No entitlement to cause mayhem

The events of the moment - the murder of a young soldier in the street by two extremists, the parallel violence from British far-right and the riots in Sweden - all illustrate the age-old dilemma of young men with too much time on their hands.

Directionless boredom creates a vacuum that is easily filled with the rhetoric of bitterness and hatred. Fuelled by restless, testosterone-laden energy harnessed to some purpose, no matter how senseless or misguided, they can go off like a rocket, damaging all in their wake.

All the talk of tackling terrorism, tracking the apprentices of terror and monitoring the movement of extremist organisations will not prevent attacks of either the mob or individual. If there is no direction that leads to meaningful employment, education or training, then the way is open for the "lost" to be "found" by ideologies and beliefs that serve to give them some distinction no matter how dubious the source.

High levels of youth unemployment are the mark of so many countries and, for many, it is the young men that make up a big proportion of the disaffected.

Tectonic shifts in the social order have brought changes that have left young men on the margins. The loss of blue collar manufacturing jobs, replaced by a need for highly-skilled workers, the opportunities for higher education that have been seized by women wanting employment equity, combined with the failure of males to see the possibilities in education have pushed young males into a corner.

When you have not just one but two chips on your shoulder, it is possible to lose balance and stagger into violence.

This is not to say this is right or appropriate. Many young men respond to being unemployed or marginalised by finding ways to contribute and direct their energy to creative or entrepreneurial activities but this requires support and recognition that goes beyond stereotyping.

The positive response is to ditch the chip on the shoulder (weighted with a sense of entitlement), replacing it with direction and maturity.

I used to do workshops with high school students exploring their perceptions of gender roles and stereotypes in alcohol advertising. The class would be divided - males in one group, females in another - and set the task of defining what constituted their views of success.

Invariably, the young men would list flash car/house, beautiful wife/girlfriend, high-paid job such as a lawyer but say it was regarded as wimpy to study or do any work towards achieving such goals.

There seemed to be little reflecting on the huge gap between the expectations of high status and the reality of the work required to attain it. I was also stunned by the young women's willingness to buy into these stereotypes by defining their role in success as looking stereotypically beautiful, marrying someone with a high-paying job and living in a lovely house.

This was a few years ago and I would like to think things have changed but I suspect they have not.

For many young men, the sense of entitlement that derails commitment and effort is as evident now as it was then.

If you are an unemployed young male in any country, the call to strike back at the world can be very enticing, especially if you feel opportunities have been taken from you by others. This is fertile ground for those seeking foot soldiers willing to attack the perceived sources of their grievances, whether that be those of other beliefs, skin colour or immigrants.

To contain the fuel that feeds such actions, communities and politicians need to hide the matches and give idle hands some meaningful sense of purpose rather than painting them all with the same stereotypes.

Terry Sarten is a writer musician and social worker and proponent of a new machismo. Feedback email: tgs@inspire.net.nz