They say there's nothing new under the sun, but the world has never seen as many middle-aged incels as there will be in twenty years. I didn't think anyone knows what to do about this, and it seems unlikely to sort itself out well. Grim times ahead indeed.
In Australia we have for a decade now established a National Disability Insurance Scheme. If you are assessed as having a disability of some kind, you may access private services paid for by the government at higher rates than would normally be charged (eg, housecleaning at $55/hr, with the hours spent travelling to and from also counted, vs a more typical non-government rate of $35/hr, or minimum wage of $25/hr). Depending on your level of disability, there'll be some annual cap of total amounts.
NDIS is now a larger budgetary item than Medicare, which is Australia's version of the UK's NHS.
Relevant to this article: 11% of 5-7 year old boys are now on NDIS. We have not had an explosion of crippled children. They've mostly been diagnosed with autism, ADHD or some kind of learning disability like dyslexia.
There are some who believe the diagnoses are usually nonsense; I am one of those. However, someone who's been told for twenty years they have a problem will develop one. Think of the "sick" boy lying in bed in The Secret Garden - he certainly found it hard to get out of his wheelchair, and no adult helped him, he had to be mocked and encouraged by a girl. So whether real or fictional, we have to wonder what society will be like in twenty years when 11% of 25-27yo males are or consider themselves and are treated as autistic, ADHD or learning disabled, let alone in 30 or later years.
The naively optimistic view of this is people have figured out how to take advantage of a government program, but I'm afraid you're right that things will get worse before they get better.
Obviously some people will always take advantage of a government programme. But in this case, it's children. Which means that if they're shamming, then parents will be coaching their children on how to behave - or worse, engaging in Munchausens-by-proxy. Having a child act sick or disabled for many years may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We know that even with something as tangible as cancer, identifying as a cancer patient - as opposed to a person who happened to have cancer once - is associated with worse quality of life for the person.
In other words, identifying as a victim - whether of society, a bad spouse, or an illness - never helps. And so, people rorting a system designed to help the disabled will be creating a worse quality of life for themselves and their "disabled" children.
Another rite of passage I have heard from another substacker is college. Wealthy blue collar men are many times ashamed to admit that they haven't been to university.
Brilliant article! The importance of the three Ps as the keys to manhood, and the systemic blockage of achieving them now, seems obvious once you say it, but it wasn’t before—so thank you for *explaining* the disturbing trend of so many young men failing to launch. Also, thanks for explaining the “climate change” nonsense as a cope. You are absolutely right to blame western societies’ leadership class for this abomination. They are greedy, malicious, arrogant, out of touch, and lacking in any sense of noblesse oblige. Bringing them down at any cost should be the great popular movement of our time.
A temporary solution for some of us is to strive to be above average. No, none of this is fair, but the alternative is to just curl up in a ball and die, leaving no descendants. I will strive to survive the onslaught, regardless of how bleak or unfair the situation is, so that my bloodline can make it into the next generation.
Women also are thwarted from moving out of their parents' houses by economic factors. Man, woman, straight, gay, trans, whatever else, the present situation isn't good for anyone. We all want independence, we all are judged harshly for not achieving it, and it just seems impossible.
This is true. I have observed that women who continue to live with their parents are generally viewed as failures in western society.
However, women who can't leave the nest never have their womanhood, womanliness or femininity questioned. A woman without economic independence is seen as just that – a woman who lacks something.
Guys without economic independence are not seen as men who lack something but instead have their manhood, manliness and masculinity thrown into doubt. They are seen as guys or big boys rather than men who simply lack something.
The culture you are describing is big city culture. Everything in big cities is built on borrowed money. Women in big cities are also far more likely to care about money. Yes, I know all the girls seem to be in the big city now but they are not for young men, they are for men ten years older than them. Young men's time will come, whether they move abroad or fight it out at home.
It's not worth playing the car game or the real estate game to get women—you DO NOT want a woman who loves you for your car or house, for obvious reasons, and it's cheaper to rent such women than to marry them (lol). Of course it's nice to have a house, but it must be somewhere that it won't be taxed into oblivion. Get a passport.
