If the suicide rate is a measure of alienation within a culture, as the 19th-century sociologist Émile Durkheim argued, then the “sexual liberation” policies of the 1970s, easy divorce and social recognition of ex-nuptial births, ushered in a dark passage of alienation and despair for Australian boys and men.
During World War II suicide rates had halved for males and fell by a third for females. The male rate per 100,000 males in the population had been between 18 and 20 …
