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Denard said the ambitious are pretenders and worthless: a real man does what he must and is driven by great and single-minded passion. He isn’t driven by “status.” The ambitious today are regime loyalists. They are the type of males who work 80 hours a week to become interior designer or push homopedosubmission from the corrupt political class. Status is fake, honor is real.
Yes, but it’s easier to refine and cultivate a rough man who’s a barbarian than to teach an exhausted manikin to be a man.
Remember the saying of Heraclitus: “the best choose one thing above others, eternal glory among mortals: but the many glut themselves like livestock.” To become a real man is a spiritual path. The path to eternity begins with manliness. This path lies hidden, but there are many keys, many doors. This book, a fatherly exhortation, begins to teach you the way of power. Bronze Age Pervert 2017
Masculine virtues are attacked. The natural order of life is upended, and this upending is not for the benefit of women, but rather the elites who want dependent, weak people. These weak people themselves, not realizing how they got this way, want still more restraints on the masculine. They want men and women with feminine values. The elites and their coalitions of the weak would have us all adopt a peasant worldview wherein we cede all sovereignty to the central authority.
They want you to give up and ease into the sleepy security of consumer hedonism. They want you enslaved and too distracted, tired, and weak to object. Do not sleepwalk through this life. The world responds to one’s actions. The spark, the mood that hits to get out, walk, fight, do something. This is the spark that drives life. How does one go through this life? Speak and live as the man people will not just want to meet, but to follow. Mold yourself into the iron that no magnets can resist. This is the age of Peter Pan, the man-child, and nominal adults.
Each man is capable of beautiful acts of light and monstrous deeds of darkness. We must seek the light and remember the dangerous nature residing in us all. Having standards, living up to them, and enforcing them does not make you an evil man. Acts of kindness and virtue are found even in the simplest no.
What is man’s journey but a struggle against the physical and spiritual obstacles of this world? You will need to study and train. You will need to govern and harness your emotions. And you will need to be judicious with your speech and in the selection of your friends. Do not deny the need to see the problems at hand, the problems at large, and the problems of the future. Develop your mind and body, find other good men, and have the courage to lead when you can. Develop your will, drive, and the ability to follow through. Do not complain like a child or a peasant, but act like the men who came before you, who struck out to conquer and build. Ours is a time of shying from challenges, of timid men cowed with the fear of failure. Remember that we can only develop our faculties through our earnest efforts and failures.
But we all know an older man who still wields a sharp tongue, still has passion for his pursuits, and still laughs with gusto. Nor is it domestication. There are plenty of men with wives and children that will still introduce you to a new drink, tell you about an author they have discovered, or show you the motorcycle they are restoring. When a man’s fire has gone out, it is because he did not tend it. He let the world smother it.
Challenges seem too risky. They forget what they are capable of doing. They become dulled by the messages of society, rather than listening to their drives and the voices of history.
Seek the truth, the time tested. Eliminate the silly and useless thoughts poured into your mind by others. In any journey, during any task, there will be detractors. Unless they are walking with you and working with you, they are not worth any thought. That which can be done today should be done immediately. The future is full of unknown tasks that may prevent you from accomplishing today’s challenge.
AI Summary
Masculinity Amidst Madness by Ryan Landry and Bronze Age Pervert presents key insights from the Taoism tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.