all the men?" For asking this reasonable question, he got protests:

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Men adrift 6

Follow up to these posts

"[T]he men aren't all right," and now honest scholars are admitting it. Compared to what used to be typical, fewer men go to college or trade school, fewer get married, and fewer even have jobs. 

Aspiration is good, the hope of achieving something. When too many of our men in the prime of life don't aspire to anything, it's a downward spiral. 

Too many young men in the West "are settling for resignation, a sense that because a man is no longer needed or appreciated in society, the obvious thing to do is to abstain from participation." Sociologists have documented "a trending loss of life satisfaction."

 One financial expert calls it "a crisis of the American male." The Barbie movie character "Ken" isn't a healthy role model. 

from Salvo

(cont'd tomorrow)

Men adrift 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Discrimination in favor of only one sex is illegal in education, right? Yes, since 1972 Title IX "protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance." It was enacted to protect women from discrimination and ensure a level playing field.

For fifty+ years the emphasis has been on elevating women's opportunities. Women have earned more bachelor's degrees than men every year since the mid-1980's. 

Would you be surprised, then, to find out that discrimination is back? That it happens commonly and frequently in higher education?

Lots of programs, scholarships, and awards are open to women . . but specifically closed to men. Economist Mark Perry "has filed a whopping 410 Title IX complaints against universities that offer programs or awards for women, but not men." Discrimination was wrong when it was used against women, and it's still wrong when it's used against men. "Many vulnerable boys are falling behind."

(Go here to see women's bachelor's degrees from 1971 to 2020.)

from Forbes

(cont'd tomorrow)

Men adrift 2

(cont'd from this post)

Young, able men stay out of the job market today in high numbers. It's not good for them to be disconnected in this way and it's not good for the rest of us in this country. So we wonder, "what's going on with men and their jobs?"

Masculinity is involved. All sex/gender issues are up for grabs today if even a Supreme Court judge can't define what a woman is -- but, as that judge hinted, the definition of sex is a question for biology. So here's the biological answer: men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome in their DNA. Masculine traits generally follow.

Guess which sex takes more life-threatening jobs:

image

(cont'd tomorrow)

Men adrift 7

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Creating the beautiful story of his life is all about a man's choices. 

If he's resigned to a boring life without decisions and risk, he will have a life without the joy of growth that comes with taking responsibility for a career, for a family, for a community. "Today’s depressed couch potato scrolling YouTube and watching porn" is building nothing, creating nothing.

As a child I was told more than once not to get my hopes up, which meant that I should expect defeat in the things that interested me. It was confusing. Why be interested in anything then? We need our young men to get a better message than that.

"Make men interested again! Interested people are interesting people." What is there to be interested in? Not much, except "woodworking, art, politics, science, creative writing, naval warfare, cooking, water polo, ornithology, engineering," aviation, trains, law, friendships, management, teaching, hunting, farming-- the ideas are endless.

Let's tell them that it's great to pursue their interests.

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from "Make Men Interested Again