Being a Man
The Way of Men by Jack Donovan; this is an absolute must read (seriously, if you’re asking this question then buy his book before you buy mine; his is theory, my novel is practice).
Ideally, buy both.
Linkage:
http://thealphapersona.com/2012/06/reloading-the-gun-getting-your-manly-mojo-back/
http://hawaiianlibertarian.blogspot.ca/2010/10/why-diet-nutrition-and-masculinity.html
http://dicipres.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/some-interesting-papers-from-the-new-volume-of-evolution-human-behavior/
Not going to hold your hands on this one, you gotta do the research yourself.
Or course my twitter – which I’ve now turned online:
https://twitter.com/Aurini
This was awesome as always! Really enjoyed the vid!!!
Brilliant article. All your points are right on. The one that really changed my focus and attitude is the long term project. A friend of mine and I started our own business, Nothing gives you confidence like building and running a successful business and providing for your family by your own hand.
Thanks for the reminder. I was doing some soul-searching. A shift is coming soon for me. In a couple of months my work contract expires. Three months after that my lease is up on my apartment and I’m free to stay or move again to wherever I want to go… and I don’t really know where I want to go.
I have some side projects: learning the programming language F# and working on a game. However, I realize that I’m allowing them to be corrupted by the notion of “having to something to show off”. I want to use them artificially to leapfrog onto a larger project involving others rather than fully embracing them as my own projects. I realize this is driven by an insecurity, a lack of faith in my own ability to achieve anything alone.
Part of that dilemma is the result of not having the opportunity to have had a great deal of personal success outside of institutionalized settings. Getting handed a piece of paper saying “Honours” with a handshake and a congratulations is pretty much the ultimately subversive feminization of achievement that can exist, and it’s what plagues academia and corporations in our modern society. In essence, it’s a thank you note for following the well-defined submissive path of least resistance and achieving success within that narrow context. Thus, I believe the dilemma needs to be framed as such so that I am pursuing that achievement for myself which will only bolster my future confidence in myself.
Secondly is my mission. Through creating apps and games I am feeding into a technological culture that is removed from the physical hands-on environments of our ancestors. While I believe there are many positive forces that come from apps and games (many of the most creative and insightful programmers/business people I know are tech-savvy gamers), there are also many negatives. I don’t know what the vision is because I am constantly second-guessing myself as to how to create a piece of technology that doesn’t prevent men from being men; be it through over-convenience that only plugs us further into a feminized matrix or through complex reward schemas that distance men from objectives in the real-world.
I think you did not understood the book or you failed to relate it .The way of men is not about having testosterone or having muscles(or having a cigar and some scotch because that’s manly ) Its how men function on a rational level , most often wanting the same things as women and how men function at the deeper emotional level(where we don’t want the same things as women) and how that impacts out actions and our well being much more then we might imagine(and it s easy to see it in everyday as most of our interactions have a huge emotional component )
It more about that men are fundamentally different then women and society has to take that into account if it wants more constructive and peaceful men. And when i say peaceful i don’t mean a world where we are all acting more like women , i mean a world where our nature works for society and for other humans(including women) and not against them , and that includes women nature as well. The book talks about 4 main issues that men emotionally want and relate to at a subconscious level. Those are strength , honor ,mastery or ability and courage.I agree with those in principal but i think it s even more complicated then that. For example i don’t see the female link and how it relates to masculinity . I can’t feel a man without the link to females , it s almost like i m an empty vessel ( and i would argue the same is valid for womanhood) We define each other sometimes in opposition.
I likes that the author pointed our the difference between good men and good at being man , now manhood is beyond good and evil where as being a good man is not .I would go much further to say this general view of the world between good and evil is a product of religion and to a lesser extent civilization .
I don’t see the world in good and evil , i understand that it s socking or hard for some to not see the world in those terms . That would mean that Hitler or what he did wasn’t evil for the lack of a more obvious reference, and i would agree with that in the sense that good and evil are things that exist in the human mind only ,they are not even linked to our nature (like empathy , jealousy etc is) but i would argue that what he did was against our human nature(who even as a emotional tool is excellent in protecting us against the unknown , an excellent survival tool ) and our rational mind.
Also likes that the author questions the direction of society today not only it s present form . Is it really worth it ? What we really want ? We want more easier , more safer , more satisfaction etc ? I don’t like the idea of going down that road, were would we stop… Allot of the human values are defined by opposition , they cant exist and don’t have meaning if not in opposition. In some ways we are acting like robots today in the sense that we are slaves to our construction but that construction is a pretty good one, forged by evolution. I would not let reason alone(or abstract thinking ) rules us , that is imperfect and probably will always be and needs to be tempered by our humanity or the part of our minds that’s driven by emotion and instinct.
But i don’t see human society as a fight of us against them (women) Unlike the author i do think that gender understanding and equality comes only from each other and rational understanding of what we want at a non rational level.We are complementary to women and even if we live in competition (that’s human nature) we are not solitary in our competition.