The End of Men

This was an odd book to read after enduring two years of Covid restrictions. This book tells of the ravages of a virus that kills 90% of victims, all of whom are male. I found my anger growing as I read because I realise we were subject to all the fear and anguish of restrictions without a corresponding risk of death and it was hard to separate fact and fiction emotionally. Having lived the experience I felt the book left out so much detail. It has women stepping into roles but doesn’t really explain how that would have happened in a practical way. The book kind of suggested that the commercial and public services continued with women in men’s roles but that would not have been achievable with over half the workforce missing and grief and childcare needs crippling another third. There was a cursory mention of the role of politicians but no real discussion about a fundamental shift in power and ethos along the gender divide (apart from the Chinese civil war bits). The whole vaccine development was interesting until you draw comparisons and you realise that the Covid vaccine was a farce. We were sold a vaccine that did not work to stop the spread and it was in fact not needed as most people, whilst not immune, were able to recover quite easily without it. I almost felt as though this book had been read by the Government Behavioural Insights Team in 2019 and they used it as a basis for the subsequent political fear campaign. A line in the book ‘The population will not be led blindly by fear so whoever wins will have power and people on their side’ could not have been written now as we all know differently. This was a pandemic story but what we lived through was something different. It brought into stark focus the differences.