I admit I haven't studied the phenomena of herbivore man fully but essentially guys in Japan have decided not to get married, get a job or basically do what he saw his father do for years.
I ran into such a guy when I was travelling one time and he said he did NOT want to work in a factory like his parents did and that was the option available to him. This was back in the 90s.
I could relate. I didn't want to live the life my mother lived. Back when I was a teenager, the mothers of the kids I went to school with were all stay at home housewives who were bored out of their brains. They had few friends so they were lonely and didn't want jobs because they thought working was kinda beneath them. So these mothers occupied their time meddling with their kids lives. These women who have been brow beaten into being stay at home housewives because it is supposedly better for the kids - OMG - no its not, not unless the mother has interesting and stimulating things to do with her life other than living vicariously through her children's lives.
I couldn't think of anything more boring.
I think the herbivore men movement is born straight out of a desire just not to run the rat-race they see their fathers doing. Chasing jobs, chasing money, even just writing about it puts stress knots in my stomach. I worked, I know how dog-eat-dog the work environment can be, I know how vicious people can be in offices, I know about the ulcers that come from stressful working conditions - work isn't great either.
A friend I know thinks the problem for young people in Japan is the lack of opportunities to start small businesses, and then will tell me that he is afraid he'll kill Japanese people because they see him jay walking because Japanese don't see cars, they instead watch people. This is not a society of entrepreneurs, it is a society of follow the leader and let the old people go first and perhaps it is a dying society, I don't know.
Running a small business is no magic bullet either. Small business is risky, very hard work and there is no guarantee it will be successful, especially when there are no safety nets. It is swapping one rat-race for another and still leaves people chasing $$ and leaves you with ulcers to buy stuff you don't really need or want.
In some ways herbivore man is the ultimate revolution, it is the statement that this life style of chasing money is unsatisfying, utterly meaningless and unsustainable.
Nevertheless in the west, the herbivore man is glorified yet feminism seems to be totally vilified. The MGTOW movement hate women, unlike the herbivore movement. This isn't about men verses women, its about the stereotypes set up for us and the system. This is most painfully illustrated in the US were you get an education and you are deep in debt then you have to chase a job to get out of debt. You then buy a house and you're still in debt, just deeper. So you get a credit card, more debt. You work, continually encouraged to buy stuff, consume food, gadgets, gadgets that need replacing, clothes, fashions, DVDs, remodel your house, upgrade, buy buy buy, all the while, you are continually producing more landfill, consume medications to make you feel better, hide the pain, cure your depression, go to hospital... lose a job, get a new job, stress, pay the bills and then die.
I think herbivore men are particularly saying they do not want to participate anymore. This is having consequences with the Japanese economy, the old won't be able to live off the backs of the young. This is perhaps the ultimate revolution.
I think that is what women have been saying with feminism. Yes we still want partners and friends, we still love men, we just don't want to only be mothers living in traditional roles.
But no movement comes with self-awareness, it starts as an intuition. We want off this treadmill. The species does NOT need us all to breed to survive. There are more than enough people already.
I ran into such a guy when I was travelling one time and he said he did NOT want to work in a factory like his parents did and that was the option available to him. This was back in the 90s.
I could relate. I didn't want to live the life my mother lived. Back when I was a teenager, the mothers of the kids I went to school with were all stay at home housewives who were bored out of their brains. They had few friends so they were lonely and didn't want jobs because they thought working was kinda beneath them. So these mothers occupied their time meddling with their kids lives. These women who have been brow beaten into being stay at home housewives because it is supposedly better for the kids - OMG - no its not, not unless the mother has interesting and stimulating things to do with her life other than living vicariously through her children's lives.
I couldn't think of anything more boring.
I think the herbivore men movement is born straight out of a desire just not to run the rat-race they see their fathers doing. Chasing jobs, chasing money, even just writing about it puts stress knots in my stomach. I worked, I know how dog-eat-dog the work environment can be, I know how vicious people can be in offices, I know about the ulcers that come from stressful working conditions - work isn't great either.
A friend I know thinks the problem for young people in Japan is the lack of opportunities to start small businesses, and then will tell me that he is afraid he'll kill Japanese people because they see him jay walking because Japanese don't see cars, they instead watch people. This is not a society of entrepreneurs, it is a society of follow the leader and let the old people go first and perhaps it is a dying society, I don't know.
Running a small business is no magic bullet either. Small business is risky, very hard work and there is no guarantee it will be successful, especially when there are no safety nets. It is swapping one rat-race for another and still leaves people chasing $$ and leaves you with ulcers to buy stuff you don't really need or want.
In some ways herbivore man is the ultimate revolution, it is the statement that this life style of chasing money is unsatisfying, utterly meaningless and unsustainable.
Nevertheless in the west, the herbivore man is glorified yet feminism seems to be totally vilified. The MGTOW movement hate women, unlike the herbivore movement. This isn't about men verses women, its about the stereotypes set up for us and the system. This is most painfully illustrated in the US were you get an education and you are deep in debt then you have to chase a job to get out of debt. You then buy a house and you're still in debt, just deeper. So you get a credit card, more debt. You work, continually encouraged to buy stuff, consume food, gadgets, gadgets that need replacing, clothes, fashions, DVDs, remodel your house, upgrade, buy buy buy, all the while, you are continually producing more landfill, consume medications to make you feel better, hide the pain, cure your depression, go to hospital... lose a job, get a new job, stress, pay the bills and then die.
I think herbivore men are particularly saying they do not want to participate anymore. This is having consequences with the Japanese economy, the old won't be able to live off the backs of the young. This is perhaps the ultimate revolution.
I think that is what women have been saying with feminism. Yes we still want partners and friends, we still love men, we just don't want to only be mothers living in traditional roles.
But no movement comes with self-awareness, it starts as an intuition. We want off this treadmill. The species does NOT need us all to breed to survive. There are more than enough people already.
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