Blood & Ink: Friday

There is a dynamic tension between traditional masculinity and modern civilization…

In our ancestral past, it was the role, duty, and honour of men to band together and provide the fundamental services to protect, provide, and uphold the culture of their tribe.

From pure intention and great effort, our ancestors developed these systems. Better weapons, sharper skills, all the way to automated machinery and God-like technology.

This is a great win for humanity, make no mistake.

However, it comes at a cost…

Slowly, but surely, the roles and services that were expected of men are automated away, absorbed by the state, by technology, or made effectively obsolete altogether. 

To arrive at their fullness, men need tension between wild, raw nature and civilized society.

When you give a generation or two of men no meaningful purpose to pursue, bombard them with every possible hyper-normal dopamine stimulus, and even go as far as vilifying the very traits that give them pride to embody, you end up with, well, exactly what we see today.

Listless, aimless, weak, anxious, incapable men.

Casualties of ‘hyper-civilized society’. 

Men need tension between their masculine impulse and their safe society. 

They need the opportunity for honor. To make direct and real contributions to their culture. 

To an extent—but only to an extent—can these be replaced with ‘civilized pursuits’ like building a business, intellectual enterprise, or raising a family. 

These are true, good, and beautiful. But they lack the direct challenge, courage, and honour that was once required of them. Without the opportunity to truly fail, they never get the opportunity to truly succeed.

Raw, pure masculinity will always be in dynamic tension with the arc of civilization.

Rewild yourself,
Eric Brown.