rule of the fathers<\/em>, the few who inherited power while the rest were told to be grateful for obedience. The nostalgic fantasy that \u201creal men once had it better\u201d confuses hierarchy with dignity. The ladder never served those who were at the bottom of it, and those on top never wanted to pass a helping hand. Neither do they want to do it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe politics of grievance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n If anger feels global these days, that\u2019s because it is. Populism used to rise from the street; now it trickles down from the boardroom with a marketing budget. Wealthy actors and media machines manufacture outrage, targeting the lonely and disoriented with stories that flatter their wounds. It works spectacularly. The easiest way to make people feel better is to give them someone to blame for their problems. You don\u2019t need to actually solve the problems, that\u2019s the best part. People don\u2019t want their problems solved as much as they want to have someone to blame for them. This tendency has no gender, by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And because platforms have no borders, these narratives hop continents overnight. A culture-war influencer in Texas can ruin the family dinner conversation in Malm\u00f6 by Tuesday. The grievances mutate but the business model remains the same: sell attention, harvest data, repeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beneath the noise, though, sits an older, quieter reality\u200a\u2014\u200aeconomics. Many men are not enraged; they\u2019re exhausted. Work is unstable, housing absurd, meaning scarce. Yet progressive politics, eager to fix representation, often neglects subsistence. Visibility matters, but rent is still due. When life becomes unaffordable, demagogues have an easy pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for the demagogues, a crisis is great. A crisis means people feel overwhelmed, tired, angry, and much, much more likely to listen to anyone who has the confidence and charisma to promise them a magic pill that will solve their problems. The more unsafe, uncertain, and complex the world is, the bigger the market for promises of safety, certainty and simplicity. Remember, you don\u2019t need to deliver on those promises\u200a\u2014\u200ayou just need to sound confident enough making them and then blame failure on the \u2018woke people\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the \u2018woke people\u2019 are way too busy arguing with each other over minute details of identity politics to actually put up a fight. Or to create and implement a viable economic strategy which would reduce the lack of safety and certainty which fuel the crisis of masculinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can we end the crisis of masculinity?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n If critique was enough to improve anything, Twitter would be a paradise. What\u2019s missing are credible alternatives: ways of being men that are not patriarchal, but that also sound attractive to most men. Ways that allow them to feel respected and safe. Ways that are simple enough to be understandable to men who, between the two jobs they\u2019re working, have little mental capacity to go through a complex and deeply critical identity reinvention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, no amount of promoting personal improvement will save us if the systems stay rigged for insecurity. The platforms that monetise outrage and the economies that reward precarity have to be redesigned, not just endured. The same technology that isolates us can also connect us\u200a\u2014\u200aif we design it that way. And the same men drawn to grifters are capable of loyalty, creativity, and decency once given a context that honours those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The question What about men?<\/em> is not defensive. It is a call to include men in the project of building a fairer world\u200a\u2014\u200anot as obstacles, not as relics, but as partners who are learning, sometimes clumsily, how to be both strong and kind at the same time. And not in crisis, for a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf there is a new definition of manhood to be found, it probably won\u2019t come from manifestos. It will emerge from the unremarkable daily work of men who keep their promises, tell the truth, and fix what\u2019s broken\u200a\u2014\u200aincluding, when necessary, themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This reflection is based on a recorded discussion I had at the second \u201cWhat About Men?\u201d discussion group. My thanks to Mustafa and Rob for their candour and provocations that shaped these pages. As the discussion was plagued by technical difficulties, I only managed to save a part of it for the recording, but you can watch it in full here:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n