August 22, 2024

Nowadays when I doom scroll, I get either food videos or some conservative internet voices like Konstantin Kisin or Douglas Murray. Short talking head clips that make the same overall point over and over again. And what is this point you ask? Simply put, it is an aggressive and well-considered protest against the decline of the Western Man. You can pick Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, Tommy Robinson, Konstantin Kisin, Ben Shapiro – or even the alt-black maestro from yesteryear- Thomas Sowell. Now, even 10 years ago, when I was still based in Singapore, I had not even heard of any of these guys. However, since around 2016 when I started to get into Jordan Peterson thanks to one of his classic interviews with a british TV journalist where he essentially ripped her a new one, and that too with a panache not really seen in recent times, it lead to a youtube absorption of many associated characters over the last several years .

Until this point, this tribe was defined marginally and also existed only in the fringes of society. At the extreme, it could be said to contain the Ku Klux Klan as a member community. No one took these people seriously- and they were viewed by common people as insidious and to be shunned with brute force. And yet now, all of a sudden, there were some white folks that were coming out and articulating this purported malaise with such eloquence that anyone who is genuinely curious cannot simply ignore it. Thanks to social media, these people gathered momentum quickly and became cult figures in their own right (no pun intended). Many of them make sincere and cogent arguments- which basically stems from them being extremely well-educated and mostly well-heeled. In other words, while their message bears resemblance at some levels to Racist organisations- as a group they as far removed from KKK as imaginable.

So how to break down their main message- which is, so to say- “The Decline of the Western Man”.

It isnt simple to characterise this motherhood statement wihout indulging in a somewhat inconsistent ramble so please bear with me.

One theme, which can be said to be race agnostic, is the general decline of Man. Masculinity, or whatever it stood for has been systematically branded as unwelcome. As women have entered the workforce in droves and moved into places of power and influence, somehow they have managed to forge a narrative that the plight of women were mainly because of men behavior.  Broadly- although it is not a criticism of every individual man. Not wanting to cook, or clean, or help with raising kids, or shop for groceries and so on- these were acceptable and even desired by the mustache bearing macho man- to be an Alpha Male was to be both “young and in heaven”.  The Nurturing trait had always been a feminine one- and this is now expected of the modern man. The traits that have characterised  men classically are aggression, courage,  confidence, resolve, hard-work and responsibility- all amazing qualities- and, dare I say, essential ones. The dilemma is that men are being asked to be everything and that is taking a toll. There is a fundamental psychological tension within menfolk- a constant inner bickering that makes them overall feel inadequate that they cannot be everything. As a result, it takes a toll on their confidence and leads to a downward spiral where they increasingly lose their commendable masculine traits in the quest to be more, shall we say, “rounded”. This behaviour is pervading into the political realm- where increasingly men are asked to tow the left liberal libertarian line or else be ignored, if not attacked. How this left lot has become so powerful is for another reflection. But so far, all men, by this logic should be in crisis. However, if you couple this basis with the political eco-system, this makes the claim more ethnocentric than it would otherwise be. As it happens, the left is all about supporting the minority- of whatever kind and in whichever time and space.( I am not saying there is no virtue in what they are doing or saying- like anything else it has grown to outlive its usefulness).  They are first portrayed as a victim- an essential prerequisite to their thesis. If you portray someone as a victim, there must be an oppressor. And all things considered, meaning when you juxtapose colonialism, modern capitalism and the stark power inequities between various groups of humans that live today and solve for x- then you get the White Male as your result.

Now to these conservative voices, this seems grossly unfair. They make an argument about all the good things that white men have brought to the world- and the list is simply endless. And inherent in that is the notion that we live our most comfortable lives today than ever before and it is because of the white male. And whatever human improvement has happened for coloured folks is also because of the White Male in essence.  No one of colour will take this argument lying down- they will claim all sorts of ingenuity of their own people- but make the point that their style has always been summarily cramped by the white male. This is a recursive and utterly boring debate that will rage on forever. But what do I think and do I want to weigh-in?

I could say that I don’t want to be blamed for things that my forefathers did in the past but this would be a very Western idea. In my faith, we are all responsible for our actions across multiple lifetimes so brushing off the past is not an option. Whether I like it or not, it seems I am paying for my sins of previous lives today and shall continue to do so in future lives. And hence there is some responsibility to bear surely for the plundering, marauding white male of yore.

However, I think the real cause of this is a pathology of greed. Greed causes innovation, progress and also power structures and fantastic inequities.  It is a human trait that is programmed in our genes for the most part- so the question then is- is there a way to tame it  Can we give every baby that is born a jab where they will have no greed. And more importantly, is it really worthwhile to sacrifice all the arguably good things that come from it. If Darwin is to be believed, this is a natural order of things- where some people will do well and survive for longer as a group and others will not do well and perish forever. And this will go on forever.

It is not an answer but just a template to think about this submission.