As a guy, after reading the headlines over the last few days, there is one question that has been increasingly eating at me and that question is, “What the bloody hell is wrong with us?” With the deluge of testimony about the reprehensible actions of Harvey Weinstein I’m left utterly mystified and increasingly horrified at how something like this continued for so long unopposed and in Hollywood no less, a supposed progressive bastion, and by a major progressive figure.

This entire ordeal sounds like it came straight out of the 1950’s, and yet it’s 20 freaking 17! As if that wasn’t enough of a shock to the system it has triggered an avalanche of related stories about sexual misconduct from women across the board that is impossible to read while maintaining any semblance composure.

And to add salt to the wounds, there is the ever-visible behavior of our beloved President, who acts in the most vulgar ways imaginable and is beyond the shadow of a doubt an avowed sexual predator. As a man, I can only look at this and ask what is wrong with men that we can only seem to cause so much pain.

The problem of modern masculinity is an important one and, while I am no sociologist or psychologist, I want to add my voice to the conversation because I feel it is my duty as a man who is increasingly terrified and disgusted by the behavior of his fellows.

The problem I believe begins with the patriarchy, that ancient grasping leviathan that has the entire world in its grip and holds nothing tighter than the hearts and minds of men. I will not say much about the patriarchy, better minds than mine have devoted countless lines of text and type to it.

I will only say what I have observed about it. In short, my observations of it have been that it is a degenerative and repressive system that only promotes incompetence, chauvinism, and stupidity at the expense of any positive virtue while stifling men at every turn into a very limited set of ways to act, think, and feel.

As for why men have never seriously raised up against something that so obviously is harmful to them, it is important to realize just how men see themselves relating to it. Unlike women, who have always seen how the patriarchy oppresses them and have needed little imagination to see themselves separate from it, men have had no such advantages. They see it as a natural extension of themselves indistinct and familiar and impossible to separate.

The entire thing is glued together by the promise that this is beneficial for men and it is in their best interest to follow along. If any dissent is raised, it is quickly pointed out that the leaders in almost every major area of life, religion, politics, business, and art, are mostly men, therefore the idea that there is anything wrong with the system is ludicrous.

However, upon closer inspection, this claim doesn’t hold up as well as it presents itself. In examining the men that the patriarchy points to as proof of its inherent benefit, they are revealed to be a weak and despicable group of men who possess few of the virtues of masculinity while simultaneously embodying all of its vices even when those vices stand in contradiction with each other, like being a cowardly warmonger.

I fail to see how it’s possible to present a system as positive and helpful when all it has done is elevate the worst of a certain group to power and then maintain them there against all challengers no matter how much of an improvement those challengers would be.

Things cannot continue this way much longer, the world has changed too much. Forces that have been held back for too long are straining the system to the breaking point while its own incompetence and mismanagement only exacerbate the crisis. At some point, something is going to give, and whether that something is going to be the patriarchy finally collapsing or committing some unspeakable horror to maintain its power, no one can say.

The answer to that question I think rests on men and what they are willing and able to do to escape the patriarchy and reclaim masculinity, a masculinity that one can be proud of. It is a question that all men should be asking for the sake of the women in their lives, for the sake of all people, and truly for their own sake.