Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

I’m reading Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich’s (and how hard is that name to spell, by the way?) book The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment. So far she’s covered the expectations of men in the 40s and 50s (become the sole supporter of a wife and children; women’s work was not valued and wives were regarded as economic parasites; neither men nor women were very happy with this arrangement as we all know by now) and how the Beats rejected the “responsibility and maturity” required of men; and how the sixties counterculture rejected not only the “responsibility and maturity” model of masculinity but also masculinity itself, especially for its destructive, violent impulses.

So where is she going with this? I can’t tell. Does Barbara Ehrenreich know what evil lurks in my heart? And will reading her book help me understand my dreams and flight from commitment? I mean, I’m not a sole provider, I don’t have to support a family, and I’m not the only income in my household, but… I still fear the same sort of sacrifices the grey-flannel conformists of the fifties feared (and made anyway). What’s in my heart? Aside from fear and resentment and selfishness, I mean. And red blood cells. That doesn’t count. I wish I knew.