Men Suffer and are Victimized

Re Articles about Suicide, May

Having lost two friends in Nevada –one a guide-outfitter, the other an editor –as well as co-workers in both the U.S. and Canada to suicide, I found the articles on the subject by Elizabeth Slump and Rev. Alan Stewart provided important insights.

More than two-thirds of suicides are by men, as Rev. Stewart points out, but too often this fact is unknown or ignored in our country. “We live in a society that refuses to see that men suffer or could be victimized,” he says, and he is absolutely right.

Among the believers in left-liberal correctness, all men are seen as grossly over-privileged, powerful patriarchs who sail through life in serene ease, safety and prosperity. The reality is that many boys are beaten up frequently on the way home from school for being different, and as men they are ordered around, shouted at and made to feel small by authoritarian bosses who have contempt for them.

In an Associated Press article of July 4, 2009, Guy Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, said that in our unfriendly economy, workers believe they have no choice but to put up with workplace harassment, such as superiors taunting their employees, and to continue to endure verbal abuse, humiliation, career sabotage, intimidation, and out-and-out bullying. Men in such jobs frequently go home to family members who sharply criticize them for not having advanced further in their careers to earn more money and buy better houses in upscale neighbourhoods. Too many men go through bitter divorces initiated by vindictive spouses.

Despite the fact that corporate downsizing and mass layoffs have been going on for the past quarter century to 30 years, many residents of Canadian communities seem not to have heard this economic news, and believe those affected have only themselves to blame for their misfortune because of laziness or some dereliction of duty. People also don’t realize that corporate announcements of multiple retirements often mask downsizings.

Others keep asking a laid-off man, over and over again, “Are you out there looking for another job? Are you really trying?” Sometimes the meaner-spirited will follow up with remarks like “Lazy mooch! Probably living on welfare, aren’t you?” This line of questioning wears down a man’s self-regard very quickly, eventually causing him to spiral down into deep depression.

Meanwhile the increasingly right-leaning popular press, following a conservative or neo-liberal agenda, weighs in with repeated assertions that those asked to resign and take early retirement, as well as other seniors, are lazy, over-privileged Baby Boomers gathering into a tsunami in order to bankrupt CPP, OAS and Medicare. Politicians condemn the post-war generation and seniors as a drain on the nation’s
resources, erroneously believing that the categories of “taxpayers” and “seniors” are mutually exclusive.
The community begins to regard those pushed into early retirement with contempt, and the resulting decline in self-image among many seniors is precipitous, contributing to depression among the elderly.

I commend Ms. Slump and Rev. Stewart for their excellent articles in the most recent issue of Presbyterian Record.

Sincerely yours,