Bring back brotherhood: How fraternal values can help heal young men

Too many educational institutions today treat male students not as promising young adults with potential to grow, lead, and serve—but as liabilities to be managed. They are viewed through a lens of suspicion, seen as potential threats, or outmoded figures in an era eager to correct past injustices.

The result is a crisis we can no longer afford to ignore: young men are falling behind—academically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually.

As our nation’s colleges wrestle with how to support male students, it is critical to recognize that policy reforms alone won’t suffice. We need more than academic accommodations or awareness campaigns.

What’s required is a deeper renewal of moral formation and mentorship—one that draws from older wells of wisdom. For centuries, fraternal organizations like the Masons offered such guidance. As a Mason myself, whose journey began in graduate school, I’ve seen firsthand how these values-based brotherhoods can shape principled men. And I believe they still have a vital role to play today.

But the Masons are not alone. Across America, fraternal organizations—from the Knights of Columbus to Sigma Chi, from the Elks to religious men’s fellowships—once played a crucial civic role in forming men of integrity. These institutions offered multigenerational mentorship, rituals of responsibility, and a counterweight to the shallow individualism of modern culture. They taught that adulthood was not just a matter of age but of character. That manhood was earned through service, sacrifice, and solidarity—not status or performance.

After almost two decades of teaching college students, I see this crisis unfolding in real time.

Young men are disengaging from school, withdrawing from friendships, and struggling to find purpose. They are now less likely than women to enroll in or finish college, and far more likely to report feelings of alienation and hopelessness.

Many lack strong male role models—figures who can both challenge and guide them through critical transitions in life. Without those anchors, too many turn to the internet for answers, where too often they find toxic influencers and extremist ideologies instead of wisdom and responsibility.

Some institutions make matters worse by pathologizing masculinity itself—treating ambition, competitiveness, or stoicism not as traits to be refined, but as flaws to be eliminated. Others, while more well-meaning, simply lack a vision for male formation. They offer no rites of passage, no structured paths toward maturity, no real sense of what it means to grow into a man of integrity. Meanwhile, the young men most in need of challenge and structure find only confusion and neglect.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Fraternal organizations offer a different model. They provide what universities increasingly struggle to: a moral framework, a multigenerational community, and a clear expectation that men live by their values. These are not performative affiliations or empty social clubs. They are institutions rooted in service, duty, humility, and care. In these spaces, mentorship is not a nice-to-have; it is central. Leadership is not assigned, but earned.

And brotherhood is not about affirmation alone—it’s about accountability. There are always others around to provide guidance, offer perspective, and provide community; men are never alone without somewhere to turn.

In my own Masonic journey, I was initiated into a tradition that demanded more of me. Ritual, service, and shared purpose weren’t abstract ideals—they were lived experiences. I was called to lead not through charisma, but character. To serve not for praise, but because I owed something to those around me. And those lessons carried forward into every domain of my life—as a father, husband, teacher, and citizen.

Other traditions reinforce these values in different ways. The Knights of Columbus, for instance, ground their vision of manhood in faith, charity, and family life. In many African-American churches, men’s ministries cultivate intergenerational support rooted in Scripture and social uplift. College-based fraternities, when committed to their founding values, can form communities of honor and discipline.

What unites these efforts is a common belief: that brotherhood, rightly formed, is not about exclusion or dominance. It’s about shared purpose, mutual responsibility, and the moral cultivation of men.

We have a chance now to revive those ideals on our campuses—not through nostalgia or hazing rituals, but through meaningful mentorship, character formation, and service. Fraternal organizations can partner with colleges to create mentorship networks, offering young men guidance not just on academic performance, but on questions of vocation, ethics, and identity. They can host workshops and speaker series centered on the virtues that young men hunger for but rarely hear named: courage, loyalty, integrity, restraint, and responsibility.

Equally important, they can provide a sense of belonging grounded not in status or performance, but in mutual care and obligation. In a culture where many men are pulled toward performative rage or apathetic withdrawal, these spaces can say something radical: You are more than your image. You are part of something larger. And you are expected to contribute.

Fraternal values challenge the shallow definitions of masculinity that dominate our culture.

They reject both the hyper-macho posturing of some corners of the internet and the therapeutic softness that asks little of young men. Instead, they call for men to be strong and humble, ambitious and accountable, courageous and kind. They insist that real maturity lies not in conquest, but in character.

This is the kind of formation our young men deserve. And while universities can help, they cannot do it alone. That’s why partnerships with civic, faith-based, and fraternal organizations are so vital. Together, we can rebuild an ecosystem of male development—one that honors tradition while responding to modern challenges.

We cannot continue treating young men as problems to be solved or statistics to be managed. They are human beings in formation—capable of growth, hungry for meaning, and deserving of guidance. As both a Mason and an educator, I know how powerful that formation can be. I lived it. Let’s ensure the next generation can, too.

Samuel J. Abrams

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a scholar with the Sutherland Institute.