Men at work
Here&#x27;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&#x27;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.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vice.com&#x2F;en_uk&#x2F;read&#x2F;berardi-interview" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vice.com&#x2F;en_uk&#x2F;read&#x2F;berardi-interview</a><p>&quot;Franco &#x27;Bifo&#x27; 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, &quot;I saw the agony of capitalism and dismantling of social civilisation from a very peculiar point of view: crime and suicide&quot;. 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.&quot;<p>&quot;I&#x27;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&#x27;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&#x27;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.<p>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.&quot;<p>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.