I’ve heard Tom Mortenson, the wise man of the “boy troubles” issue, argue that this is the core issue/tragedy: bad things are happening to men around the world due to (overlapping) shifts in the economy and education. And men are stunned, because they are what they do.
Men work because, well, that’s what they’re supposed to do. It’s all they know. And where does that leave men when they lose their job? They lose their core meaning.
Here’s a new movie, The Company Men, that dips into that painful issue. (I have yet to come across a Tommy Lee Jones movie that wasn’t worth watching.)