Here is something that I think ought to be of concern to women. In my generation, and I think it's been true of nearly all generations of men before me, we love women. Now, there may be particular women that we don't like, but that is only the case when said woman has proven themselves to be untrustworthy or unlikable. The generic woman gets the benefit of the doubt. I think we can agree that, over the course of history, this has been an important point.
I've spent a lot of time talking to today's young men. And what I've noticed is, although a GenZ man might love a particular woman, he has no regard for women in general. To him, they are just random people, who in general have no particular qualities worth appreciating. And this is no surprise when one considers that he has probably grown up in an environment where all of his role models were women -- mothers, teachers, political figures, even female classmates -- and they all regarded him as an insane, dangerous animal who must be caged and tamed. They taught him that his own judgment is not to be trusted, that he must defer to outside experts (preferably female ones) for every decision. And he's just tired of it. He's tired of being told that, from the day he was born, he was the cause of all the world's problems. He remembers that time in the sixth grade when the girls got to go on a fun field trip, while the boys had to stay behind and write apology letters to the world, because of some social infraction that one of the body in class (allegedly) committed. He looks at his older, GenX and Millennial male acquaintances, and observes that they've spent their careers being passed over for promotions and advancement, in favor of less qualified women, decisions probably made by female managers. And he thinks, "What do they see that is good in women in general? Because I haven't seen much of it."
And then people are surprised when he doesn't pursue career goals (because, as he sees it, there's no point). He spends his time with video games, because in games, success is proportional to talent, skill and practice. Games don't constantly tell him that his is a defective human being. He prefers porn because porn actresses don't accuse him of sexual harassment or rape for saying something she doesn't like. It's safer than dating real women, and the social rules are far less complicated.
In short, men's natural admiration of women has been beaten out of him. Even a rat eventually becomes adverse to repeated painful stimuli. And most of the women who think about the problem want to try to fix it by doubling down on what doesn't work, because their politics tells them to.
They say the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. What if it's worse even then you theorized? What if the constant drumbeat of equality and sameness has removed a young man's natural understanding that men and women are different? What if these young guys just see women as different looking guys? If the urges that cause men to do great things for women are being bred out of the human race (or at least the western human race) where does that lead to in the future? Fertility rates below replacement. Depression and anxiety and all the medications that "control" the same. That's the replacement we should worry about. Not the racial one.
You just described the movie "Shane". They needed him until they didn't. Then they were ashamed by him. In my opinion, this is the best explanation of the entire Trump moment in America. Some people want him to overhaul the culture, some people can never believe that these kind of means justify the ends and they shun and insult his followers. The biggest group is the ones in the middle. Maybe they understand the "Shane" theory or maybe they can feel a pull they can't quite explain. They get pushed and pulled by the media into wanting the movement to do what's needed and being disgusted with themselves for falling for it. It's a type of political or cultural bipolar disease.
Sorry for commenting so late, but I’m a newer subscriber who just saw your resharing of this article the other day. There was one other hugely influential movie released in 1999 that showed a man living what looked like the American dream while being utterly miserable - “Office Space.” Unlike the other three, it’s a comedy, but it’s still a VERY relatable look at how terrible white-collar work is for men when it’s full of micromanagers and annoying coworkers.
Excellent essay, MFW. I enjoyed how you linked three disparate and excellent movies from the 1990s into the theme of male disaffection. I want to bring up an article I read in The Economist in what would have been the late 1980s or early '90s, before it went down the drain you describe. The article said civilization needed men to create it. It needs women to maintain it.
Men have that duality of outstanding creators and destructors. (Of course, many men are lesser at both or even useless.) No matter what equity requires, if you want to compose a symphony to last 500 years or detonate an atomic bomb over the city of a recalcitrant enemy, you need a man. The problem is, once men have tamed the wilderness, fought the inconvenient people of other tribes (and eventually countries and ideologies), and designed and built the water projects and electric plants other infrastructure (and pyramids and moon landings), you need somebody to run the place. Women are supposedly better at this. Women are raised and willing men are feminized. The problem is, what to do with the men who once had a job taming and building and don't want to change attitudes?
Progressives assert we are in that "Run the Place" phase of human existence. Original men are not only obsolete, they are in the way.
Don't get me started on the new season of True Detective...
Remember when “Falling Down” came out the leftist media went apoplectic thinking it was going to inspire a rash of “D-fenz” wannabes. They raged against the “dis-affected white male” but here we are & in the words of “D-fenz”, “We did what they told us to do. We followed all the rules & you’re telling me I’m ‘the bad guy’”?
