Young men today find themselves surrounded by temptations, distractions, and destructive habits. Because so many men grow up today without strong father figures, they simply do not know what they must resist, or why. They are constantly told that they must not do this or that – but nobody really stops to bother and explain why those things must be avoided. Nobody teaches them the virtues of temperance, prudence, restraint, and stoicism anymore. Western schools treat young boys as if they are defective girls. Our very way of life is toxic to them. We fail to help them make that daunting and difficult transition from boy to man.
The result is a broken and defiled generation.
So it’s up to older and wiser heads, like mine (though wiser is certainly quite a stretch, in my case) to explain a few things here. Much more importantly, men like me need to explain WHY some of these things are a terrible idea. It is not enough to tell men and boys, “thou shalt not”.
The Heart Governs the Mouth
10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides.[c] And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?[d]18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”
— Matthew 15:10-20, English Standard Version
His Hugeness Himself outlined exactly what defiles a man. It is a matter of the heart and the soul. And this has some fairly profound implications.
Put it another way: what YOU do, and what YOU choose, defiles you. What OTHERS DO TO YOU, does not.
You must always remember that, when the Big Cheese said these things, He was doing so to criticise hypocrites and fools who preached one thing and did another. These were people who held strictly to highly onerous dietary laws, thinking that their works purified them, but would happily lie and cheat and steal, because they could find loopholes in the Law to justify their acts.
In other words, they carried malice in their hearts, and expelled that malice through their mouths when the Christ walked among them. They used that malice to crucify Our Lord, kill Him, and humiliate Him in the most horrible ways possible.
That core lesson from Our Lord remains every bit as valid today as it was two thousand years ago, when He spoke those words.
Preventive Measures
Keeping this in mind, you must guard your heart. The only way to do this is to incorporate masculine virtues and habits into your life. These are the virtues that the ancient Stoics taught: honour, temperance, courage, humility, forbearance, patience, and calmness.
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be well on your way to applying those lessons:
1. Daily Prayer
I realise that this one is a bit hard for secular types to stomach. Even so, I enjoin you to pray every day. You don’t have to go into long formalities. It isn’t necessary. All you need to do is to offer thanks.
That’s it.
Seriously, before you go to bed every night, even if – especially if – you are an unbeliever, simply say, “God, if you’re out there, thank you for this day”. If you actually mean it, then you will start to notice some rather interesting changes in fairly short order. The precise nature of those changes depends on you, personally. But I can tell you, it WILL happen.
Gratitude is a great virtue and a source of strength. Those who do not have it are weak, miserable, pathetic people who hate themselves and the world. Don’t be like them. Instead, build up a reservoir of gratitude and happiness within yourself.
Eventually, when you are ready, move on to a proper daily prayer rule. Again, it doesn’t have to be a full Catholic High Mass in Latin every night before you sleep. Just pray.
2. Discipline in Strength
I have been writing for years about the virtue of lifting heavy shit. Therefore, I will spare you a long rant about the need to lift heavy things and punch and kick things to strengthen yourself. But incorporating a daily fitness routine into your life will make your life immeasurably better.
I don’t care if you decide to do a home workout routine, a bodyweight workout routine, or a proper Olympic lifting approach. EVERY PROGRAM WORKS (except CrossShit). Just pick one and DO IT. The secret to MAD GAINZ!!! is nothing more than this:
Consistency + progressive overloading = RESULTS.
That is all. The rest is merely commentary.
3. Avoid Bad Foods
This might seem contradictory given the quote from Scripture above. After all, surely you simply digest what goes into your mouth, regardless of what you eat?
Well… yes and no. You have to remember that, back when Jesus said that, people were a lot more active than they are today. And they didn’t have to deal with foods specifically designed to addict them and turn them into mindless producing-consuming economic animals. Back then, Oreos and Pringles didn’t exist, and people worked really bloody HARD in the fields all day long.
While it is true that what you eat, in and of itself, will not turn you to sin, if you insist on wasting your time and money on bad foods, then you will grow fat, lazy, and stupid.
Eat as well as you can afford. Make natural foods the mainstay of your diet. Your body and mind will thank you for it. Once you rid yourself of the curse of bad food, you will quickly find that you have much more strength, energy, and focus. And that means that you can put yourself to work in the fights that actually MATTER.
