I took a break for the last couple days, something I haven’t done for a long time, and capped it off with a night with a childhood friend out in one of the working-class suburbs of Seattle. My friend works in construction, and things obviously haven’t been all that great in that industry for a while. It’s taken a toll on him, and I do worry a bit about that.
I met up with him at a small get together with some of his other friends and coworkers, and although they are essentially the same healthy, strong young men you would have seen in years past, they are much diminished compared to those of my father’s and grandfathers’ generation. There is no sense of mastery, self-assuredness or even belonging. Jobs are scarce and tenuous, and despite the fact that they are surrounded by oversized houses and cars, one gets the sense that they are living on leftovers from the recently vanished prosperity of the last couple decades. They don’t really own anything, and the women around them are the ones with the steady jobs with benefits and potential.
For all the talk about the “patriarchy” and “male privilege,” I just didn’t see any hint of that at all. It’s a big lie. The only reason women enjoy their company is that these are attractive, strong and decent men — the kind that make women happy simply by their physical presence and masculine energy. But that only goes so far. People get old and lose these things. If things don’t change, in time, these strong young men are going to be poor old men.
I suppose one can only hope that the young men who are getting the worst of it today start to get angry about this state of affairs and work for change. The aging hipsters – those punker wannabes who still have romantic notions of fighting “the man” – are never going to do anything but rub their faces in the mud. It is one of the tragedies of American activism since the 60s that the most self-righteous of all almost universally stomp on those who are too young and naive to defend themselves. American leftism, which used to be about defending the common man, has degenerated into moral grandstanding and self-aggrandizement.
Although I could say it’s depressing to think about these things, just spending a night with the guys and seeing their presence actually gives me some hope. The young ones have the hope and and open honesty that is the root of social vitality. Beneath layer upon layer of bureaucracy and control, there is a living, breathing virility that will have its day.
As for the women, it even seemed that they had some faith in that as well, and are looking forward to that day, too.
