Most people simply can’t stomach the reality of the world and when it’s presented to them they get angry about it. Bring up a harsh truth to them, one that they know deep down is true, and they’ll attack you, call you names, or plug their ears and shove their heads even deeper into the sand. Many, if not most, people spend their lives avoiding reality and all that comes with it.
Unfortunately for them this comes with consequences. Consequences that can very often be dire. Like I’ve said elsewhere foolishness and weakness are always punished in one way or another. I’m guessing just by the fact that you’re reading this now that you’re someone who wants to know the truth, who is lead to the truth, who is desperate for it. Even if it destroys you completely.
The first thing you need to understand is that you’re in the minority, a very, very small minority. Much smaller than you think. And that the vast majority of people are not going to be able to do what you do or want to do it even if they could. You have to understand that you are unique. I don’t mean to get all sappy on you or say you’re “special” but here, it’s simply stating a fact.
If you pursue truth you are rare and unique.
And you’ll also be hated and could very well be setting yourself up for a life of suffering.
But how do we prevent that?
The Horror Of Truth
After all there’s a reason that truth is often avoided, ran from, dismissed, or even violently attacked. One of those reasons is that truth can cause change, and we as a species are not very big fans of change. That’s certainly a factor. But also truth can often be horrifying. We’ve all had pleasant lies stripped away from us, often against our will, and were left staring at a stark naked truth, and realizing just how truly horrifying it is. It’s normal that people want to avoid this.
But for the truth seekers there’s a danger as well. Look, the truth will scar you. There’s no way that it can’t. The truth about men, women, life, money, the world, humanity as a whole, it’s not pretty. Artists have a particular dedication to the truth and to seek it out in all things, it’s no wonder they often god mad or take their own lives. The truth is ugly and horrifying, at least at first. It tears away your comforting blanket of lies and throws you out into the cold night of truth where the hungry wolves are just waiting to devour you.
Staring into the abyss and it stares back into you and all that. Because of this there are two primary way that truth seekers get waylaid and destroyed because of their pursuit of truth. The first is that they lose their soul in a way. They become cynical and withdraw, they just hope some comet will come along and end this miserable existence sooner rather than later.
Another way is they go insane hence the madness and suicides. They can’t take the truth and they seek an escape to it so they naturally seek intoxicants to drive it away but that never works permanently often leading to suicide, that or something in their mind snaps leading to what we’d call insanity.
With all this said, it might sound like I’m saying that pursuing the truth is something you shouldn’t do, but that’s not accurate. I do think you should pursue the truth, just understand that it’s a perilous and dangerous path. One that could very well destroy you. But with that being said, how do we prevent these two outcomes?
Preventing The Two Negative Outcomes
The first thing to understand is that truth takes time to assimilate. It’s not something that can be knocked back real quick, it takes its time to settle in. It takes time for your mind to adapt. Understand you’ll have emotions sadness, confusion, anger, even rage, and a whole host of others. That’s normal and natural. Understand that and know that its okay to have the reactions that you have.
Next is to understand that why the truth is harsh there is a wisdom and goodness in it. Once you understand how the game is played you can better understand how to play it. One big thing might be separating yourself from the centers of man’s power and structures, hence one of the reasons, of millions, you might want to get out of the city. Understand that while there is much horror in the world there is also much good. It’s just not where you think it is.
Now that the lies are cleared you can figure out on your own what is good and what is not. And come to true conclusions about how to best live your life. Old dreams may die, they may die fiery deaths, but new dreams will take their place. Dreams based on wisdom and understanding which will take you far. You’ve lost your faith, but the error would be to never give it to anything else again.
That leads to bitterness and destruction. It’s sort of like suffering horrible loss with love and not wanting to love again. Might seem like a strange topic for a men’s self-improvement site but it bears mentioning. You have to have faith and love, just don’t put those things into the ways of the world. Put it into things that are actually good, that are true.
It’s A Jungle Out There
And like a jungle there is both danger and beauty. Understand and accept the laws of the jungle. Understand they’re harsh, unfair, and that no matter what there’s always going to be a majority of people getting screwed. Your job isn’t to save all of humanity, that’s a futile, dumb, wrongheaded, and impossible task. If you truly knew humanity you wouldn’t want that done anyway.
Understand stupidity and weakness are punished, understand the world is harsh, but also understand that there is goodness in it and that you can be apart of this goodness. But you can’t do that while basing your life on lies, you can only do that through basing your life on truths. Like I’ve also said before.
The truth will set you free, but it’ll horrify you to your core first.
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
