The cult of emotional toughness and the constant drumbeat of bootstrap thinking among whites has unleashed an epidemic of social isolation.
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A recent study by Nobel Prize winning economist Angus Deaton and Anne Case, both professors at Princeton University, is showing a rise in deaths among poorly educated middle aged white people during a time when mortality rates for blacks and Latinos continue to decline.
These deaths are attributed, not to the big killers heart disease and diabetes, but to suicide, drug abuse and alcoholic liver disease as well as overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids. The population, poorly educated middle aged white persons are dying at such high rates this it is skewing the averages for all middle aged whites.
The Guardian reports:
The alarming trend, overlooked until now, has hit less-educated 45- to 54-year-olds the hardest, with no other groups in the US as affected and no similar declines seen in other rich countries.
The rise in death rates among middle-aged white Americans means half a million more people have died in the US since 1998 than if the previous trend had continued. The death toll is comparable to the 650,000 Americans who lost their lives during the Aids epidemic from 1981 to the middle of this year, the researchers said.
These alarming numbers are evidence of the brutal impact of economic downturns over the last two decades on whites with a high school degree or less. They also reflect the growing availability of powerful opioids and heroin. But the impact of economic downturns and growing drug abuse are symptoms of a much deeper malignancy in American culture.
In 2010 the American Association of Retired Persons conducted a survey in which revealed that 1 in 3 adults over the age of 45 are chronically lonely. That is 44 million people. And this number is growing at a dramatic pace, up from 1 in 5 just ten years before.
The impact of economic downturns and growing drug abuse are symptoms of a much deeper malignancy in American culture. |
The New Republic published an article titled, “The Lethality of Loneliness.” Here is a quote from that article:
Emotional isolation is ranked as high a risk factor for mortality as smoking. Diseases thought to be caused by or exacerbated by loneliness would include Alzheimer’s, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, and even cancer—tumors can metastasize faster in lonely people.
In a meta review conducted in 2013, researchers reviewed 148 studies involving over 308,000 participants. The study titled Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review concluded:
The quality and quantity of individuals’ social relationships has been linked not only to mental health but also to both morbidity and mortality…indicating a 50% increased likelihood of survival for participants with stronger social relationships.
Given the importance of social connection to overall health and well being, the lack of social connection during economic crisis would logically be overwhelming. Which begs the question. Why aren’t mortality numbers trending upward in African American or Latino communities who have logically been hit even harder by economic factors? And why aren’t mortality statistics for similar white populations in other countries trending down?
Clearly there is something specific to American culture that is proving lethal to under educated whites above and beyond the economic hardships they face.
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Clearly there is something specific to white America that is proving lethal to under educated whites above and beyond the economic hardships they face.
The explanation may prove to be this. If we, as a culture, exclusively privilege self reliance and economic independence as central to our identity as Americans, than failing to achieve these metrics leave American whites no where to go in a crisis. To be clear, self reliance and bootstrap thinking are valid and valuable unless they are promoted to the exclusion of a balancing philosophy of responsibility to and connection with the greater community.
For decades the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” ethic has been intentionally promoted over creating community and connecting across differences. Much of this “promotion” has been part of the coded language by white politicians against non-white racial groups. A devastating side effect is, that whatever we whites achieve, we are expected to achieve it on our own. To do otherwise is viewed as weak, lazy, or shameful.
In a recent article titled How the Man Box Can Kill Our Sons Now or Decades from Now, I make the case that our sons are trained by the Man Box and our American culture of emotional toughness to suppress the kind of emotional expression that is central to creating connection and community. It is in community that we find the central source of human healing and resiliency. It is a lack of community that is contributing to chronic loneliness for 44 million middle aged Americans.
The cult of emotional toughness and the constant drumbeat of bootstrap thinking among whites has unleashed an epidemic of social isolation, undercutting our collective capacity to create the kind of vibrant communities that can save us in times of hardship.
Massive media conglomerates in America have grown fat driving deep and ugly divisions along racial and political lines, encouraging isolation and distrust as a core American value. In the land of the free, love your brother has become stand your ground.
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Massive media conglomerates in America have grown fat driving deep and ugly divisions along racial and political lines, encouraging isolation and distrust as a core American value.
In the land of the free, love your brother has become stand your ground. Meanwhile, our elected officials continue to chip away at our remaining social safety nets while, at the same time, deregulating huge corporate interests leading to catastrophic economic events like the banking scandals of the last decade. We are told, “greed is good. I got mine now you get yours.”
We are now seeing what happens when whites, trained in the American cult of independence, are confronted with the limitations of our frayed social safety net and the shame we heap on those who are forced to turn to it.
We are living in a nation that has been trained out of seeing our collective responsibility to each other. We have lost our capacity to create community. We are all expected to go forward on our own. And if we fail to do so, it is clearly own own fault. As such, we are collectively cutting our own throats because sooner or later we all face catastrophe, hardship and loss.
And even if we succeed economically, ensconced in the drab safety of our gated communities, we are all the lonelier and less joyous for it. And just as at risk.
