Here's some related reading about men, masculinity, and the pathological expressions of masculinity under a neoliberalism that can no longer espouse flagrant ma

Here's some related reading about men, masculinity, and the pathological expressions of masculinity under a neoliberalism that can no longer espouse flagrant male supremacy like the prevailing social ideas of, say, the 50's. Why are men so helplessly adrift in modern society? In particular, why do some men end up committing acts of mass violence as the ultimate expression of a poisonous masculinity that betrays them from the day they are born? The answer may be that modern ideology provides men no alternative self-actualization than to be a successful and very lonely individual competitor. http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/berardi-interview http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/berardi-interview "Franco 'Bifo' Berardi is an Italian Marxist academic and theorist who has written extensively on the topic. In the introduction to his study of mass murder, Heroes, he says, "I saw the agony of capitalism and dismantling of social civilisation from a very peculiar point of view: crime and suicide". For Berardi, the mass murderer is not an aberration or a monster, but a character directly produced by a system which coerces us all to be constantly productive and competitive." "I'm curious: if mass murder is a symptom of neoliberalism, which all of us live under, then why are all of these lone killers men? Yes, it's true. In the beginning of my book I say that I will be talking about young and old, white and black, Christians and Muslims – but only men. I don't think that a single woman has ever committed these kind of acts. Why so? The crucial point in the narrative is our culture of competition. I know that many women are indeed very competitive, but I believe that competitiveness as a trait is essentially a male problem: first at the sexual level, and then also at an economic level. Feminism, as far as I can see, is essentially about abandoning and overcoming this imposed sense of competitiveness. This is why mass killers are men and only men." The book Heroes is a chilling read. The forcible casting of men into these toxic roles that provide only insecurity, loneliness and frustration is a form of biopolitics. The man who is convinced he is alone and must fight and struggle against society to be himself is more useful to that society than a man who is rooted in his community, who endeavors towards his self-actulization collectively, in cooperation with his fellow man and woman. A new masculine paradigm may end up looking quite old: A rejection of neoliberal competitive individualism and a rekindling of the communal man.