Two of my favourite movies are the pair of Akira Kurosawa samurai films called Yojimbo and Sanjuro. In the earlier movie, the wandering samurai, played by the wonderful Toshiro Mifune, finds himself in a town being torn apart by gang warfare between two local strongmen. He devises a cunning strategy to have them both destroy each other but the strategy goes wrong and the samurai gets sucked into the trouble himself and only just makes it out alive.
In the sequel, Kurosawa does something interesting by weaving into the plotline the idea that the samurai needs to stop simply slaughtering everybody who gets in his way. In a scene meant to be (and succeeding to be) comedic, the samurai is reproached by a local noblewoman who tells him it’s bad manners to kill people. “The best sword is kept in its sheath,” she says reproachfully.
Those who have read the last few posts of mine might recognise the tropes in this short summary. The noblewoman as the feminine character symbolises the Jungian anima and therefore the Soul of the samurai. The Soul, in this case, is telling the samurai to temper his Will. Thus, in a roundabout way, the second of Kurosawa’s samurai movies is a story about the Adult – Elder progression I talked about in last week’s post.
At the societal level, though, the Kurosawa story represents a very old idea which has correlates in the ancient Greeks. The military class represents the Will of society and the Will must be tempered by institutions based on wisdom. Since wisdom is traditionally represented as Sophia, who is feminine, we can posit that a healthy society is also one in which the Will is tempered by Soul. The noblewoman in Kurosawa’s movie, thus, also represents the Soul of society.
As we saw in last week’s post, Shakespeare had described in King Lear what happens when society is not led by Soul. One of the ways things can go wrong is the rise of what we can call the hyper-masculine. In King Lear, this is represented by the character Edmund, who will take by Will what is not his by birth. He is the unsheathed sword slashing at whatever gets in his way.
It is not a coincidence that Kurosawa’s two samurai movies take place at the time when the Tokugawa era of Japan was approaching its end. The wandering samurai refers to the fact that many samurai found themselves unemployed. Previously, they had been a kind of private militia kept by local noblemen. In such roles, they served the clan faithfully and did honest work. What happens when the class that represents the Will of society is released from the Exoteric institutions that keep them tempered? The same thing that happens in King Lear: the hyper-masculine appears on the scene and death and destruction follow in short order.
Another example of the hyper-masculine in film would be the Terminator movies. The first Terminator shows a robot who continues trying to get what it wants and will not give up until it is destroyed. This is almost identical to Shakespeare’s Macbeth since Macbeth also refuses to give up and fights until the death. No coincidence that Macbeth is led on by his shadow anima in the form of the three witches and his wife.
Meanwhile, Terminator 2 shows us a very similar story to Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, since it is about the need for Will to be tempered by Soul. In Sanjuro, it is the noblewoman who fills the role of Soul. In Terminator 2, Soul is represented by the young John Connor who must train the terminator not to go around killing everybody.
Putting all this together, we can see that Plato and Socrates, Shakespeare, Kurosawa and modern filmmakers have all portrayed the same phenomenon. The arrival of the hyper-masculine follows the breakdown of the Exoteric institutions of society. The breakdown can occur by the institutions disappearing altogether or by them becoming corrupt. King Lear creates a corrupt kingdom by botching the handover of his crown. It is in this corruption that the hyper-masculine symbolised by Edmund is able to thrive.
Of course, it’s also true that the hyper-masculine can appear of its own accord. There’s nothing corrupt in the kingdom of Duncan. In fact, Duncan rewards his best general, Macbeth, for his good work. But that doesn’t stop Macbeth from screwing things up anyway. This exact subject is discussed by Socrates in Plato’s Republic. How do you stop the warrior class from becoming corrupt and extorting the rest of society? Socrates suggests education to promote the cultivation of wisdom (Sophia). For Socrates, a well-ordered state is like a well-ordered Soul. It must be ruled by wisdom.
Of course, putting theory into practice often fails. History shows plenty of examples of not so well-ordered states (and Souls!). In early modern Europe, many problems were created by the fact that the first-born son of a nobleman inherited his father’s estate entirely while any younger brothers were given almost nothing. Many young noblemen rebelled against this state of affairs by embracing the hyper-masculine. They became bandits, outlaws and crusaders or otherwise spent their time in debauchery. No, the Hunter Biden phenomenon is not new.
In more recent history, we see the hyper-masculine as world historical drama in the persons of Napoleon and Hitler. What do both men have in common? They were both Edmunds i.e. they were outsiders who fought their way from the bottom to the top by any means necessary including deceit, fraud and murder.
It’s not a coincidence that their rise occurred during periods when the Exoteric institutions of their respective societies had been decimated. In Napoleon’s time, it was the French revolution and the chaos that followed that. In Hitler’s time, it was the Weimar Republic and the chaos that followed WW1 in Germany. Both Napoleon and Hitler could have uttered the exact phrase of Edmund in King Lear: I will take by Will what is not mine by birth. Having taken what was not theirs by birth at the personal level, they proceeded to attempt the same on behalf of their countries.
In the Anglosphere, a different kind of hyper-masculine appeared in the 19th century with the onset of the industrial revolution. This followed the breakdown of the Exoteric institutions of civil society caused by the British civil war, the enclosure acts and the highland clearances among others. One of my favourite poets, Coleridge, satirised the developments in Britain in his great poem The Delinquent Travellers, which I’ve mentioned on this blog before.