Psychiatrist and PTSD researcher Bessel van der Kolk writes, “Everything about us—our brains, minds, and our bodies—is geared toward collaboration in social systems. This is our most powerful survival strategy, the key to our success as a species, and it is precisely this that breaks down in most forms of mental suffering.”
America’s pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture of independence is fully and terribly upon us, the very white constituencies who gave it birth, and its logical result is playing out in graveyards across America.
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This startling mortality data is a clear and unambiguous warning that America’s politically driven emphasis on pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture of independence is fully and terribly upon us, the very white constituencies who gave it birth, and its logical result is playing out in graveyards across America.
Now, we have to choose to go forward together. All of us, gay, straight, men, women, black, white, brown, poor, rich, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, atheists, all of us.
Because the American cult of independence is killing us.
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Read more by Mark Greene:
The Ugly and Violent Death of Gender Conformity
When “Check Your Male Privilege” Becomes a Bludgeon
Why Are Death Rates Rising for Middle Aged White Americans?
When Men Keep Demanding Sex From Their Partners Over and Over
How the Man Box Can Kill Our Sons Now or Decades from Now
Why Traditional Manhood is Killing Us
Why Do We Murder the Beautiful Friendships of Boys?
How America’s Culture of Shame is a Killer for Boys
The Culture of Shame: Men, Love, and Emotional Self-Amputation
The Man Box: Why Men Police and Punish Others
The Man Box: The Link Between Emotional Suppression and Male Violence
The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer
Touch Isolation: How Homophobia Has Robbed All Men of Touch
Boys and Self-Loathing: The Conversations That Never Took Place
The Dark Side of Women’s Requests of Progressive Men
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I live in Canada and the same trend wasn’t seen here, or in Euro countries. Poor white Americans have a culture that is unique to them and if I might say so, highly peculiar. I don’t understand why the very people who stand to benefit from liberal health and economic policies are the most against it, in America. But this is the end result. Also, too much religion.
I’m in this age cohort (49) and white and from a mostly middle class/working class town (although if anything I’m over-educated not undereducated). So, these are my people… Americans age 45-54 were born between 1961-1970. Late Baby Boomers and early Generation X. The first generation with no memory of the Kennedy assassination. We were babies or little kids during the 1960’s. We have childhood memories of Vietnam and Watergate. We didn’t experience the euphoria of the ’60’s, only the hangover of the 70’s and 80’s. Older siblings lost to drugs. Broken homes. Latchkey kids. Dads coming home broken from Vietnam.… Read more »
Sarah I do not live in the U.S. In my country this age group is the age when many transition from having a job and start to live on money for those with disability because of severe health problems. The health problems are most often two kinds: *** Pain in muscle and body. **** Emotional problems, mental illness. But since we have a rather good security net that give anyone monthly payment the rest of your life , this is not a terrible terrible disaster. (That is,if the doctor agree that you actually are no longer fit to work.) Health… Read more »
Well said, Silke. At least the people in your country can still live with some kind of dignity and be accepted as a community member. I also agreed with you that I could not imagine a life without a security net.
I don’t feel the story warrants a liberal / conservative root political cause. That sort of explanation is mostly self serving, and I’m the last person standing to want to offer excuses to political factions. The period in question is 1998-2013 and the study notes the negative trend in a slice of American society, the same society that saw Clinton, Bush and Obama as leaders. One could read the study and actually conclude the exact opposite of what the author of this opinion piece puts forward – for instance: that self reliance has given way to pain management via pharmaceuticals,… Read more »
Elissa, the population in question is undereducated whites, a group which I doubt would consider Clinton or Obama as their president. When you talk race, education level and unemployment, these is no other frame but politics. To say otherwise is to deny the social Darwinism we have been sold for thirty years now. Regardless of who has been in the White House, America has careened to the right and the messages driving that move are all about independence and individualism. Since the Reagan Administration, Americans have been fed a steady diet of pull yourself up by your bootstraps rhetoric, which… Read more »
Mark – the Social Darwinism you are injecting into the equation has neither peaked nor strengthened during the time period in question. More progressive ideas have taken over the landscape: less religion, more tolerance, etc I don’t at all agree with your premise on the political environment. Remember, that we are discussing rates of change, not absolute numbers. The black mortality rate during the same period still dwarfs that of the Wasp slice in question. You are drawing unsubstantiated conclusions. The authors of the study have also backed away from some of their numbers, as it seems they did not… Read more »
elissa, have I told you … I luv you?
