Why Gen-Z Probably Isn't Interested in Freemasonry and Why We Need To Care

[My Freemasonry]

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by Christopher Hodapp



Brother Darin Lahners over at the Midnight Freemason blog has written an important essay this week that was inspired by the meme above. I had been working on my own essay along similar lines all week, but Darin has done a far better job than I was doing. Entitled, Why can't we convince Gen-Z to join Freemasonry? You won't like the answer, I strongly urge all Masons — whether they are lodge officers, grand lodge leaders, or simply rank and file brethren — to read it all the way through, and ponder the points he makes.

And to head off any immediate political objection some readers might have upon reading his first couple of paragraphs, control your passions and read the whole piece. Darrin isn't advocating a political viewpoint - just the opposite, which is the whole point of the essay.

My only minor rejoinder to his essay is that Gen-Z is not currently the most likely generation to have a strong interest in joining ANY voluntary, associative organization that encourages regular participation. Not at this moment, anyhow. Historically, the average age of petitioners to fraternal groups (college fraternities aside) has always been between about 35 to 48. Sure, there have been periods when this rose and fell, but 39-40 has always been the sweet spot for new members in Masonry. It's when men are most settled into a career and a spousal/partner arrangement, less likely to be having more (or any) children, and are at the peak of their earning power and disposable income.

So right at this snapshot in history, it's the Gen-X and Millennials who are knocking on lodge doors, which means we've got about a dozen years before the Gen-Zers get to the outer atmosphere of "middle age." But Darin's points are still well-taken.

(The meme above was circulated on Facebook last week and is a photo of Texas Past Grand Master Brad Billings, who has been under a non-stop barrage of attacks ever since January over his leadership style in 2022.)


Continue reading...

 

[Brother JStoffo]

This is an interesting article. When I read it on the Midnight Freemasons site, it got me thinking about the mental state of young men now and where their mental state will be in ten years from now. I can only speak for how young men are treated in the USA and do not know that this is the case elsewhere in the world. I would be interested in hearing it though as I am sure that this concept varies from country to country. At the current time in our history, young men are discriminated against by our society. Women are outpacing men in schools partially due to women teachers and their own prejudices. Due to a horrible backlash from the women's equality movement, there is additional discrimination against young men in the workplace. Suicide rates are up for young men. For the first time in our lifetime, we are seeing Men's Rights Advocacy groups. Men's Rights Advocacy groups? When did we ever need those? The answer is never.

This is leaving young men disenfranchised and left out. Since they can spend their alone time online, they are further separated from social interaction with other young men except through video games. I think that once these men get into middle age and realize that there is a fraternal Brotherhood that they can be a part of, they will join in large numbers. I do agree that we need to change the way that we as Freemasons entice these men to join our organization. And I certainly agree that as a middle-aged man, you have more time, confidence in your own beliefs and the maturity to make the decision to join. But I think that there will be a backlash to all of this current male bashing and words like "toxic masculinity" and "male privilege" being added to our vocabulary as of late. I suspect that in ten years we will see record numbers of men looking for a fraternal organization. It might be the Odd Fellows of Knights of Columbus, but they will come. So, how do we get them to become Freemasons?

 

[Glen Cook]

Women are outpacing men in schools partially due to women teachers and their own prejudices. Due to a horrible backlash from the women's equality movement, there is additional discrimination against young men in the workplace

Oh, my. What absolute rubbish you’ve been exposed to..

For actual research on the different scholastic outcomes, see https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/21/new-book-explains-why-women-outpace-men-education

Given that women make less than men in comparable jobs (see above and multiple reported findings) the idea of discrimination against men having an effect on male job success in the workplace is demonstrably false.

It is well established that men have a significantly higher suicide rate than women. See https://www.statista.com/statistics...n-the-united-kingdom-uk-since-2000-by-gender/

But why? There has been this disparity as long as they have studied the issue. It is not new. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190313-why-more-men-kill-themselves-than-women.

Further, women actually have a higher suicide rate than men. BBC, op cit. Men tend to use more violent means and so there is a greater death rate, greater lethality.

As noted by many, many authors, the societal reasons are complex, but it certainly isn’t because of women teachers and discrimination against men. Indeed, one factor is the societal norm that men don’t seek help. One would think that having a feminine influence as a teacher would help change that norm, rather than make suicide more likely. Indeed, given that historically the rate amongst men was higher, when men clearly were in the dominant roles in society, this defeats any notion that discrimination against men is responsible for suicide amongst men.

Wherever you are getting your information from, you shouldn’t go there anymore.

