Warning – nerdiness and video game terminology follows

There is a very good reason why I have chosen the Master Chief as my avatar. (For those few of you who are unfamiliar with the term “Master Chief”, this is what I’m on about.) Spartan-117 is a fictional character, but he’s also a complete and total badass. He embodies the virtues that all men aspire to, and his history has something to teach us about how to be men.

We’ve seen the Chief battle an alien alliance bent on xenocide, and we’ve seen him slaughter hordes of angry aliens almost single-handed. We’ve seen John-117 fight against a terrifying extragalactic parasite, and again prevail against impossible odds. Most recently, we’ve seen him battling humanity’s worst enemy, the Didact (yes, my nom de plume is a direct reference to a HALO character), refusing to give up even when all hope seemed lost.

The Master Chief embodies all four of the key masculine virtues- Strength, Courage, Mastery, and Honour. In that respect, he is the classic heroic figure, and he has lessons to teach all young men (other than the rather obvious lesson that if you’re only playing HALO all day long, you’re not accomplishing much with your life):

• Physical strength is indeed key to mental strength. The Chief fights on even when there seems to be no point precisely because he is strong. All of the Spartan-IIs are almost absurdly physically strong by baseline human standards; Jorge-052 in particular was perhaps the strongest of the lot. What separates them from the rest of humanity is their use of that strength to protect others, at tremendous cost to themselves.
• Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the capacity to confront that fear, and to put it to one side. This is a lesson that every one of us needs to learn- whether it be in bench-pressing to the chest, being willing to take the plunge and start your own business, or approach a cute girl. Every one of these things terrifies most men at some point in their lives. The question is, will you let that fear cripple you, or will you push that fear aside to get what you want?
• Mastery in John-117’s case is clear to anyone who delves into the expanded Haloverse, rather than just playing the games. He is peerless among warriors, one of just a handful of survivors of his entire group (“race” or “tribe” are the wrong words; Spartans are genetically, biologically, and cybernetically engineered supersoldiers, there is no real common familial factor involved). His skills in war have allowed him to survive even as his closest friends have fallen. There is no Spartan even among the modern Spartan-IVs who can match his martial skills and physical prowess, and there are very few battlefield commanders who possess John-117’s instinctive ability to appraise the tactical situation and formulate counter-strategies on the fly.
• Honour is probably the Chief’s most defining characteristic. He is absolutely a man of his word; a promise given is a promise kept. This is a concept that most men understand intuitively, but often have difficulty sticking to in practice. It’s easy to say that you’ll keep your word. It’s much harder to actually do it, especially when that word involves a cost to you. And it’s even harder to do when you’re buried as some faceless cog within a monolithic, bureaucratic organisation. How many of you have been promised pay increases or bonuses in return for hard work, and then come to the end of the year only to realise that your boss never had any intention of rewarding you for a job well done? Even the idea of letting someone down is anathema to the Chief; so should it be for any young man looking to make his mark in the world.

There is one other important lesson to learn from the Chief- luck. He seems incredibly lucky to have survived so much insanity, so much war and slaughter and death, but the reality is that he makes his own luck. That lesson should be taken to heart by every man. Don’t wait for this world to do you any favours. It won’t. You’ve been royally screwed by those who believe themselves to be your masters, there’s no point in listening to their lies any longer. Don’t screw yourself over by waiting for something that is yours by right. Get out there, make your own fortune, and take what is yours by dint of hard work and skill.