I love the post and agree with everything. Any idea how western society is supposed to solve the housing issue? I thought it through many times and I just don't see a viable solution.
Great essay! Oe point I’ll make though, that is missing here, 2024, is that manliness is taught at babyhood, toddlerhood, young childhood. Before a child goes to his first day of first grade, he should have learned humility, politeness, helpfulness, and even bravery. I know , idont have a clue what I’m talking about, but I know this. Young boys are put in school in first grade and have already been betrayed by their parents. Ask any elementary school teacher. The idea of raising children nowadays is a foreign concept to most parents. Prove me wrong.
It seems the only way to deal with this but only to a certain extent aside from other known solution. Is for an older more established man to marry a younger woman in her 20's.
Insightful and interesting thesis. As a point of fact, the ‘Baby Boom’ started before the Second World War across Europe and North America, specifically 1937 in Britain. It correlates directly with the surge in marriages seen from the mid-1930s. Pure speculation in my part but your hypothesis would provide an explanation, as the Great Depression was extremely deflationary, bringing the first 2 Ps into reach for many, leading to a major upswing in the third P. Fascinating.
They say there's nothing new under the sun, but the world has never seen as many middle-aged incels as there will be in twenty years. I didn't think anyone knows what to do about this, and it seems unlikely to sort itself out well. Grim times ahead indeed.
In twenty years we will have similarly a huge amount of sour cat ladies...
That's true... I wonder if anyone's looked into whether there will be enough cats to go around...
In Australia we have for a decade now established a National Disability Insurance Scheme. If you are assessed as having a disability of some kind, you may access private services paid for by the government at higher rates than would normally be charged (eg, housecleaning at $55/hr, with the hours spent travelling to and from also counted, vs a more typical non-government rate of $35/hr, or minimum wage of $25/hr). Depending on your level of disability, there'll be some annual cap of total amounts.
NDIS is now a larger budgetary item than Medicare, which is Australia's version of the UK's NHS.
Relevant to this article: 11% of 5-7 year old boys are now on NDIS. We have not had an explosion of crippled children. They've mostly been diagnosed with autism, ADHD or some kind of learning disability like dyslexia.
There are some who believe the diagnoses are usually nonsense; I am one of those. However, someone who's been told for twenty years they have a problem will develop one. Think of the "sick" boy lying in bed in The Secret Garden - he certainly found it hard to get out of his wheelchair, and no adult helped him, he had to be mocked and encouraged by a girl. So whether real or fictional, we have to wonder what society will be like in twenty years when 11% of 25-27yo males are or consider themselves and are treated as autistic, ADHD or learning disabled, let alone in 30 or later years.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/more-than-11pc-of-boys-aged-5-7-are-on-the-ndis-20230821-p5dy30
The naively optimistic view of this is people have figured out how to take advantage of a government program, but I'm afraid you're right that things will get worse before they get better.
Obviously some people will always take advantage of a government programme. But in this case, it's children. Which means that if they're shamming, then parents will be coaching their children on how to behave - or worse, engaging in Munchausens-by-proxy. Having a child act sick or disabled for many years may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We know that even with something as tangible as cancer, identifying as a cancer patient - as opposed to a person who happened to have cancer once - is associated with worse quality of life for the person.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6649846/
In other words, identifying as a victim - whether of society, a bad spouse, or an illness - never helps. And so, people rorting a system designed to help the disabled will be creating a worse quality of life for themselves and their "disabled" children.
The pay-walled rites of passage are proof that it's a bad idea to let merchants rule your society.
Yes. It inverts the meaning of the thing entirely.
Great essay! Subscribed! 🙌🏼
This piece made me think of / kind of reminded me of this one-- https://billionairepsycho.substack.com/p/pygmalion-and-the-anime-girl
... although, yours is a bit less edgy, lol
I read his article a few months ago! I thought it was brilliant and illuminating.
I'm glad you enjoyed my own essay.
