The Backlash! - December 1994

Organization News - Madison Men's Organization 2001 E Dayton St., Madison, WI 53704, (608) 249-5576

Work as defined earlier in this essay is the opposite of leisure. However, the '60s culture has attempted to make work for some a matter of self-actualization. Work itself, among these elitists few, becomes leisure; it is what they would want to do with their time, even if they had unlimited financial resources. This is not the condition of the common man. It is with the sweat of his brow that he makes a living to support himself and his loved ones. The average man in our culture takes the work that is available for him. If that work is dangerous, dirty, or has little status, he will still do that work so as to be grounded in our culture. Any work which pays at least an average wage will give him an identity as a man -- as it is only work in our culture that does so!

We only need to look at the present condition of black inner-city men to see the devastating effect upon men when there is no work available for them; the black non-working man essentially has no place in the family. More often than not he has no father to teach him to be a man or to guide him through the labyrinths of ghetto life. He produces nothing, yet consumes normally. The black woman receives recognition for her child bearing role while becoming an income producer within the matriarchal household via the welfare system. The inner-city black male is the archetypal symbol of what happens to men when they are unemployed or unemployable.

Work for men is self-empowerment. Men have feelings of profound helplessness from unemployment and underemployment. It is not just the act of unemployment, but even the fear of unemployment that causes great anxiety in men. Much of the anxiety in the economy of 1992 and its slow economic growth was caused by people's fear of unemployment. From ten years back to the end of 1993, during peak economic times, the unemployment rate only went up less than 2 percent. However, many people felt the threat of a job loss. Even though this threat may not be direct, it raises anxiety. Since men derive their meaning in life almost exclusively from work, this raises acute stress in them.

What are some solutions for men from dangerous work?

1. If men develop a more androgynous role and involve themselves in the daily functions of the raising of their children, they are likely to take more pleasure in, and receive more meaning from life, especially after their retirement years.

2. Men need to learn how to use their leisure time to develop projects which allow them to give service to the community, which allow them, with pride, to improve the common good.

3. Men need to evaluate whether jobs that are dangerous, but pay well, are in their own long-term best interest.

4. Men should challenge roles which lead them to do dangerous activities, activities that demonstrate that they are "Real Men." Macho behaviors lead to self- destruction more often than not.

5. Courts need to reaffirm the fathers' role in parenting at the time of divorce, so that boys will have role models in their lives to emulate. Courts need to reinforce the weaker biological link in the family, which is the father.

6. Society must provide rites of passage for young men so that they can cope in a healthy way with adventure and risk.

Reprinted with permission from the author from the Winter, 1993, issue of Journeymen magazine