To clarify, a "New York Minute" was not sung by the Eagles. It's from a Don Henley solo album. (I'm not trying to give you a gotcha, but I thought you might want to correct that). :)
Spot on, sir. Regarding the pitiful David Hogg: one point you forgot to mention was that during the terrible Parkland shooting, the Piglet ran and hid to save his own ass, while better young men stood their ground to protect others. Some of those better men than Hogg could ever hope to be died in the effort, while others (far less lionized by the Left) were shot multiple times.
In the end, I didn't mention that because the truth is nobody knows exactly how they would react in a situation like that. But what I could very easily have brought up (but didn't because it was outside the scope of my argument) is to ask if Hogg or anyone he knew at Parkland ever reached out to Cruz and said "hey man, what's up? Can I help?"
I am gobsmacked at this critique of men losing their way in modern life. Men are made to feel sorry for their privilege of having two parents that were married and raised them. A school that taught them how to think and not programming them with what to think. The allure of the easy victory in the Me Too movement, a gaze equals rape, and words commit violence alienates the type of men that I believe that we are going to be forced to need due to bumbling and ineffective leadership in our politics and military. I am saddened how the state of men in the equity society are degraded to girly men and criminals in our time. I fear that the planned (It’s my theory and I own it) emasculation of the modern man will hurt us, and hurt us bad in the next five years.
The frustrating part about this is it seems like there are no role models or leaders who are offering anything other then commiseration and self-work in isolation. Where are the leaders who are promoting community (in real life, not on the internet)? Who is offering concrete solutions for disaffected young men to connect and improve their lives by taking action?
Totally agree, but from a political perspective the right needs a massive community organizing overhaul. The left excels at getting young people involved and connected for national and state-level elections while the right just sits at home and bitches (at worst) or attends a rally (at best). Dads teaching their sons how to be men or Andrew Tate telling men to work out and be more selective of your female partners doesn't even begin to touch that issue.
Certainly there are some who don't really want equality of outcomes... that's why I mentioned that when you create a system that is morally bankrupt, you wind up attracting unsavory types to the movement... those who don't want justice but retribution
Here is something that I think ought to be of concern to women. In my generation, and I think it's been true of nearly all generations of men before me, we love women. Now, there may be particular women that we don't like, but that is only the case when said woman has proven themselves to be untrustworthy or unlikable. The generic woman gets the benefit of the doubt. I think we can agree that, over the course of history, this has been an important point.
I've spent a lot of time talking to today's young men. And what I've noticed is, although a GenZ man might love a particular woman, he has no regard for women in general. To him, they are just random people, who in general have no particular qualities worth appreciating. And this is no surprise when one considers that he has probably grown up in an environment where all of his role models were women -- mothers, teachers, political figures, even female classmates -- and they all regarded him as an insane, dangerous animal who must be caged and tamed. They taught him that his own judgment is not to be trusted, that he must defer to outside experts (preferably female ones) for every decision. And he's just tired of it. He's tired of being told that, from the day he was born, he was the cause of all the world's problems. He remembers that time in the sixth grade when the girls got to go on a fun field trip, while the boys had to stay behind and write apology letters to the world, because of some social infraction that one of the body in class (allegedly) committed. He looks at his older, GenX and Millennial male acquaintances, and observes that they've spent their careers being passed over for promotions and advancement, in favor of less qualified women, decisions probably made by female managers. And he thinks, "What do they see that is good in women in general? Because I haven't seen much of it."
And then people are surprised when he doesn't pursue career goals (because, as he sees it, there's no point). He spends his time with video games, because in games, success is proportional to talent, skill and practice. Games don't constantly tell him that his is a defective human being. He prefers porn because porn actresses don't accuse him of sexual harassment or rape for saying something she doesn't like. It's safer than dating real women, and the social rules are far less complicated.
In short, men's natural admiration of women has been beaten out of him. Even a rat eventually becomes adverse to repeated painful stimuli. And most of the women who think about the problem want to try to fix it by doubling down on what doesn't work, because their politics tells them to.
They say the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. What if it's worse even then you theorized? What if the constant drumbeat of equality and sameness has removed a young man's natural understanding that men and women are different? What if these young guys just see women as different looking guys? If the urges that cause men to do great things for women are being bred out of the human race (or at least the western human race) where does that lead to in the future? Fertility rates below replacement. Depression and anxiety and all the medications that "control" the same. That's the replacement we should worry about. Not the racial one.
It leads to us becoming the Eloi, essentially
Interesting!
Thanks
You just described the movie "Shane". They needed him until they didn't. Then they were ashamed by him. In my opinion, this is the best explanation of the entire Trump moment in America. Some people want him to overhaul the culture, some people can never believe that these kind of means justify the ends and they shun and insult his followers. The biggest group is the ones in the middle. Maybe they understand the "Shane" theory or maybe they can feel a pull they can't quite explain. They get pushed and pulled by the media into wanting the movement to do what's needed and being disgusted with themselves for falling for it. It's a type of political or cultural bipolar disease.
