At first glance this may seem like an odd article for me to write. After all much of my stuff is all about unleashing the beast, about getting back in touch with your primal roots and nature, and these are all things that I still stand by. However, there is another side to all of this. By beast I’m not referring to that primal masculinity, rather I’m referring to something darker and more harmful, but also of a primal nature. I’m referring to our “base nature” AKA human nature. The thing that gives us life but when unchecked can destroy us.
Humans are evil, awful, often soulless creatures. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a naïve idiot. Lord of the Flies was tame in its portrayal of human nature. Anyone who says “most people are good” probably also believes that the moon is made of cheese and that Santa Claus is real. Humans are horrible and awful when not checked but higher things. Human nature is base and crass. Thankfully we have ways to harness and overcome this nature it doesn’t posses and then destroy us. Things like higher thinking, discipline, and character.
Things that keep our demons/beast whatever you want to call it, in check. And today I’m going to be talking about those things and about taming the beast yourself as well as how this works on a society wide level. The thing people don’t seem to understand is the civilization is the aberration, even barbarism (tribes, honor, and the like) is an aberration. Man at his core, at his base, is an awful animal. And anything good when humans get together, especially in large numbers, is thanks to carefully constructed factors and limits. But that’s a bit beyond the discussion today.
Society & The Beast
Societies that learn to reign in and harness this beast and societies that prosper. You want a good mix of “civilization” and “barbarism” as too much of either allows this beast to take the reigns. Whether it’s looting and murder in the streets or exploitation and betrayal in fancy corporate and political buildings. Or in the worst case you get the worst aspects of civilization with the worst aspects of barbarism, anarcho-tyranny as its called. The complete and utter opposite of a healthy society. And exactly what the West has and is heading towards at greater speeds.
Healthy societies puts limits on the expression of human nature (rules, laws, customs, and the like) so that human nature works for the society and individuals that make up the society instead of against them, as it does when there’s nothing to check it. Take out these restraints and human nature runs rampant, destroying all in its path. This is a large reason why things like “honor” considered stupid and trivial by soulless moderns, were so important. Because it worked as a check against this base nature and therefore allowed us to “have nice things”.
When culture becomes sick or degenerates human nature, at least the baser parts, start to assert themselves more and more. This starts slow but picks up speed and eventually all of the “nice things” are gone. Nice things like walking down the street unarmed, trusting your neighbors, not living in constant fear and anxiety, and so on and so forth. And while it’s important to understand how society and the beast work, there’s not much you can do about it as a whole. However if your own beast is causing you problems in your own life, the story is different.
Taming Your Beast
The beast asserting itself and harming you comes in many shapes in forms. From addictions to simple laziness. It runs from one end of extremity to the other. There are a couple main things that harness it. One we already talked about which is culture and society. However with modern culture, society, and laws these things promote the baser aspects of human nature and often punish the higher aspects so are essentially useless in most cases. Not that you should have completely relied on them ever. But there are other things to control and tame the beast, harness it.
Discipline, character, and in a distant third higher thinking. Higher thinking can be a big help but the thing is thinking doesn’t control the beast but it can give you better tools. For example if you’re addicted to something then learning all you can about addiction and about how the body and mind work will give you tools to help fight the addiction. But it won’t cure it for you. So higher level thinking certainly helps but it’s a slow process and not a very strong one. Use it, but don’t rely on it. Next we have character and discipline.
Both are related. I would say character is having a “solidness” to you. Where you are who you are regardless of the circumstances and potential harm/benefit to yourself. You’re not bent by the world around you. And this comes from doing hard things and making the right hard choices throughout life. It’s like a muscle that’s built but takes a lot longer to atrophy, though it still can. Discipline goes hand in hand with. Discipline is putting in the work that needs to be done, damn what the beast says, day in and day out. With discipline and character the beast learns that it’s second fiddle and needs to behave that way. It learns it doesn’t have control and that it’s subject to something higher.
Actions To Get The Beast Under Control
Now because of how many different ways the beast can cause harm in your life it’s hard for me to sit here and say do X or do Y to solve it. Because the actions that you’re going to take to tame your beast are going to be different depending on the nature of your beast. Or at least what aspect is causing you trouble. Addiction is different then laziness which is different then dishonesty and so on and so forth. You have the general outline of higher level thinking, discipline, and character but I do want to try to provide you with more “specific” recommendations.
Hard things are good for you. I don’t care if it’s writing your first book, doing your first amateur fight, camping in the woods for a week (with proper training and contact in case something goes wrong), climbing a mountain, or whatever else. Doing these things are good for you in many different ways. They help subsume your beast to a higher greater thing. That’s another thing if you don’t have an overarching “goal” or “mission” in life the beast is going to run rampant because it has nothing to work for so why would it? Would your harness an ox to sit in the barn? That wouldn’t make sense. You do so to get work done.
But if you don’t have any work for that ox to do then you see the problem. When your beast is consumed working towards and for something is when it is tamed and when it stops giving you so many problems. This is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight. That’s maybe the best advice I can give you on the topic. You have to have an overarching goal or mission in life. Keep trying things until you find what that is. It won’t be banging girls or making money for the sake of money. However it might be art, hiking, boxing, writing, who knows. You have to figure it out for yourself.
But figuring it out may be one of the wisest things you ever do.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
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