I wasn’t sure what to write about today. I’ve covered a myriad of topics on this blog but there are many times when I’m just not sure what the best thing to write about is. The biggest thing is what I’m experiencing in my own life that usually determines the direction I write it but it could also be a question I’ve been asked, something I saw happen in a friend or relative’s life, or something that I’ve been reading or studying lately. Today I was pulled in a couple of different directions so decided to address all of them.
If you’re reading this (and you’re a man) then you’re a man alive in the “modern” age. What is the modern age you ask? Well to be frank I couldn’t tell you exactly, I don’t think it’s neccesarily one specific thing but rather a cluster of different things all coming together. It started sometime after the late middle ages probably in the late 1600 or early 1700 hundreds, many say the start was with the “enlightenment” others say it came about with the industrial age and others with the information age.
Again I couldn’t tell you for sure but it’s when man abandoned ways of living that have been with us since the beginning of time in exchange for creating an order of his own, to put it in “mythological” terms. All of those things mentioned above, while not bad on their own necessarily, had a part to play in it. It’s the going against the of primal/cosmic order, a going against of the cosmos and nature essentially. But that’s a bit beyond the scope of this article.
The Dangers Of Modernity
By modernity I don’t necessarily mean computers or cars or social media or things like that, it’s not so much a technological thing (though that plays a roll) more a spiritual and cultural thing. After all a man against modernity will still use the internet, cars, and other devices of the modern age without taking part in its spiritual and mental ways of thinking. The greatest threats of modernity for men is separating them from the inherent masculinity. The thing that animates them and makes them who they are.
The modern world wants to castrate you mentally, spiritually, and more and more physically. They want you divorced from the things that give you power. The modern age does not want you to be strong, virile, honorable, and proud. It wants you a meek, weak slave that will do as your told, produce enough to be lived off of, and then die quietly when you’re no longer of any use to them. However this is a fate that you can fight against and overcome. Listening to what I have to say here is just the beginning.
Pearl Of Wisdom For Men Living In The Modern Age #1 – Be A Man
There is nothing wrong with being a man and being masculine, as a matter of fact it’s one of the best things that you can do. There is nothing evil about being a man and being masculine. Just as there is nothing evil about being strong and being proud. About working to make yourself better and striving for greater things. This is a natural thing and something that both nature and the cosmos reward and look kindly upon. You’ll be told to neuter yourself but you have to ignore them.
Revel in your strength, grow and cultivate it, then share it with others. Light the fires of other men, be a mentor, a guide, a drill sergeant, a leader, and an example. Speak through your deeds and who you are not through empty words. Be the change that you want to see in the world. Cultivate the crucial “virtues” that you’ll need to succeed in this life and as a man. And by succeed I mean truly succeed not succeed in the world’s definition. Cultivate strength (physical, mental, and spiritual) as well as wisdom, character, and even beauty (again physically, mentally, and spiritually).
Be unapologetically a man, be unapologetically who you are. Call evil, evil. Call right, right. And laugh in their face when they hate you for it. When they say you are backwards, evil, and ist/phobe (or other shame word) or this or that. If something is right then it is right and if something is wrong then it is wrong regardless of what fancy words the society comes up with. Up is up and down and down. And knowing this is the first step. Be a man and cultivate you manhood, it is the seed that good things bloom from.
Pearl Of Wisdom For Men Living In The Modern Age #2 – Start A Family
The greatest warriors and kings throughout history generally left a lot of sons. Those that they could invest in and that would carry on their name, carry on their blood, carry on their very existence. To propagate and multiply, to fill the earth with you and yours. To achieve the only legacy that can last for thousands of years unbroken, that of blood and lineage. Of a name. I’ll be honest this is no easy task to get started or to perform. Finding a woman to make a good wife isn’t easy.
But then again nothing that is worth it is easy. I believe that men was made for this, he was not made to be a genetic dead end, that much I know to be true. A family will give you meaning and guidance that nothing else could have. Now granted there may be exceptions here and there. Men who are not made for family and for them I would say invest in those coming up, invest in those around you and serve as a mentor.
Become like a family to those without families themselves. A beacon for the lost. Make a legacy through the impact that you have on others, through great works that can keep on giving and teaching. You can still leave and have a legacy as well. And even if you do have a family this is still something that you should strive for and strive to do. Leave a legacy and make an impact on the world around you.
Pearl Of Wisdom For Men Living In The Modern Age #3 – Be A Warrior Poet
If there is one “ideal” that I would urge every man to strive for it would be that of the warrior poet, something that I’ve talked about on this site more than a few times. A man who has developed both his body and mind one that has fulfilled the “Make savage the body and civilized the man” saying and taken it to the next level. Don’t be all one way or the other, don’t be unbalanced. This doesn’t mean to become less it means to become more.
This doesn’t mean to become less of a warrior it means to become more of a poet likewise this doesn’t mean to become less of a poet it means to become more of a warrior. Seek in strive in many different fields, strive for useful (as opposed to theoretical) balance. Seek to become a man with very little wekanesses. Know how to throw a punch, deliver a speech, write a moving story, sell a pen, fix a car, grow a family, and a great many other things. The list is arbitrary for the most part, it’s up to you to find out what you need.
But strive to grow in all facets of your existence. Don’t allow a weakness to go unmolested. Strive and grow physically, mentally (includes emotionally), and spiritually each and every day if you can. Be a man deep in strength, wisdom, character, and beauty. Be a man that is unfortunately rare in this world and always will be. Be a man, be a warrior poet.
Parting Advice
I know these are pretty general statements but to be fair there is a site’s worth of information (literally over one thousand articles) detailing how to do all of these things and more. I’ll be the first to admit that all of this is quite a tall order and one that is not easily achieved. But the nature of man is to strive, to fight, to find new challenges then adapt and overcome them. That is the nature of man and to deny that nature it to deny yourself and deny the good that is in you. Don’t deny it, cultivate it and you’ll be the better for it.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
