I’m fascinated by the topic of men and the new economy. I do think that the problems are catching up to women, too, but let’s leave that alone for a moment. David Brooks has a column yesterday about how traditional male virtues are screwing them over, as the economy changes. He points out that 1/5 of men in the prime age are unemployed. Brooks says that men themselves have to take some of the blame.

But, surely, there has been some ineffable shift in the definition of dignity. Many men were raised with a certain image of male dignity, which emphasized autonomy, reticence, ruggedness, invulnerability and the competitive virtues. Now, thanks to a communications economy, they find themselves in a world that values expressiveness, interpersonal ease, vulnerability and the cooperative virtues.

Surely, part of the situation is that many men simply do not want to put themselves in positions they find humiliating. A high school student doesn’t want to persist in a school where he feels looked down on. A guy in his 50s doesn’t want to find work in a place where he’ll be told what to do by savvy young things.

Do you buy it?