This is another great guest post from Jared Trueheart of Legends Of Men.com a site dedicated to masculinity, the arts, and your personal development and one I highly recommend you check out. In this article Jared talks about the order of masculine virtues and how our modern society subverts them and most importantly of all, what to do about it. Enjoy!
By far, the biggest “red pill” or truth bomb I’ve experienced this year is the word logos. I learned this term by watching interviews with Dr. E. Michael Jones, a Catholic scholar and the man behind Culture Wars magazine. Logos is a term that’s difficult to explain and understand. Dr. Jones is writing a book about logos which is sure to be voluminous.
Logos essentially represents the natural order of the world. It represents that natural moral order, the order of the physical world, the spiritual world, the natural order of sex roles, etc. So many of the cultural, spiritual, and moral problems we experience and see in today’s world can be traced to conscious efforts to subvert logos. Feminism, for example, can be understood as an ideology that inverts the logos of sex roles. Logos is a deep concept, one few fully understand, and one scholars could spend their lives studying.
There is also a logos to masculinity and masculine virtue.
The Deep Structure of Manhood
Nearly 30 years ago, anthropologist David Gilmore demonstrated that there is a deep structure to manhood which is pan-cultural, acknowledged and recognized throughout time and every culture where resources are limited. He did this in his book Manhood in the Making, which analyzes ethnographies of cultures throughout time and across all continents to understand what is required for a boy to be recognized as a man.
The research shows that males have to demonstrate an ability to provide for a family or for the tribe, to protect their family or tribe, and be ready, willing, and able to make the next generation. Often, men in cultures throughout the world were not allowed to take a bride or impregnate a woman until they demonstrated an ability to provide and protect. Davis Gilmore’s research is so thorough, valid, and reliable that it is accepted as a statement of fact to anyone who doesn’t have a political or personal agenda regarding sex roles.
You can even see this from various popular authors of the maniverse (the term manosphere is tainted, let’s see if maniverse gains popularity). The Art of Manliness wrote about Gilmore’s 3 P’s; provide, protect, procreate. Gilmore never actually used the term procreate in his book. The Order of Man’s motto is provide, protect, preside. Others are using the phrase, provide, protect, patriarchy. It all comes back to Gilmore’s Manhood in the Making.
The deep structure of manhood is so because of our natural, biological characteristics, specifically what separates us from women. We produce more testosterone which spurs our competitive spirit and builds lean muscle. Our eyesight is better oriented to hunting. We have more strength in our chests, where we carry our weight. All of these help us to provide, protect, and create the next generation.
Tactical Virtues
With the deep structure of manhood in mind, it is now pertinent to ask which virtues enable men of the same tribe or group to best provide, protect, and procreate within their group. This question has already been answered. Jack Donovan isolated and explained the importance of the tactical virtues in his book The Way of Men. As he explained, the way of men is the way of the gang. To be accepted as a man among men in that gang, men must demonstrate strength, courage, mastery, and honor; the tactical virtues.
These virtues allow men of the same tribe or group to rely on each other when their masculine qualities are needed most. This is typically when in conflict with another group (I.e. war), but can also be demonstrated on dangerous hunts or in times of natural disaster.
The tactical virtues compliment the deep structure of manhood. What virtues must men have to provide for the tribe, protect them, and ethically create the next generation? The tactical virtues.
Virtues of Master Morality
With an understanding of the deep structure of manhood and which virtues enable men to exhibit this structure within their tribe or group, we must examine which virtues enable men to fulfill their masculine role when there are several tribes competing with each other. These are the virtues of master morality.
Master morality was introduced to the world by Nietzsche in his Genealogy of Morality. A brief explanation, as this is a deep topic on its own, will suffice. Master morality is the moral pattern of peoples who create their own moral codes and are therefore beyond good and evil. Master morality is most associated with people’s who unapologetically conquer others through physical force. They celebrate their victories over weaker peoples. Their victories are not just selfish, they are morally good.
So which virtues enable men to conquer others? There are nine Asatru or Odinist virtues which Charles Sledge outlined in his book Might Makes Right: Only The Strong Survive. They are:
1. Strength is better than weakness
2. Courage is better than cowardice
3. Joy is better than guilt
4. Honour is better than dishonor
5. Kinship is better than alienation
6. Freedom is better than slavery
7. Realism is better than dogmatism
8. Vigor is better than lifelessness
9. Ancestry is better than rootlessness
There are other moral codes that enable a sense of master morality. For example, samurai had the Bushido code. The seven virtues of Bushido are:
1. Justice or rectitude
2. Courage
3. Benevolence
4. Respect
5. Honesty
6. Honor
7. Loyalty
These are just two examples of honor codes that enabled a sense of master morality between groups. There are more. Notice that they share some of the tactical virtues such as strength, courage, and honor. This is not a coincidence. Some of the same virtues that enable men to cooperate within a group also enable them to compete with other groups.
The ability to conquer others is an extension of the deep structure of manhood. Conquering others has lead past groups (Viking raiders, for example) to better provide for their peoples by returning home with booty from their raids. It protected their people by establishing a fearsome reputation. It also allowed the men to procreate more by taking women solely for that purpose.
By modern moral standards, this is wrong. By the standards of master moral code, it is right. There can be consequences to this moral code as well, such as establishing enemies determined for revenge. There are consequences to slave morality as well, so neither can be said to be perfect.
Inversion of the Natural Masculine Order
In so many ways, the modern western society represents an inversion of the natural masculine order. It perverts the logos of manhood and masculinity.
Men struggle to provide for their families. Wives often make as much money as their husbands, eliminating his role as the provider. Men struggle to maintain (or even establish) fit bodies capable of defense against other men. Their biology has been inverted from strong and fit to fat and lazy, eliminating men’s role as protector. Men’s role as pro-creator has been subverted on several fronts: porn addiction, video game addiction, and the promotion of a sterile, promiscuous lifestyle.
The tactical virtues are subverted. Legitimate strength is replaced either by weak muscles or functionless bodybuilding muscles. Courage can rarely if ever, be exercised. Mastery can be difficult to attain due to economic factors. Honor is all but gone in our individualist, every man for himself, dog eat dog world.
Master morality has been replaced by something other than slave morality (which has its own virtues, useful at times). Nations are no longer encouraged to conquer. In fact, they are called upon to open their borders to strangers. Warriors are forbidden from taking spoils of war by threat of legal repercussions. Realism has been replaced by political ideology (which is used to control and distract the masses). Ancestry is a joke in a culture where each man is his own mental point of origin.
In short, the logos of manhood has been perverted at all levels. With that in mind, becoming a more complete man can be attained by understanding the logos of manhood. To enhance or restore your masculine spirit, start by being able to provide for a family, be able to protect that family (even with just the use of a gun), and make a family. Your manhood depends on it.
