A small Baltic country that has only been independent for 20 years, Latvia features one of the highest male suicide rates in the world, and quite possibly the highest rate of single motherhood on the planet Earth (it is highest in the EU in that regard). Prior to independence, Latvia was ruled by the USSR, the Bolshevik monstrosity that ran the country into the ground economically through the enforced equality policies of Communism. As with other formerly Communist countries, it seems that women came out in much better shape than men.
However, an article in the BBC laments the poor women, who outnumber men in universities by 50% and live on average 11 years longer than their brothers. The problem, it seems, is that they just can’t find a good enough man. Well educated, stylish, and often attractive, they must resort to substandard men who, according to the article, sit around watching TV and getting drunk.
One might think that someone would ask what could be done to help the beleaguered Latvian men, but the main concern seems to be that the men simply aren’t good enough. The gist of the article is that every overeducated single mother working some nonproductive service job for a Western NGO should have a man who, at the very least, can resist the temptation to get blind drunk and blow his brains out.
According to a popular Sex writer who goes by “Lilit”:
“The smartest girls are alone. The really beautiful girls are alone – if they are smart,” Dace says.
“They want to find partners who are equal to them. But a man, having all this choice, doesn’t need to be very perfect.
So the suggestion is that the guys have it good. But if that’s the case, why are they killing themselves in such prodigious numbers and dying so young?
A psychiatrist who treats men provides part of the answer:
Psychoanalyst Ansis Stabingis, who treats men for depression and suicidal tendencies, says Latvia’s transition to capitalism 20 years ago suddenly put massive pressures on men to succeed financially.
The economic crisis, which has pushed unemployment up to 20%, has made those ambitions even more unattainable.
As a result, according to the Latvian government, when the crisis hit in 2008, suicide levels which were already one of the highest in the EU, went up by 16%.
“There are demands about how [men] should live. And if they cannot meet those standards, they… fall into depression,” Ansis says.
So, it appears that Latvia is another example of a country where expectations do not match up with reality. I also suspect that there’s a great deal of hidden hypergamy, and that Latvian women are often involved in de facto polygamous relationships, leaving a great many men out of the picture. Finally, Latvia is amongst the least religious countries in Europe, so there is little – if any – pressure on women to behave as traditional wives would (as in Poland).
Unfortunately, the US and other Anglo countries may be headed in the same direction. Perhaps, in another generation we, too, can look forward to living in a country full of single mothers and depressed, suicidal and short-lived men.
