Fukuyama on Faludi

Peter Kilander peterk at enteract.com
Fri Sep 24 17:10:34 PDT 1999


As with Thomas Friedman, it's hard to know where to start.

At least Fukuyama admits the following:
>There is no question that men have had special problems in the past
>few decades. Women have not simply done better in the job market; men
>have positively lost ground. After peaking in the early 1970s, real
>male median incomes have slipped perhaps 12%, while male labor-force
>participation -- particularly for young workers without skills -- has
>declined. Conservatives often fail to recognize that family decline
>is not just a matter of moral decay but also of men's loss of their
>ability to play the role of resource provider. (It is fascinating to
>note among Ms. Faludi's interviewees how often it is that women
>respond to a spouse's loss of livelihood by taking up with another
>man who can better provide for them.) As Lionel Tiger points out in
>"The Decline of Males," the desire of men to play this traditional
>role, or to participate in male-bonded competition, is rooted in
>nature and therefore cannot be so easily wished away when society
>finds it politically incorrect.

"rooted in nature" should send up a red flag for anyone with critical thinking skills. On Charlie Rose, Faludi mentioned that these men and teens behind the recent shooting sprees were like canaries in a coal mine.



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