Let’s take a break from dealing with the Chinkflu for a bit, because like the rest of you I am thoroughly cheesed off by the Chinese and their never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed government, and what they have unleashed upon the world.

By way of relief (sort of), let’s turn to more of a personal interest story.

If you are not familiar with the world of MMA, then you may not have heard of one Jon Koppenhaver. But if you know something about that world, then you know him as the MMA fighter War Machine – he actually had his name legally changed to exactly that moniker.

It is not possible to do justice to the details of his case through dry text and wiki entries. To truly understand what a mess this guy is, you have to see it for yourself:

There are any number of lessons to learn here. Most of them have to do with a core truth of red-pilled thinking:

A man must master his emotions, or be mastered by them.

The case of Jon Koppenhaver is a textbook example of what happens when a man lets his emotions run rampant.

As you see in that long video – it’s well worth watching all the way through – Jon Koppenhaver was never a well-adjusted man. His mother was a drug addict and his father was an officer in the LAPD – and a 13-year-old Koppenhaver had to perform CPR on him, only to watch his dad die in front of him. The lack of a father figure in his life during his critical formative years undoubtedly caused him to have tremendous problems later.

None of this is an excuse for what followed. There are plenty of men who grew up with traumatic childhoods and without fathre figures who eventually managed to make good. Quite a few such men read this blog.

What makes this case far more compelling, and tragic and terrible, is the way in which War Machine’s emotions simply ran unchecked.

Time and again in his life story, you see how his inability to keep his rage in check led him to one stupid decision after another. He was always his own worst enemy. Every time things started going well for him, one small problem would set him off, and he would transform into a raging maniac, completely out of control and unable to see the consequences of his actions.

It is precisely because of cases like these that wise men and scholars throughout all of human history have written of the dire need to keep male aggression and rage in check. And the only ones who can do that are men themselves.

Whether it is in the philosophies of the Stoics, or in the Bible itself, the wisdom remains identical and timeless. A man must rule his emotions, or risk losing everything.

The lack of emotional control also resulted in very poor impulse control and even poorer judgement for Koppenhaver. Witness the fact that he basically fell hard for a porn star – and not just your average porn star either, but Christy Mack herself.

The very man who wore a shirt claiming to the world that “I Do Alpha Male Shit”, ended up in a relationship with a woman who literally has sex on camera for money so that lonely young men can jack off to her. If that isn’t a classic Omega move, I don’t know what is.

Put aside the fact that real Alpha males see absolutely no need whatsoever to put on shirts that say, “I AM AN ALPHA MALE” in big bold letters. The very idea is laughable to them. They know quite well that they are at the top of the hierarchy simply based on the way that they are treated by everyone else. They need no validation whatsoever from the things that they wear.

If anything, most Alphas actually need to follow the tradition laid down by the ancient Romans whenever they gave one of their conquering generals a triumphal procession through Rome – wherein a slave would stand right behind the general or Emperor, holding up the triumphal laurel wreath, and repeatedly whisper the words, “Memento, homo” (“Remember, you are mortal”) into the ear of the great man.

Alpha males come in various shapes and sizes, but one common thread among all of them is that they know when it is appropriate to turn into raging furious infernos, and when it is necessary to stay calm, collected, and cold.

Jon Koppenhaver did not know how to do that, at all. His lack of control over his own emotions and impulses is what led him down some very dark roads in his life, and eventually led him to shacking up with an actual “porcupine woman“.

The ancient Stoic philosophers argued that a man who is on the verge of losing his temper should strive to remember that all things pass, and that eventually Death comes for everyone – no matter how great or small, no matter how strong or weak. What matters is how we face our inevitable doom – by living a good life, by bearing pain with strength and suffering with dignity.

The great Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius perhaps summarised it best in his famous line:

“Death smiles at us all, but all that a man can do is smile back.”

That is the core of the Christian philosophy toward suffering as well. It is the reason why the early Christian converts went to their deaths in Roman circuses – where they were torn apart by wild animals and devoured, where they were subjected to horrible tortures, where they were executed without mercy by gladiators – singing hymns of devotion to the Lord, with the name of Jesus Christ upon their lips.

That is a lesson in how to control one’s emotions. The man who masters them will find that nothing that this world can throw at him will stop him from achieving his great mission.

Jon Koppenhaver was never such a man. He never could have been. It was impossible for him to confront his own insecurities and weaknesses, to deal with his own fears, and to become a true champion.

The men who reach the pinnacles of achievement in MMA are often braggarts and blowhards. That is the nature of the sport. But if you look at the champions with true staying power, the ones who defend their belts multiple times and prove themselves against all comers, they are more often than not men of stoic composure in the face of terrible danger and pain, men who treat those around them with respect and kindness, and men who face defeat with great dignity when the inevitable happens and they lose.

It is trivial and stupid to state that a man should not beat a woman without absolute and undeniable cause – such as if she starts hitting him or attacks him with a knife. I am not nearly fool enough to subscribe to the ridiculous notion that a man should NEVER hit a woman; there are times when it is not only justified but absolutely necessary to strike, but these situations always and everywhere involve self-defence.

But evidently, quite a lot of men out there lack the emotional stability and temperament to understand that distinction.

The lesson from a man like War Machine is, as always, very straightforward:

Master your emotions, or be enslaved by them.