I'm sorry to say it, but most men are idiots. This has dawned on me quite gradually. I'm not just thinking about the evil that some commit (from war to sexual harassment and abuse). That would constitute something more than being 'idiotic' and not reflective of most men. It's really that we-men-rarely grow out of our 15-year-old selves. I see a lot of young men, kids really, around me at the university. And what I notice is really just a straining of the ego, the desire to be noticed at all costs. Perhaps arseholes is a better word than idiots? All the fake masculinity, the bravado and noise.The insecurity is outstanding.
Perhaps we shouldn't look at this in essentialist terms but think about the process of 'infantilization' that has occurred under late capitalism: choice without responsibility. The absolute need to do away with complexity, messiness (does that ultimately entail some form of violence?).
And so the 15 year-old self carries on to middle age. Hoodies, games, sulking, porn and withdrawal. Monologues or a lack of words. A disproportionate interest in property, money, status, sports, political chatter (as opposed to actual political discourse). These are the only things that can be taken seriously. The inflated sense of your own importance because deep down there's the lurking suspicion that no-one's listening to you, giving you your due.
A fake kind of competitiveness at work, a crass kind of one up-manship. Endless office politics and gossip. At home, drink or drugs to take you away from your self. And still the belief persists that you're at the centre of the world. Mid-life crises, existential angst. If it's books, then they're about mid-life crises and existential angst. Jordan Peterson, angry white dudes, emotional retardation, and the inescapable feeling that the world's going to hell in a handcart. Nostalgia for an age of innocence, now lost. If it's religion then its conservatism- as long as this only applies to personal morals or "modern culture"-and not to the impact of the economic system.
Perhaps we shouldn't look at this in essentialist terms but think about the process of 'infantilization' that has occurred under late capitalism: choice without responsibility. The absolute need to do away with complexity, messiness (does that ultimately entail some form of violence?).
And so the 15 year-old self carries on to middle age. Hoodies, games, sulking, porn and withdrawal. Monologues or a lack of words. A disproportionate interest in property, money, status, sports, political chatter (as opposed to actual political discourse). These are the only things that can be taken seriously. The inflated sense of your own importance because deep down there's the lurking suspicion that no-one's listening to you, giving you your due.
A fake kind of competitiveness at work, a crass kind of one up-manship. Endless office politics and gossip. At home, drink or drugs to take you away from your self. And still the belief persists that you're at the centre of the world. Mid-life crises, existential angst. If it's books, then they're about mid-life crises and existential angst. Jordan Peterson, angry white dudes, emotional retardation, and the inescapable feeling that the world's going to hell in a handcart. Nostalgia for an age of innocence, now lost. If it's religion then its conservatism- as long as this only applies to personal morals or "modern culture"-and not to the impact of the economic system.
1 comment:
Sounds like you've been reading Grayson Perry, dear friend! In his book, The Descent of Man, the proposition is that masculinity is no longer aligned with the modern world and that men who have been moulded in the old, conventionally 'correct' systems and customs, are frustrated and unhappy. What he calls Default Man - the Great White Male - have been running things for far too long and have made a disastrous mess of things. They should stand down and let 'the others' run things.
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