Answer

From about 2009–2017, I listened to progressive talk radio while cooking or commuting. One of my favorite progressive talk radio hosts was Thom Hartmann. Despite the fact that we’re on opposite sides of the political divide, I often found myself agreeing with him about certain problems in society. We disagreed about the reasons for those problems, and the solutions to those problems, but we at least agreed that it was a problem.

At least once per week on his show back then, he’d say some variation of:

“The most dangerous substance in the world is testosterone.”

He is absolutely correct about that. I would just add the word “unguided” or “unregulated” in there somewhere, but he’s on the right track.

He noticed, as did I, as will any astute observer, that a lot of societal issues, from street crime to teen pregnancies to mass shootings, can be traced back to young men, relatively new to the world of testosterone, usually without an adequate father figure helping them cut through the testosterone fog, making unhealthy, unwise, testosterone-driven decisions.

Guys ages 15–25, without adequate guidance from an older man who’s navigated the testosterone rapids, have a disproportionate negative impact on society. Show me a 20-year-old man who was raised with little guidance from an older man, and has no job or school work to keep him occupied, and I’ll show you a young man who is much more likely to make bad choices that are detrimental not just to his own health and safety, but to those around him as well.

And that, I think, is one of the biggest failures of modern society: far too many young men, full of testosterone, have no idea how to handle the effects of it, have little or no guidance for it from people who’ve gone through it, have no other outlets for their time and energy, and create problems for the rest of society.

Men ages 15–25 with no father figures are just a small fraction of the population, but make up a much larger portion of criminals and prisoners. (At least, they were in that age range when they began their prison sentence.) They also make up the majority of fathers of teen mothers who will end up raising their children on their own, continuing the cycle of fatherlessness.

If you look at most other societies throughout history and around the world, there were social norms and customs to help young men, so they wouldn’t cause these problems for the rest of society. That help all started with the family: the older men in the family guiding the younger men into adulthood.

Modern society has really dropped that ball, and we see the negative consequences from that every time we check the news. If you were able to somehow magically filter out all of the news about crimes and other problems committed by young men without fathers, society would seem like a much safer, more positive place. It wouldn’t just seem that way, it would be that way.

Any conversation about the problems in modern society that don’t include fatherlessness are only partial conversations. It’d be like having a discussion about Mexican food without mentioning tortillas. You’re only talking about the toppings, but not the foundation of a lot of it.

The more young men with no father figures you have in any community, the more problems that community is going to have with violence, crime, assaults, teen pregnancies, low academic achievement in school, etc… Want to find the best places to live? Look for places where the most young men have fathers actively participating in their lives. Want to find the worst places to live? Look for the opposite.