Victor Davis Hansen LOVES comparing Trump to Shane.
Cool analysis… I like it
Sorry for commenting so late, but I’m a newer subscriber who just saw your resharing of this article the other day. There was one other hugely influential movie released in 1999 that showed a man living what looked like the American dream while being utterly miserable - “Office Space.” Unlike the other three, it’s a comedy, but it’s still a VERY relatable look at how terrible white-collar work is for men when it’s full of micromanagers and annoying coworkers.
Yes! A great reference. Happy to have you aboard
See Rudyard Kipling's "Tommy".
Excellent essay, MFW. I enjoyed how you linked three disparate and excellent movies from the 1990s into the theme of male disaffection. I want to bring up an article I read in The Economist in what would have been the late 1980s or early '90s, before it went down the drain you describe. The article said civilization needed men to create it. It needs women to maintain it.
Men have that duality of outstanding creators and destructors. (Of course, many men are lesser at both or even useless.) No matter what equity requires, if you want to compose a symphony to last 500 years or detonate an atomic bomb over the city of a recalcitrant enemy, you need a man. The problem is, once men have tamed the wilderness, fought the inconvenient people of other tribes (and eventually countries and ideologies), and designed and built the water projects and electric plants other infrastructure (and pyramids and moon landings), you need somebody to run the place. Women are supposedly better at this. Women are raised and willing men are feminized. The problem is, what to do with the men who once had a job taming and building and don't want to change attitudes?
Progressives assert we are in that "Run the Place" phase of human existence. Original men are not only obsolete, they are in the way.
Don't get me started on the new season of True Detective...
Thank you sir!
Remember when “Falling Down” came out the leftist media went apoplectic thinking it was going to inspire a rash of “D-fenz” wannabes. They raged against the “dis-affected white male” but here we are & in the words of “D-fenz”, “We did what they told us to do. We followed all the rules & you’re telling me I’m ‘the bad guy’”?
I do… I also remember the “angry white men” scare campaign post OKC bombing
To clarify, a "New York Minute" was not sung by the Eagles. It's from a Don Henley solo album. (I'm not trying to give you a gotcha, but I thought you might want to correct that). :)
Ah, thanks… I was running Hell Freezes Over in my car…
Great album! And I can see how it's hard to mistake. When I first heard "Dirty Laundry" in the late 80s (or early 90s?), I thought it was the Eagles!
Right... :-)
Anyway thanks for the heads up!
Spot on, sir. Regarding the pitiful David Hogg: one point you forgot to mention was that during the terrible Parkland shooting, the Piglet ran and hid to save his own ass, while better young men stood their ground to protect others. Some of those better men than Hogg could ever hope to be died in the effort, while others (far less lionized by the Left) were shot multiple times.
In the end, I didn't mention that because the truth is nobody knows exactly how they would react in a situation like that. But what I could very easily have brought up (but didn't because it was outside the scope of my argument) is to ask if Hogg or anyone he knew at Parkland ever reached out to Cruz and said "hey man, what's up? Can I help?"
When is Hogg transitioning?
I am gobsmacked at this critique of men losing their way in modern life. Men are made to feel sorry for their privilege of having two parents that were married and raised them. A school that taught them how to think and not programming them with what to think. The allure of the easy victory in the Me Too movement, a gaze equals rape, and words commit violence alienates the type of men that I believe that we are going to be forced to need due to bumbling and ineffective leadership in our politics and military. I am saddened how the state of men in the equity society are degraded to girly men and criminals in our time. I fear that the planned (It’s my theory and I own it) emasculation of the modern man will hurt us, and hurt us bad in the next five years.
I think we are in the "weak men make hard times" part of the cycle...
You are correct, sir!
Women who cannot or will not get pregnant have a negative, dysgenic effect on society
Great job, George. Great writing and topic!
Thanks Janet!!!
The frustrating part about this is it seems like there are no role models or leaders who are offering anything other then commiseration and self-work in isolation. Where are the leaders who are promoting community (in real life, not on the internet)? Who is offering concrete solutions for disaffected young men to connect and improve their lives by taking action?
Well it should be Dads.... but that is another American insitution in crisis. I wrote about it a couple years ago...
https://thecontinentalcongress.substack.com/p/is-that-a-man
Totally agree, but from a political perspective the right needs a massive community organizing overhaul. The left excels at getting young people involved and connected for national and state-level elections while the right just sits at home and bitches (at worst) or attends a rally (at best). Dads teaching their sons how to be men or Andrew Tate telling men to work out and be more selective of your female partners doesn't even begin to touch that issue.
yeah I think that's right
Certainly there are some who don't really want equality of outcomes... that's why I mentioned that when you create a system that is morally bankrupt, you wind up attracting unsavory types to the movement... those who don't want justice but retribution