The current financial crisis is symptomatic of a more fundamental disorder. The free market aristocrats locking their twelve pointers on the trading floor betray a peculiarly male volatility, of point scoring, dick-measuring ferocity.
Their behaviour derives from a testosterone surge that is reproducing a hyper-male culture of medieval intensity. The core issue is gender.
The Top Gear mentality of inflated masculinity is apparent on pitch, screen, and page; in the boxing ring, corridor, committee, front bench and boardroom.
It is on display in the brutalism of raunch culture with its lad mags and roasting.
It is celebrated by the predominance of diamond geezers, jack-the-lads, slacker dudes, dumbed down fatherhood, an infantilised version of true masculinity.
It is applauded by the moronic kindergarten blatherings of 'men' programmed into perpetual puerility by a revival of aggressive patriarchy.
Most shamefully, it is exposed by the increasing use of rape as a means of dominance in the home and on the battlefield.
In all these arenas, maleman struts his atavistic stuff.
There was a time when macho-masculinity was fit for purpose. Twelve thousand years ago, during and following the thaw, we needed action man, with 'a little less conversation please'.
As humanity struggled to survive a period of elemental chaos then establish order, structure and organisation, the soft fingers of social literacy were subordinate to the hard fist of physical control.
This is no longer the case. There is a new ethos, in which care has priority over enterprise, the housekeeper over the entrepreneur, stewardship over expansion.
EQ now outpoints IQ.
Technology has transformed the work place, replacing the masculine qualities of muscle, system, specialism and dictation with the feminine aptitudes of dexterity, multi-tasking and negotiation.
The emphasis within human organisation and business has moved from competition to collaboration, with a new emphasis on 'others'. This is seen in support systems, restorative justice, health and safety, and a therapy culture for victims, whether of trauma or disadvantage.
The new human narrative is creating an essentially feminine paradigm.
It is possible that the resurgence of masculinity is simply a cry of protest from a gender in decline, as it faces up to the redundancy of those qualities by which it has hitherto dominated the stage.
The current financial crisis serves to expose the masculine model as unfit for 21st century purpose.
Global management requires an economy of maintenance based on household need, not one of expansion driven by tribal greed. If the human vehicle is to reach a fourth millennium, then men need to take a back seat.
