Remaking Men - Nationalist Policymaking for the Future of Masculinity

Nationalists need to promise men a future where they flourish

Western societies are once again undergoing a process of renegotiating gender roles and the place of both men and women in public and private life. This process is necessary to restore order to our societies, but the current debate is often fraught and lacks coherence, particularly when it comes to young men.

The economic and social displacement of men due to deindustrialization, social decay, and poorly conceived - and implemented - equality legislation has led to a rash of suicides, drug addiction, mental health issues, declining incomes, and growing resentment. Policymakers must create an environment in which young men can succeed.

Current policymakers are only making the situation worse. They demonstrate a notable callousness and lack of interest in the situation that faces men in the West. The solutions they put forward are unlikely to improve the situation and may make it worse by wasting time and resources. Solutions provided by internet influencers are often insufficient to help, but for now, they remain the people that young men flock to for help. Nationalists who aspire to govern must have a better program than Jordan Peterson’s prescription to make the bed.

On the other hand leftists, liberals, centrists and some strands of conservatives implore men to “adapt” to the new social situation. Social scientists encourage men to abandon their natural masculine virtues and to give into novel (and destructive) forms of social engagement which have thus far proven disastrous.

Men are not a class that can be placated nor made docile. Men are the cornerstone of a nation’s prosperity, security, and creativity. They require an environment to flourish or they will bring the nation down with them.

The Current Situation:

The state of men in the West is a dismal one. Suicides in Europe continue to increase at a rapid rate. Post-2020 White men comprise 77% of suicide deaths on the continent. This is not significantly different from the 70% of US suicides which are White men. From 2000 to 2020 Whites had drug overdose rates three times higher than Blacks or Hispanics in the United States. In Europe, men are 74% of drug overdose deaths and the numbers are no better in Britain or Australia.

Drug overdose and suicide death rates have increased in virtually all Western countries over the past twenty years, and policymakers have proven incapable of dealing with the problem.

These problems are underpinned by the roughly 8.5 million prime-age (25-54-year-old) White men who are currently unemployed, under-employed, or not in the labor force. Those unemployed men are not only failed by a labor market that is disinterested in their success but also by an education system that has little interest in investing in their future.

The American Psychological Association (APA) notes that in American schools the boys are doing worse than the girls by virtually every metric. This same is true in Britain, where White boys do worse than girls in virtually every educational aspect. Working class White males are some of the worst performers in the entire British education system and the problem has only been growing worse. Colleges too are just as guilty with their unwillingness to admit White men and their preference for women and ethnic minorities. College admission rates for men are now significantly lower than for women, and White men fall further behind with each passing year.

The trades are not innocent of anti-male bias either. As just one example: the American Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), the primary association of and for general contractors in the United States, announced in 2019 that it was interested in giving women and minorities “every possible opportunity” to enter their workforce, thereby pushing out Western men.

The state, the university system, the trades, employers, and social services. Men have become a class that those who rule the West treat as surplus to civilizational requirements, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Our Proposals:

1. Reform the Education System

Both the APA and the Hungarian government, in their report entitled "Signs of Pink Education in Hungary?!” have come to recognize that the school system is not geared toward the success of young men. The behavioral, social, and educational expectations set for students in the modern education system are geared specifically toward girls and this has led to effects such as the widespread overdiagnosis of young boys with ‘behavioral problems’ in the United States.

Young men and boys do much better in single-sex schools. Male educational attainment is 14 points higher than in mixed-gender schools. Studies also show that boys from all-male schools are nearly twice as likely to get into university and the career of their choice. It is also noteworthy that boys do better not only in core science and mathematics subjects but also in cultural subjects. Grades in history, music, language, art, and religious studies are much higher for boys in single-sex schools.

Title IX, the Federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination in education, must be reformed to allow for all-boys schools. Similar laws in Britain and Europe must also be changed to allow single-sex and all-boys schools to make a return.

Lest it seem that sexism is coming into play we will take a moment to mention that girls also do better in single-sex all-girl schools. Female educational attainment jumps by as much as 11% in single-sex schools and their grades in subjects such as computer science (a core skill in the modern world) and mathematics jump significantly in these environments.

These single-sex schools also lean into the natural psychological nature of their students. Boys in all-male schools grow up to be more confident, more ambitious, and more focused. This masculine environment may go a long way to solving the crisis of confidence affecting the West’s men.

To head off another possible misinterpretation, we are not advocating that mixed-sex schools be abolished. Some parents and communities may see genuine benefits in sending their children to mixed-sex schools for part of their children’s education. Some single-sex school advocates also advocate that children under 10 or 12 be educated in mixed-sex environments before being moved to single-sex schools.

In the case of mixed-sex schools, a nationalist state should seek to put more male teachers in the classroom. According to the Marian University of Wisconsin, male teachers help balance the disciplinary and cultural environment of schools. Male teachers also provide a safer school that can demonstrate healthy examples of masculinity to young men and boys.

