1. Sigma Shift: The journey to a useful renaissance.

Part 1 in a series of articles aimed at helping young men assess the road ahead.

“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”

Philip K. Dick, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’

Prologue:

The times they are, most definitely, a’changing - in some ways, quicker than many of us would like. It would be easy to conclude, therefore, that all of the change is bad.

This is not the case.

For the first time (in all of recorded history) women are able to take their place on the world stage and not, for the most part, expect to be judged for it. Good news, right? So is the fact that a man, or woman, can meet someone they love, even if they are of the same sex, and live with them openly and happily. What’s not to love about that? Tolerance and understanding are breaking out all over the place, even in the midst of so much bad news.

It stands to reason then, that as the world moves into new territory in this way, some of us are going to get left behind. It’s to be expected. Which is exactly what we find. In fact, the group struggling more than any other is the one that for most of our history sat at the top of the pile. The fellas.

Admittedly, even when the guys were enjoying the benefits of this pre-eminence, they paid a high price - being carted off to fight in wars at a moment’s notice is no one’s idea of winning the lottery. But, for the most part, they bought into the idea of heroic sacrifice and happily ruled the roost between martial obligations.

However, adapting to change can be difficult at the best of times, so when the transition occurs faster than we can accommodate it, those of us least prepared will frequently struggle to keep up. This appears to be the case for many men today.

While many, myself included, have bemoaned the plight of men in the current climate, my concern derives, not from the fact that the world is failing to take their needs into account, but that so many of us are unable (or unwilling) to adjust.

This is not the first time the pace of societal change has outpaced the ability of certain groups to keep up, of course. Throughout our history, as technology advanced, some of the most skilled professions have been pushed to the sidelines. Tanners and blacksmiths were, for hundreds of years, crucial occupations until progress made them redundant. More recently, telephone operators (who manually connected calls by plugging in cables at switchboards), lamplighters and milkmen, amongst many others, have more or less disappeared from society. As each profession disappeared, entire swathes of the working population were forced to reassess their situation.

The difference now is that the world can survive the loss of lamplighters and milkmen. I’m not sure the same can be said for the demise of men.

Who cares what happens to men?

Well, we all should. According to the book, ‘Of Boys and Men’, author Richard V Reeves points out what we can all see with our own eyes - young men, in particular, are “struggling in the labour market because of an economic shift away from traditionally male jobs, and fathers are dislocated because the cultural role of family provider has been hollowed out.”

When discussing the many and nuanced causes of this disconnect, he hypothesises that “the male malaise is not the result of a mass psychological breakdown, but of deep structural challenges.”

Those structural disadvantages, caused in large part by the disappearance of many jobs involving brute strength and dogged endurance, are compounded by an ideological tug-of-war which makes it all the more difficult for young men to know how best to respond to this reshuffled status quo. As Reeves explains:

“The Left tells men, ‘Be more like your sister.’ The Right says, ‘Be more like your father.’ Neither invocation is helpful. What is needed is a positive vision of masculinity that is compatible with gender equality.”

A positive vision of masculinity. Where would a young man find such a vision?