 

[Brother JStoffo]

Are there any other Masons not discouraged enough to comment? This site is supposed to encourage free thought, not stifle it. Is our situation in the USA noticeable elsewhere in the world? I know that here in the USA, our TV news and social media have brainwashed most into thinking that young men are weak and should be forever holding their heads bowed low for mistreating women for centuries. Now this poor young generation has to pay for it. Bad timing for them I guess. But, I have hope that in their mid-life they will see how they were all fooled. There are your future Masons. The Gen Zers of now. Every great lie has an equivalent backlash.

 

[Glen Cook]

Sooo, rather than respond to my points or the citations, you make an ad hominem comment. One might suggest that accusing someone of stifling discussion is itself stifling discussion; discouraging free thought.

Young men aren't going around as you suggest. That is made up by whomever you heard it from.

The young men I know would disagree with your comments.

Yes, I am discouraged: by comments such as you have put forward.

Please read the article. The ideas you have related are --exactly -- the type that are being objected to! The ideas you have repeated are hurtful to the fraternity. These are not ideas which young men accept in my experience.

I shall leave it there and not comment further.

 

[Winter]

Are there any other Masons not discouraged enough to comment? This site is supposed to encourage free thought, not stifle it. Is our situation in the USA noticeable elsewhere in the world? I know that here in the USA, our TV news and social media have brainwashed most into thinking that young men are weak and should be forever holding their heads bowed low for mistreating women for centuries. Now this poor young generation has to pay for it. Bad timing for them I guess. But, I have hope that in their mid-life they will see how they were all fooled. There are your future Masons. The Gen Zers of now. Every great lie has an equivalent backlash.

I got halfway through the article in question, that was the best I could do. The author claims his metric for political speech "...is where a brother is incapable of stating his own opinion and instead regurgitates the opinions of others." How do you prove an opinion is original or acquired from elsewhere? And how does that make it political? We will completely skip over how the author admits to intentionally violating the GL proceedings with his excited utterance. And he is positive that his Grand Lodge is not counting the membership of the GL of IL correctly, inflating the numbers, but he has no idea how they are even counting it. The whole article reads like pretty much every social media post today where people make sure to tell you they are not making a political statement as they go on a political rant, while making sure to promote their podcast.

Brother Glen did a good job on responding to your unsupported views on the dynamics of men and women in society today. If you want a good discussion, respond to the points he raised.

 

[Bloke]

Same @Winter ... I only made it half way thought but will try to come back to it..


I think there is a difference between attempted suicide and suicide.
Certainly interviewing a person who attempts suicide vrs actually commits suicide can be relied upon to collect very different and size of data set. I would say more men commit suicide than women, based on research I was doing earlier in the year.. which I guess I'd better support

Males accounted for 75.6% of deaths by suicide (2,455 deaths), while females accounted for 24.4% (794 deaths). The median age at death for men who died by suicide was 46.0 years. The age-standardised suicide rate increased from 18.3 in 2021 to 18.8 in 2022
Source https://www.suicidepreventionaust.org/news/statsandfacts

About 75% is the number I recollected. I was reading a lot about it earlier in the year. What I cannot remember is the number of attempts before death. by gender, women were much more likely to make and attempt, but much less likely to become a suicide.

I did find this, will come back to it
Suicide accounts for over 58,000 deaths in Europe per annum, where suicide attempts are estimated to be 20 times higher. Males have been found to have a disproportionately lower rate of suicide attempts and an excessively higher rate of suicides compared to females

No idea how reliable this is but it is typical of other material I have read https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-017-1398-8



In Australia.

• 442,000 people were studying for a non-school qualification in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field. Almost three-quarters (73%) of current STEM students were men
• 50% of women aged 25-44 years had a qualification at bachelor degree level or above, compared with 39% of men in the same age group.

You cold pick either of the two statements above to support an argument.


Of students who were currently undertaking a non-school qualification:

• 22% were studying for a qualification in the field of society and culture (15% of male students and 28% of female students).
• 18% were studying management and commerce (19% of male students and 18% of female students).
• 17% were studying health (11% of male students and 22% of female students).
• 11% were studying engineering and related technologies (20% of male students and 3% of female students).

I thought the above was quite interesting..

And I loved this.. Classic.. quite a large alteration !

Post release changes​

28/02/2023 - Data corrections have been made to the following:
In the 'Key statistics' section, dot point 1 (people aged 15-74 years with a non-school qualification) was amended to 63% instead of 32% (which is the proportion of people aged 15-74 years who had a bachelor degree or above).
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/latest-release