2. Bring Back Brotherhood and Bonds

The social circles of men are shrinking. Men have fewer friends, fewer familial relations, and few connections of any nature. This is resulting in increasing feelings of isolation and dispossession and is, at least in part, fueling the epidemics of drug use and suicide. In 1990 the number of men with six or more friends stood at a healthy 55% while men with no friends made up only 3% of the male population. Today the number of men with no friends stands at a staggering 15% and the population of men with more than six friends is just 27%.

Friendship and community ties through environments such as civic groups and work, so-called ‘weak ties’ provide a path for many men to find jobs, new friends, and even life partners. With friendship circles shrinking the opportunities for men to advance in life are also declining, and policymakers could take modest action to correct this course.

The first action a nationalist state must take is to support the restoration of all-male social spaces. A great example of the decline in male spaces is the barbershop, a place where men would once casually ‘drop in’ to catch up with friends or ask to spread the news of community events. Since 1992 the number of small-town barbershops in the United States has declined by a staggering 23%, and this decline continues. The state and private finance could provide support to young men who wish to open new, modern, barbershops.

Currently, these male social spaces, including the few remaining male-exclusive golf courses and clubs are limited to the wealthy. American, British, and European communities used to be replete with such male-only social establishments. Local and national governments should invest in enabling their return.

3. Reestablish the Male Duty to Family and Community

The next most important step is the reformation of families - a subject which we have already written about extensively. Family is as important to men as it is to women. Both sexes still desire men to be protectors and providers, proving that healthy male masculinity is as vital to women as it is to men. This cornerstone of personal and national well-being must be returned to the fore.

The Institute of Family Studies (IFS) shows married men are about 1/3rd of a standard deviation happier than never-married men over 30. This positive effect of marriage extends beyond simple happiness, though. Married men are healthier physically than unmarried men, survive nearly twice as long when they have debilitating diseases, and earn significantly more than unmarried men.

4. Create a Breadwinner Economy.

After decades of being hollowed out the economies of the West must be restored to a place where a single, generally male, breadwinner can provide for his family. This will enable women to have more options in their lives and for family life to be more stable while providing men with greater opportunities and communities with more solid foundations.

The majority of Americans (both men and women), the majority of young British men, and the majority of Europeans, still prefer that men serve as the primary breadwinners.

Decades of neoliberal policymaking have torn out the heart of the male-preferred job market by shipping industrial, manufacturing, and so-called “heavy work” jobs overseas and south of the border to Mexico. These jobs provide higher incomes for men, allowing them to form families and support their local communities.

Nationalists provide the solution to this problem with our support for a degree of national self-reliance and a focus on economies that create stable families and communities.

5. Re-masculinize (some) of the State

The public sphere of Western life used to be almost entirely male. Legislatures, governments, public services, militaries, universities, and more used to be the sole domain of the men of the West, but this has changed radically over the past 60 or so years. These spaces were stripped from men in a very short period, thereby revoking the unique male obligation to oversee the development of Western societies and instead placing men into a competitive role with women. This dangerous and destabilizing development must be corrected.

To be clear: we are not advocating that women be stripped of all ability to interact with and influence over the state. The voice of women in making sound public policy and guiding the moral development of society is crucial. For example, more women than men support the banning of pornography - a policy that we emphatically support.

Still, not all areas of the state should have been stripped of their masculine nature, and this process must be undone where necessary.

We have already mentioned the subject of brotherhood, and one of the most crucial examples of brotherhood is that of the armed forces and any arm of the state which utilizes force. Men are better suited for these jobs, and perform them better when women not are involved.

The Marines conducted an extensive study showing that combat units perform significantly better when composed entirely of men and military commanders have written extensively about how the presence of women in the armed forces significantly hinders their ability to complete a mission and maintain discipline. The ability to protect the nation in effectively and cohesively falls squarely upon the (stronger) shoulders of men and policymakers should recognize this reality.

These same realities apply to policing, firefighting, or search and rescue. Female officers are regularly unable to control male suspects and require constant backup, nor do female rescuers have the strength to lift someone from a burning building or violent wave. Women have barely 50% of the upper body strength and 60% of the lower body strength of men - most 14-year-old boys can overpower the vast bulk of grown women.

And women still desire to be protected. A study published as recently as 2022 showed that protective men have much higher desirability in the eyes of women when they show a willingness to act in the physical defense of said women. While men unwilling to protect a female date, partner, or family member are viewed with disdain and lose their attractiveness to potential mates and existing partners.

The state must reevaluate and change its policies as regards how men interact with the state. Nationalist administrations should move to restore the masculinity of their force utilizing arms and to quash Initiatives like 30x30, which seek to decrease the number of men in policing by 2030, make the public less safe, endanger women, and degrade the important role of men as protectors.

In the same way that women still desire to be wives and mothers most men continue to aim to be providers and protectors, but the current slate of policies and the proposed solutions by the left and right, do not offer any path forward for the men of the West.

The west requires solutions that restructure society to function cohesively, undo the damage of neoliberalism, and create ample opportunity for men to succeed in the civilization they built.

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