Elissa, if you feel the need to deny the intersection between a clear and consolidating ideological shift to the right and the dramatic free market driven collapse of government regulation which has resulted in massive economic challenges to undereducated whites then go ahead. But it doesn’t make you right. It just makes you opinionated. (Much like myself.) http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/section-1-growing-ideological-consistency/ My point here is that undereducated whites have been convinced by a drumbeat of bootstraps thinking to vote against their own interests and to dismantle both personally and in terms of public policy their own safety nets. And it hasn’t ended in… Read more »
Elissa, From the New Your Times article you quote as somehow indicating the studies authors are “backing away from their numbers.”: “We shared the Gelman critique with the study’s authors, and Mr. Deaton sent a reply to our colleague Gina Kolata, who had written a front-page article about the study. The data you see in the chart here is the essence of his reply: Breaking down the 45-to-54 age group into single years of age, which should avoid Mr. Gelman’s concern, still shows the same pattern. “If we want to be more precise about the age range involved, we could… Read more »
Mark – I said some of their numbers. They have realized that age composition was not properly accounted for, and that the impact of their findings shows an actual decrease in the rate from 1989 to 1999, then an increase in 1999 to 2005, and then no change between 2005 and forward – this does not bode well for your social Darwinism has increased theory, which is the premise of your position. I made a simple statement in my last comment: there is something going on here, but you have not identified it in your article. I also noted that… Read more »
Well, elissa,
I’ll certainly give you points for self confidence.
Poverty and hunger have not declined in America:
http://ringoffireradio.com/2015/10/07/oreilly-says-childhood-poverty-and-hunger-is-a-myth-ashole-here-are-the-fact/
Mark It’s interesting that you said “…. Since the Reagan Administration,” because in my observations, the down turn for men could easily be related to feminism. The down turn started long before Reagan. As was well stated in another article here at GMP, men were left in the dust and there was little to nothing done to help men adapt to a changing society.
“And as whites have begun to lose their racial privilege both socially and economically, they are so conditioned to see this loss as a personal failure, that its killing them, because in their eyes, they are becoming the people they have”
You also have Republican positions, conservative wealthy people, and our top conservative business leaders also telling these white people that it is their own fault for being failures while at the absolving themselves of putting those white people into those horrible social and economic positions.
No the period goes back to the 1980s when Reagan was elected to office
No it does not. Read the paper.
In my opinion, the whole thing started with Reagan.
Mr. Greene, I agreed with you that America is going back to Social Darwinism and everyone for him/herself attitude. Mr. Brechlin, the conservative business leaders and politicians have disinvested in the American male for the last 35 years plus the ordinary conservative America citizen has voted against his/her own political, social, and economic interests. If you look at American labor history, the American workforce has been viewed as a disposable throwaway item, and it doesn’t matter whether you are conservative, liberal, etc Business leaders just use people up and then toss them away. Conservatives have not been any good in… Read more »
Mark, you and I agree on many things. I understand and I wholeheartedly agree we need “options and choices” …. I simply don’t want what’s perceived as negative (traditional roles/behaviors) be placed in negative light but instead “expand” what already exists.
Sadly, many of the older generation will not survive. There is some truth in the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“disinvested in the American male for the last 35 years” Perhaps you could expand on this?
Mr. Brechlln: The wealthy people and American corporations have sent good paying manufacturing and service sector jobs overseas, use universities for their R&D research while not putting any money in the R&D sections in their own companies, have turned the schools into profit making machines while not providing any kind of good education for the kids. In addition, they have constantly refused to pay their share of taxes and any money that they make overseas when they return the money to the USA, they use the money to provide themselves to buy stocks, give themselves bonuses, and not using the… Read more »
All was well until you said “Are you that blind of what is going on in the USA?” All I asked was that you to simply expand on something, I’ll make sure that I don’t ask the next time. I’ll just skim past your responses.
If I had to expand on what was going on in the USA, then you certainly were blind and I am not ashamed nor sorry of telling you so.
“We are living in a nation that has been trained out of seeing our collective responsibility to each other. We have lost our capacity to create community” The community that was created for those who are now the older generation, is now leaving this earth. That older generation is being and has been discarded as obsolete, outdated. Whereas in the past the elders were seen to have value and wisdom, they are now seen as a threat to the new age and accordingly thrown to the side. I’ve seen it here, older man’s input based on their life’s experiences are… Read more »
Tom
I do not understand anything what you say here.
Dear Tom, You are suggesting a binary between my way of thinking about manhood and yours. My work is based on the idea that your way of being a man is no better or worse than mine. But, (and here’s the key to what I am always saying), just as I don’t get to choose for you, you don’t get to choose for me. What I see every day in the media and on the internet is an obsession with setting up binaries. We have been trained into it, but I refuse to go down that path. Accordingly, I will… Read more »
Mark
This is terrible to read .
Do you know more about these men?
I mean, are they married,are they fathers, when did they start to used drug and alcohol or painkillers ?
I mean is this men that has been marginalized already as young men?
Undereducated, reviled by modern media as dinosaurs and buffoons. Treated by the government as the chosen sacrifice to nafta, tpp and the 1%’s wealth increases. Their issues of declining wages and job security treated as just desserts by the democrats and cannon fodder by the republicans. Looking at a future where the odds are they will have to work until the day they are tossed into a 4th rate nursing home to die, if they are lucky. Is there really any question why they’re hopeless and lost?
trey, I like the way you express yourself. Well said/stated
Wow wow wow. So much here. Economics, emotions, racial differences. I will be unpacking more than the man box this evening.