4. Just Say No
This, again, takes some explaining. It is not enough just to tell young men that drugs are a dumb idea – although they are. Modern culture now surrounds us with some seriously insidious lies about “softer” drugs, like marijuana. Supposedly, this is not quite so bad a drug. Most European countries and a number of US states have already legalised it. CBD treatments are now widely available to help with chronic pain. Marijuana cigarettes are widely available in this part of the world.
None of that makes it good for you.
Have you ever been around a pothead? They are some of the most dissolute and foolish people that you will ever meet.
Let me put it this way. Do you want to spend your time getting high and seeing strange visions of the world, trying to dull your senses and escape the harsh reality of the world? Or do you want to spend your time growing in strength, fighting against the evil of this world, leading men to improve themselves, taking risks, and struggling mightily to do good?
If you take the second path, you will fail many times. You’ll be knocked on your ass repeatedly. And you’ll spend a great deal of your life broken and in pain.
But you will come out of it all as a VERY DANGEROUS WEAPON, aimed straight at the hearts of your enemies.
If you choose the first path, though, you’ll never improve or change yourself. Indeed, from what I have seen, you will become a hollow shell of yourself, with all of your potential spent on chasing the next high, instead of on more productive pursuits.
Out where I live, the stench of weed is ubiquitous. The people that i see smoking that shit are universally weak, fat, out of shape, and mostly young. This is not a healthy way for such people to start out in life. I have personally seen weed-smoking destroy someone’s vast potential as a martial artist. Don’t repeat that same mistake.
Live your life IN the world, in all of its horror and glory. Stop trying to escape from it. There is nothing wrong with a few hours of video games, a few drinks, or even a few cigarettes a week. (I find the latter to be a vile and disgusting habit, but that’s me.) But don’t let these things dominate your life. And the best way to avoid having a drug dominate your life, is to avoid it entirely in the first place.
5. Loose Women Are Costly
Remember that story about those FSU Instathots from last week that went to Dubai, got a bit drunk, did some drugs, and then went out onto a balcony to take a big naked group photo?
Those assuredly ARE NOT the kinds of girls that you bring home to mum. Indeed, as a general rule, if you know a girl who makes a habit of flaunting her body on Instagram, then she is very unlikely to be good wife material. Hell, she’s almost certainly not even good girlfriend material.
A woman who gains validation from other men’s fantasies is, essentially, every man’s girlfriend – not merely yours. And that is the kind of woman who is at serious risk of selling her body, and her soul, in the vainglorious pursuit of material things.
I realise that this might seem a bit hypocritical given my own habit of posting Instathots every Monday and Friday. My answer to that is: I have always made very clear, simply through the repeated use of the word, Instathot, that these are not women worthy of pursuit. They look very pretty and they do wonders for a man’s morale. It is always good to remember the best part of being a race with two sexes. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that those are the kinds of women that will make you happy. They WON’T.
Conclusion – The Rewards of Righteousness
I realise, and am well aware, that preaching the virtues of hard work, temperance, fortitude, strength, discipline, and so on, is deeply unfashionable. This is especially so in today’s world of quick fixes and soundbites and tl;dr summaries. We all have the attention of goldfish – self included, by the way.
But there are, in fact, significant benefits to taking the hard and slow path. Those who always seek ease and comfort in life, never grow. They never change. And they never turn themselves into worthy, or dangerous, people.
You must understand that, if you want to get anywhere in this world, you have to make hard choices. And you will make enemies along the way. Do not try to become friends with people simply for the sake of being friendly. Become friends with those who share your singular Purpose and Vision. Build your networks and create your brotherhoods based on shared ideals.
Above all, spend your time around people that you can see are better than you, in whatever way. Do not waste your time on those who will pull you down – spend time instead with men who will push you up.
Growth, strength, wisdom, and humility are the rewards of righteousness. And when you seek out righteousness, you automatically seek to avoid the things that will defile you. Eventually you will cease to have truck with sin entirely, because you cannot bear to be around the stupidity of it.
When you get to that point, congratulate yourself. You took the hard road, and you are reaping the rewards.
And then, square your shoulders, raise your head, and keep walking – because that journey never, ever ends.
1 Comment
Be thankful for Instathots, they have wrote themselves off for you.
One could figure out quickly that your investment should be low to none. (Most will never see their error)
Yes, I also push men to steer clear of the normal defiling stuff.