In recent years we’ve watched the political world in the United States shift in some radical ways. Gone are the days of people working together to solve common problems, or even agreeing what those problems might be. In it’s place we’re given the image of the “Strong Man”, a single person, male or female – gender is another illusion after all. This person is so strong that they can solve all the problems on their own, no help required. We believe this is a corrupting lie in our society, in this post we’d like to explain that stance further and maybe find a better definition for manliness.
The Big Lebowski: What makes a man, Mr. Lebowski? … Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the cost? Isn’t that what makes a man?
The Dude: Hmmm… Sure, that and a pair of testicles.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
What makes a man?
The Dude is wise, but he’s wrong on this point. Being a real man does not require a pair of testicles. In fact, if recent history is any indication, having that pair seems to give us only weak and pathetic examples of manhood. It seems to be those without testicles who are showing us true strength in these trying times.
We realize our three examples above are all Republicans. That is unfortunate, but it seems this particular breed of pathetic weakness is endemic to that political philosophy. We see none of these pathetic traits in even the meekest examples of democratic politicians. This article is largely based on that observation. Why is Republican ideology so prone to giving us these weak, cowardly men?
We’re certain that our Republican friends have all tuned out now, after all who wants to be called weak and pathetic? But that is exactly the point of this article. The fact that we can be so sure they will dismiss everything we have to say simply from that one perceived insult is full proof of their weakness, their inability to face even comedic opposition without running away scared.
At the same time we’re also certain they would threaten us with violence or step into our faces to fight and prove how strong they were if they ever met us. This is another clear example of their obvious weakness and fragility. A real man can face opposition with an inquisitive mind, take control of the situation without resorting to emotional temper tantrums. There are precious few examples of men like that on the right.
So let’s examine some of those themes. Why do they feel so threatened by even the slightest insult? Is their manhood truly so fragile that us saying it is the greatest insult they can think of? We must be destroyed for even suggesting they are not true strong men? What makes a real man…
Origins of this problem
Before we dig too deep into that psychology let’s examine the possible origins for it. Why now? Why are all these pathetic strong men appearing now and why are so many following them?
Overpopulation has increased resource scarcity on all levels of our society. This inherently devalues the worth of any given individual. Combined with the global perspective that social media can give us, it becomes all too easy to judge your own life as a reflection of those you perceive to be more successful than yourself.
Even 100 years ago it was not unheard of for a simple factory worker to support their entire family on just her or his salary. This includes owning a home, a car, going on vacations, a good life was possible for everyone in the United States when there were only 100 million or so of us.
Today there are more than 400 million here, our salaries and currencies have not kept pace with that growth. This leads to each individual either getting less, or having to fight harder to get what they used to have. In essence this leads to inequality across the board. Some, either through luck or perseverance will succeed, others will live in their parents basement until they die alone.
An outlet for the less successful
We are not the first society to face this problem, the history books are full of examples. Take the turn of the previous millennium as a perfect case study. In the early 1000s AD, Europe was overrun with sons who would never inherit land. Only the first born son inherits their parents land, the others need to go out and marry for their land.
But there are only so many women to marry, especially women who have land as part of their dowry. As families preferred male heirs, often killing first born female children, Europe faced an issue with too many young men with nothing to do and no prospects in that society. Does this sound similar to what we are facing today?
So what do you do in this scenario? If you do nothing these men form into groups of bandits and terrorize the villages. They live outside society and take what they want by force, this is a reversion to base animal instincts — but what choice did these men have? They were abandoned by their society and their families.
Enter the crusades
At this point in history religious power was far stronger than any individual government. The Pope specifically had the power to essentially dictate law across all of civilized Europe. This problem of too many unwanted young men fell to the Pope to solve.
With no land prospects in Europe itself, and extensive barbarian encampments to our north, we had to look south instead. So we looked across the Mediterranean and what do we see? A whole lot of land populated by people that don’t look like us, people who didn’t follow the same religion as us.
An idea forms, what if we turn this mass of unwanted men into a makeshift army and send them south. Sure, most will die, but we didn’t want them anyway. And if they succeed and take that land for the church, well that’s even better! Oh the people who live there already… heathens, kill them all.
Our own Vietnam war, specifically the conscription phase near the end was explicitly about this same thing. Listen to any of Johnson or Nixon’s speeches on the subject and this is exactly what they were purposefully doing. Getting those filthy hippies off the street, have them go die in a jungle somewhere so we don’t have to deal with them anymore.
Back to modern times
So we’re in this phase again, too many unwanted young men with no real prospects and nothing to do with them. Who are these men? They are the ones who never got off the ground after high school, or maybe didn’t even make it through high school to begin with. Maybe they were captain of the football team their senior year, but now they live in the same small town but are 40 years old working at Dairy Queen.
These men see social media, they see the success on display by the men that did get off the ground. Those that left their home towns and made something of themselves. Those that built their own person from the ground up. Musicians, business people, athletes, celebrities — these lost young men spend their days pining for that kind of success but knowing it is impossible for them to achieve.
Money, Women and Power. This is what they want, but it is what society will never give them. As a result they cling to those that show them a path they could take, the so called “grifter” path that we see so often in business and politics. People like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Ted Cruz, these are weak men who, because of their parents’ success, and their own lack of humanity, were able to steal success from the others.
But the lost men working at Dairy Queen do not see it that way. To them, these are strong men. But why? Why do we look at somebody like Elon Musk or Ted Cruz and see a weak pathetic coward, and the Dairy Queen man looks and sees a shining example of manhood?
brute Strength is easy
To these lost men the thing they see most of all is a simple path to success. They see these so called strong men enjoying their success on the world stage, they see the external signs of that success – the women, the money and the power. Then they are told that the way to get these things is simple: be strong.
