You ask how we could address socio-economic issues in our own communities - but I’m afraid I have more questions than answers on that one.

At the very least I think it requires a far more “human” conception of employment - one in which employers don’t see workers as merely another resource in the system of production and in which workers don’t see employers as merely a source of revenue.

I think in all of this the idea of vocation could make a return. If we were to see employment as part of the fabric of our communities - as the place where people are able to contribute their gifting to the rest of us in return for having those gifts recognized in a meaningful way, then that would help, I think.

Here, “meaningful way” would include, without being limited to, payment. In the current scheme of things, however, the idea of “gift” and “meaningful way” are interpreted in purely fiscal terms. Which leads, I think, inevitably to dehuminisation of the economy and thus the workplace.

And why it’s such a tragedy our families are so often places of hurt and dysfunction. It’s not that family is the saviour on its own but you can see that a good family life is absolutely the ideal and shields guys from the nasty elements such as suicidal loneliness and lack of purpose.

Just a brief reflection on this theme;

My grandfather was killed in a collapse in one of the Scottish coal mines - sadly an all too common occurence. But I suppose it saved him a disease like blacklung, which was/is a more common fate of coal miners, and just as fatal.

Anyway, everytime I hear feminists talk about how their grandmothers didn’t have choices and had to spend all day washing and ironing, I think…”Lucky Granny!”

I’m glad that people have finally woken up to the fact that most men have been emprisoned by gender stereotypes as much as women.

Now I just have to wait for people to realize the critical issue of socio-economic status in all of this. I mean, it wasn’t as if my grandfather could have gone to university instead of down the mines. As it was, my father took a huge step up when he took up bricklaying.

It looks to me like you have not put a title for your blog in the WordPress settings. If you follow blogs in an RSS feeder as I do (google desktop 2 for me), then new listings come up with the title (such as The End Times) but no web source to see who the author is.

Cheers

Jeff

Wouldn’t have a clue. Don’t even know what those things stand for yet! Still have a lot of learning to do…I’ve changed them as you suggest though.

Thanks for the advice.

Recently came across ur site. Liked ur articles on “Manhood: …”
The book seems to be pretty good.

I also wanted to tell you that the link provided for Entries(RSS) and Comments(RSS) is of the form -

feed:http://www.mattglover.com/wordpress/wordpress/?feed=rss2

Wouldn’t it be better if you remove the initial “feed:” part ?

Vignesh.