Another rite of passage I have heard from another substacker is college. Wealthy blue collar men are many times ashamed to admit that they haven't been to university.
https://open.substack.com/pub/auronmacintyre/p/the-lost-ritual?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2354sx found the link
Brilliant article! The importance of the three Ps as the keys to manhood, and the systemic blockage of achieving them now, seems obvious once you say it, but it wasn’t before—so thank you for *explaining* the disturbing trend of so many young men failing to launch. Also, thanks for explaining the “climate change” nonsense as a cope. You are absolutely right to blame western societies’ leadership class for this abomination. They are greedy, malicious, arrogant, out of touch, and lacking in any sense of noblesse oblige. Bringing them down at any cost should be the great popular movement of our time.
Speak of cars and motorbikes and girlfriends, but you ain’t nothing till you got a horse 🐴
A little pessimistic, but very well written and obviously true. Very well done and congratulations, this is beautiful
Thank you. This is high praise coming from an essayist such as yourself.
I enjoyed it! Smoothly written, insightful, tremendous clarity. Thanks for the kind words and for recommending this to me.
A temporary solution for some of us is to strive to be above average. No, none of this is fair, but the alternative is to just curl up in a ball and die, leaving no descendants. I will strive to survive the onslaught, regardless of how bleak or unfair the situation is, so that my bloodline can make it into the next generation.
The main problem with this solution is the numerical fact that most zoomed males won't be up to it.
Women also are thwarted from moving out of their parents' houses by economic factors. Man, woman, straight, gay, trans, whatever else, the present situation isn't good for anyone. We all want independence, we all are judged harshly for not achieving it, and it just seems impossible.
This is true. I have observed that women who continue to live with their parents are generally viewed as failures in western society.
However, women who can't leave the nest never have their womanhood, womanliness or femininity questioned. A woman without economic independence is seen as just that – a woman who lacks something.
Guys without economic independence are not seen as men who lack something but instead have their manhood, manliness and masculinity thrown into doubt. They are seen as guys or big boys rather than men who simply lack something.
The culture you are describing is big city culture. Everything in big cities is built on borrowed money. Women in big cities are also far more likely to care about money. Yes, I know all the girls seem to be in the big city now but they are not for young men, they are for men ten years older than them. Young men's time will come, whether they move abroad or fight it out at home.
It's not worth playing the car game or the real estate game to get women—you DO NOT want a woman who loves you for your car or house, for obvious reasons, and it's cheaper to rent such women than to marry them (lol). Of course it's nice to have a house, but it must be somewhere that it won't be taxed into oblivion. Get a passport.
I love the post and agree with everything. Any idea how western society is supposed to solve the housing issue? I thought it through many times and I just don't see a viable solution.
Great essay! Oe point I’ll make though, that is missing here, 2024, is that manliness is taught at babyhood, toddlerhood, young childhood. Before a child goes to his first day of first grade, he should have learned humility, politeness, helpfulness, and even bravery. I know , idont have a clue what I’m talking about, but I know this. Young boys are put in school in first grade and have already been betrayed by their parents. Ask any elementary school teacher. The idea of raising children nowadays is a foreign concept to most parents. Prove me wrong.
What do you mean by betrayal?
It seems the only way to deal with this but only to a certain extent aside from other known solution. Is for an older more established man to marry a younger woman in her 20's.
Also "No Scrub" came out in 1999. I'm enjoying the article honestly, the dates are just way off somehow and it's distracting me haha.
Thank you. I have changed the date now.
Rudyard Kipling wrote "If-" in the 1890s, and died in 1936.
Thank you. I have changed the date now.
Insightful and interesting thesis. As a point of fact, the ‘Baby Boom’ started before the Second World War across Europe and North America, specifically 1937 in Britain. It correlates directly with the surge in marriages seen from the mid-1930s. Pure speculation in my part but your hypothesis would provide an explanation, as the Great Depression was extremely deflationary, bringing the first 2 Ps into reach for many, leading to a major upswing in the third P. Fascinating.