But what is strength? Real strength comes from deep inside us. Look at any of the elite armed forces today, Navy Seals, Marine Recon, Army Ranger — what can we learn about strength from these groups. Surely they would know above anyone else what makes a man strong?
To these forces big muscles don’t matter. Ask any Seal commander who is going to pass BUDS, the tattooed guy with 30 inch arms — or the skinny nerd with that weirdly determined look in his eye? It’s the skinny nerd 9 times out of 10, the muscle freak will ring the bell at the first sign of adversity. All the instructors know it, they’ll push them to do it sooner just to get them out of the way.
That isn’t what these strong men show though is it? Why not? Why doesn’t Trump talk about his own inner strength, the battles he’s fought within that made him who is? Why does Elon Musk wear the most expensive watch, drive the most expensive cars, all these external signs of success but no inner strength?
Simplicity is the answer. To the 40-year-old lost man working at Dairy Queen, time has run out for the inner battles. They can never succeed on that path, so turning to outer strength, and outer signs of success is their only path to self redemption.
A real man has no need for defenses
We’re starting to reach some kind of understanding now of what really makes a man. While the simple outer displays that our leaders show us do demonstrate a type of power, it is not real power. This is incredibly simple to illustrate, in fact Ted Cruz showed us a crystal clear example just yesterday at the Astros parade:
Ted Cruz had a can of beer thrown at him. While tragic, he might have died after all, there was little actual threat in this scenario. Yet in the aftermath what did Ted do? Did he man up and accept the criticism, maybe make a speech right there about the problem to educate the people around him? No, he had his goons go beat up the person who did it. Just like Trump would have done, Edrogan, Putin, Musk, all these “strong” men require defenses and punishment for any slight.
But why? It’s because all they have is their external personas. Inside they are hollow cowards and their answers to these attacks betray that cowardice. Don’t believe us? Well let’s look at how a real man would handle this same situation:
Above we see a real man reacting to the same situation, this man doesn’t happen to have testicles we think, but most say Ted Cruz doesn’t either. Unlike Ted, Arial Elias did not have the bouncers beat up the supporter, she could have done so easily. Instead she picked up the can and chugged it in front of everyone. This is real alpha male energy on display. Not hiding behind goons or running to a bunker at the first sign of danger. No, she stood her ground and controlled the situation.
Arial’s manliness is not based on external displays of strength so she doesn’t require that the person who did this be punished to maintain her image. That persons punishment is the simple embarrassment of having lost their beer, and witnessing this true display of power.
Defenses come in many forms
If you feel the need to violently threaten someone when they challenge your external image, this means you have no inner strength. None. You have none. You are a weak and pathetic coward. It is possible you would win that fight, maybe even kill the person who slighted you. But you would remain a weak, pathetic coward.
Even if you killed all the people who have ever slighted you, still you would remain a weak pathetic coward.
Speaking of weak pathetic cowards, let’s turn to a different example: Mr Elon Musk’s recent purchase of Twitter, and subsequent toddler-esque meltdown. Mr. Musk has faced a seething wave of deep and hurtful criticism from all across Twitter. Deserving or not, the man has had to watch his public image crumble before his eyes.
If he had any inner strength to speak of, he would do what Arial did and pick up the insults and chug them. Lean in, make fun of himself, use that to diffuse the criticism coming in. But he does not. He is a weak, pathetic coward like all these other “strong men”, so instead he fearfully defends by banning anyone who insults him.
This type of defense, while not violent, betrays the same inner cowardice. A real man has no need to defend themselves from insult because their strength comes from within, not from some external image. Elon Musk is indeed not a real man at all, testicles or not.
beat us up if it makes you feel better
After all this, if you are one of these weak, lost men, you are likely quite angry right now. After all, we’ve just attacked the external display of your manhood. As we’ve established you do not have any inner strength to fall back on. So it’s time for a childish emotional outburst isn’t it?
So get violent, get in our faces, show us your big muscles, you big manly-man you. Rip that shirt off, punch us, kick us, make us suffer for the insult against your manhood. We will sit here and take it. Maybe you will injure us severely, maybe even kill us, we are still 100x the man you will ever be and we both know it.
After this fight you will return to your job at Dairy Queen, and make that Blizzard for the old lady after church. The teenager managing you will berate you for being late again. Then you will go home and beat your wife, because if you beat up your teenage boss instead, you might lose your job.
This is the trap that all strong men fall into. Musk, Trump, Putin, any police officer, it doesn’t matter, they are all the same. Extravagant displays of outer strength to make up for the complete void within. That void never goes away, at night they face it, alone in the bathroom they face it.
Conclusions
While this post may have a distinctly different feel from our typical philosophical ranting, there are clear parallels. Alan Watts teaches us how to grow inner strength, true strength. It is difficult, not simple, it takes years of disciplined practice, but you can do it. Even you, Mr. Manly Republican Man, you could learn to wield true strength like this.
If you do, you will find that you are not lost anymore. Suddenly this job at Dairy Queen is not a sign of your failure, but rather a step on your road to success. Your wife is no longer a punching bag for your frustrations, but rather a true partner to experience the world with.
Gone is your fear, gone is your need to constantly defend some illusory outer display of strength. Now you can walk the world as a true man would, strong in all the ways that matter.
It is never too late to change, to grow, to learn. We will help you do it, just stop punching us for a few minutes.
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