Heated discussion at my church's Men's Group about the "traditional role of men" in society

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Whose tradition ? Which society ? The idea that there's only ONE mutually agreed on POV is bullshit from the beginning.

We have never been a monolithic, or even monochrome, society. It's a stretch to even use the word "we" because there's no agreement on who is included in "we", "us", or more sinisterly, "them".

I know one thing: we are not united by religion. During the years of heaviest European colonization, most immigrants to the Eastern seaboard were Protestants of one stripe or another, and those stripes did not wear well together. Go to any Southern town and you'll see multiple churches -- many of them small congregations in former storefronts or malls -- with no affiliation to any larger institution. Splitting into smaller and smaller sub-denominations has been going on for centuries, and the larger umbrella organizations are mostly losing membership. So no church or denomination in this country can claim to represent a majority -- each represents only a (usually) small, and shrinking, minority.

The best news I can see is that other OECD countries are losing their god-botherers faster than the US, which is a good motivation for relocating to one.

Beyond searching for a pre-fabricated, one-size-fits-all role in society, people need to be creating and shaping their own roles. Each of us can have multiple roles, and those roles may be widely shared, or unique to ourselves. I certainly don't see myself as bound by any single role -- not as a man, or as anything else. I can't see that democracy requires any such limits, or is at well-served by them.

Those who advocate for "traditional roles" should read more about heavily traditional societies -- Confucian, say, or "Islamist" (meaning more fundamental, less liberal than "Islam" generally). It's thoroughly depressing reading. The word "moribund", however frequently used, is never overused in such contexts. You are literally born into your role(s) in society (a brick knows its place in the wall, is a traditional metaphor) and there is very little room to change, particularly if you're not born to one of the elites. Change is always treated w/suspicion, and "improvement" outside of the accepted parameters an utterly alien concept. Pretty much the opposite of attitudes commonly and openly expressed by much of the American public, largely since its founding, and particularly since the emergence of universal suffrage (to use an old-fashioned term).