Painting: Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar, 1899, by Lionel Noel Royer.
“He who hath always much-indulged himself, sicketh at last by his much indulgence praises on what maketh hardy!…This hardiness is needed by all mountain-climbers” – Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche
A society that lacks an enemy will inevitably turn inward and begin to destroy itself. The fatal flaw of peace. Indeed, it’s true that empires do not typically fall with one singular catastrophic event. The end is in a sort of consensual and gradual disgust of the whole affair. A groping for something new and a shedding of the old. Zooming out, how can we objectively say this is irrational? We all long for change. We all want the novelty that our fathers felt building the damn thing. The sons cannot be content with idle hands, men need a war. This war need not be of bloodshed, although this will suffice. A war can be the stuff of wanting to live beyond one’s income. It may be said the birth of all evolution is an unpleasantness with inaction. The problem at hand being primarily praxeological. Men grow soft in their long periods of peace. They grow complacent and they grow tired of it, even if they do not consciously comprehend this man feels this instinctually. After a man retires, and if he has no hobbies, does he not atrophy and do nothing but busy himself with sleep and eating? There is in common society stories of men retiring and shortly after dying. Nature is harsh and will surely strike down the lazy man. A rich society, which we live in, is rife with such men. Sitting, drinking, and eating while the fruits of their possible legacy slowly rot. What makes this sad is that this is the common modern man, and this man is a coward to say the least.
To begin, we must first analyze what classifies a weak or emasculated male. Of course, we can look to the American diet or the plethora of subverted sports that mark our age of decline but let us dive deeper. What the author asserts is that the weak man is neutered of his objective goal to uphold and evolve society. At the granular level, the prime example would be a man who preoccupies his time with watching his favorite shows or engaging in hundreds of hours of video game play. Imagine the time sunk into a game that could have been diverted into something practical such as advancing the community or better yet, improving his financial and social standing. A lost talent indeed.
To become victim to sloth is one of the most common tragedies of degenerate moderns. Life is short and the world wide. There are many ways to conquer your suffering. If only you cared to unsheathe your passion and discover your rightful place in history. You must realize the burden that it is to be a man. Further, the weakest and most insecure men are the most dangerous. These creatures hide their designs and unfurl them at the most opportune moments. It can be said that these plans are Machiavellian and Machiavelli said himself his philosophy was beyond good and evil, but we must look to the male feminist who only plays the “ally” to prey upon the unknowing females. The man in this context is a deceiver. He is cast as evil in the human drama. These men are parasitic to the body of humanity. It need not be stated here but to clarify, feminism is rubbish and should be viewed as evil as well, but two wrongs of course do not make a right. To lay dormant and cower shields you from the world and shields you from the beauties of life. The tragedy of this is that the men who need the most love often are the most unlovable. Caught in the vices of poor diet, obscene vices, and military-grade dopamine activators, how can we blame the trap that modernity ensnares us in? You may say it is easy to get caught but you may not say you cannot escape this dangerous web.
The vast majority of men today are either poorly informed or at least not even curious to what made Western culture worth fighting for. Mankind has forgotten the fire in the belly and supplanted it with the poison of luxury. We can look to the follies of our Roman fathers when the Severian dynasty began to overpay its army and began allowing the common soldier to take with their wives and family in common housing. Such long periods of wealth and laziness caused not only the army to devolve into a shell of it’s former self but it forever tarnished the legacy of Roman discipline. There was a nobility in the poor living conditions the Roman army endured that reinforced their strength to protect the empire. Under Severus’ dynasty these men forgot their purpose and began to live in exuberant comfort. This was however not new to the Romans as Augustus’s Praetorian Guard had also fallen victim to this same tragedy as evidenced by Elagabalus’s comical march on Rome against Macrinus. The Praetorian’s genuflected to the rebellious Roman legions at the battle of Antioch. That poor fool who then assumed the royal purple, Elagabalus, soon fell into the same trap when he became soft due to the various comforts of princely life. He forgot his position at that head of the Roman empire and acquired the characteristics of flamboyant oriental despotism by depleting the treasury for his various tastes in jewelry, diadems, rare textiles, and taking the sacred vestal virgins for his wife (several times). The emperor’s dereliction of duty even had his own family conspiring against his person and soon he was murdered and thrown into the Tiber (common practice for tyrants of the time). The point of revealing these histories is that sloth destroys. It can even destroy the head of empires. Do not fall victim to comfort, in fact it is your duty to embrace the fray.
Man’s struggle against modernity need not be violent though. By simply moving towards a vision which he knows to be fruitful and true, he funnels his creative potential into something meaningful. Thus, manifesting his objective goal and converting his interior energies into reality. The peace of mind this man feels while laying in bed before his sleep is most righteous and can become contagious if properly cultivated.
There must always be a striving. And that striving must fruit your innermost desires. Otherwise, you will be left pregnant with despair and you will begin to regret your life in total. Such anxiety is the root of most depression. We must not consult the Stoics to know that self-responsibility is a beautiful virtue. One must recognize the duty to endure and to create a life that is a work of art. To leave a legacy where people will stand in awe of your diligence or at least your competence in whatever field you master. Losing this sight will only lead to misery. Will only leave you bitter and will only anger your descendants who will question why you did not try harder when they pick apart your life. Never put off for tomorrow which could be accomplished today.
The Fountainhead 