[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

SoM, thanks for posting this essay. One of the more insightful, thought-provoking articles we've had here in a long time. The thread has me thinking a million different directions at once, so I'll post blurbs when I can.

The firefighter-awareness that swept the nation after 911 was, in all it's grim earnestness, a darkly comic display of the media's realization that, "hey, there are some men under these rocks over here. Have they been here the whole time?" Manly men who like to hang with other men, shooting the breeze, until it's time to put on some heavy protective clothing, ride on a loud fast vehicle to a dangerous situation. Who carry people out of fires and smash down doors with heavy axes. (not necessarily in that order) It was a national swoonfest, "funny" for the fact that it stopped short of stating the glaringly obvious: That this is generally what men are like by nature. The guys who do these jobs now are the exception, rather than the rule, in cities, because cities run more smoothly when everybody goes along to get along. Not exactly the ideal environment for Joe Average Male.

As our society has evolved from agrarian -> industrial -> information-based, the traditional heavy-lifting roles are disappearing rapidly. We are becoming increasingly urbanized, in which environment the traditional gender roles are made almost irrelevant. This environment is the perfect breeding ground for radical feminism, because in this latest paradigm, men really don't matter so much. Men and women can both stand at a cash register, both operate a computer, and both be bureaucrats. In cities the typical male characteristics of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility for family and property are sublimated by reliance on police, pool cleaners, jobs to pay for it all. The qualities that most distinctly define human males as a group are made redundant or irrelevant. Women are freed from their tradional roles of kid-bearer and raiser, housekeeper. They can willfully abandon that natural fit, while men are made to sit in an ill-fitting "Woman" costume and told to be quiet about the discomfort.

[SauronOfMordor]

The firefighter-awareness that swept the nation after 911 was, in all it's grim earnestness, a darkly comic display of the media's realization that, "hey, there are some men under these rocks over here. Have they been here the whole time?" Manly men who like to hang with other men, shooting the breeze, until it's time to put on some heavy protective clothing, ride on a loud fast vehicle to a dangerous situation.

I remember one particular picture from 9/11: a group of half-dozen firemen walking into the building. The youngest guy was looking up, and you could see in his face he realized he was probably going to die. The older ones just stared ahead

[Z in Oregon]

You're unnecessarily conflating the roles played by men within the framework of Industrial Age Traditionalism, and the value/criticality of men in and of themselves. The latter exists regardless of the era in which it exists.