Rogues, rascals, sharpers, blanks and prizes,
Delinquents of all sorts and sizes,
Fraudulent bankrupts, Knights burglarious,
And demireps of means precarious
It was this cadre of hyper-masculine rascals (and their women of ill-repute) which Coleridge saw climbing the ladder in 19th century Britain. In fairness, the Anglosphere did learn to channel the hyper-masculine to productive ends for some time through the work of the industrial revolution. The problem, however, was that industrial capitalism was as much a destroyer of Exoteric institutions as it was a creator or new ones. One of its main drawbacks was the unemployment it brought on through the problem of oversupply.
When capitalism began, work was still plentiful enough that working class women and children were still employed in the factories. Gradually, as supply increased, the jobs decreased. Children first and then women were made unemployed. This was not a problem for children, who could be sent off to school. For women, it was a bigger issue. The idea of woman as homemaker arose partly because of this development. Can it be a coincidence that the suffragette movement began around the exact same time?
Next on the block were men who duly organised themselves into unions to protect against their fate. Still, the boom and bust swings of industrial capitalism were the main problem. When Hitler came to power, Germany had a 33% unemployment rate and so did most other western nations. Thus, modern capitalism created the conditions that led to the arrival of the hyper-masculine in the form of Hitler. It’s worth remembering that this occurred after Germany had attempted to compete against the Anglosphere in the domain of international commerce.
All-in-all, we might say that at least the last couple of hundred years of western civilisation has been ruled by the hyper-masculine in one form or another. The Anglo countries differed by utilising it for business rather than the military. This had a very long tradition going right back to the British East India Company. It is not an exaggeration to say that the English and American empires have been built on the hyper-masculine channelled into business, commerce and trade. In some respects, the results have been spectacular. It has created a level of material prosperity without historical precedent.
The trouble that we have now is that we seem to have arrived at the endgame of industrial capitalism. Even our WEF overlords are saying as much. The new plan, implemented through the neoliberal agenda of the 90s, involved sacrificing the jobs of millions of mostly working-class men in the United States.
History tells us that when you remove the Exoteric roles of millions of men you can expect to see the arrival of the hyper-masculine. In a symbolic way, that is exactly what we saw with the election of Trump who represents the Anglo version of the hyper-masculine in the form of the businessman. Viewed this way, Trump’s promise to make America great again means restoring the old system of bare-knuckle business competition which, in fairness, was the system which built the modern West.
It seems that the people who rolled out the neoliberal agenda are well aware of the risk of the hyper-masculine returning since what has happened in the last few decades is an all-out psychological and propaganda war against masculinity in general. For example, the way that masculinity is represented in popular culture these days is farcically denigrating. Trying to find a decent and honourable male character in a movie or TV show is a near impossible task. Even advertisements show barely disguised malice towards men.
Meanwhile, we’ve seen the rollout of unlimited free porn, unlimited free computer games and the unlimited distracting potential of the internet. Throw in the legalisation of recreational drugs and the flooding of the streets with illicit drugs and you have what looks to be an attempt to pre-emptively subvert the arrival of the hyper-masculine. We also see it in the blatant persecution of hyper-masculine figures such as Andrew Tate, Trump and to a lesser extent (since he’s less hyper-masculine) Jordan Peterson.
It all makes some kind of logical sense given the real dangers of the hyper-masculine. But, as Socrates noted two and a half thousand years ago, it’s indicative of a society and a Soul divided against itself. A healthy society and a healthy individual are united and ruled over by Soul. Sadly for us, Soul is one thing money can’t buy.
The neoliberal agenda to supress masculinity seems to backfire spectacularly if you look at the success of hyper-masculine figures like Tate and Trump. There are a lot of men, that are totally annoyed by how they are treated by the ruling class. Luckily (for the rulers), they are still pretty much sedated by addictions but I am not sure whether this will last much longer. If you look around the internet, there is a growing anger towards porn, drugs and electronic media consumption. These people are ripe to be united by the next strong man. I would bet that we are not through the age of Caesars.
As a side note, I had the thought that all this bashing of men in the media is one gigantic shit test by our women as we have become so soft and complacent due to the industrial revolution.
Secretface – the shit test idea makes sense. But, to me, even that implies the dominance of the shadow anima. Men don’t test each other in that way. We’re not that subtle 🙂
As for a Caesar, the question is what is he going to do with all these male followers once he wins them over to his side? Traditionally, you would go off to fight a war. I guess that could happen. But, while everybody still has nuclear weapons, we can only fight proxy wars, not real ones.
The thing that isn’t so obvious in the west is that I think we are stilled ruled over by the corrupt warrior caste it’s just that what it means in Faustian culture is quite different from many others. The original aristocrats were of course the warrior class, and although it seems as if they went to the way side but they didn’t really; almost the entirety of the current western super wealthy class can trace large parts of their ancestry to European aristocratic lines (both in Europe and the USA/Canada/Aus etc).
Outside some injection of Jewish banking families (who just intermarried with the aristocrats anyway) it’s really been the same sort of people on top for a long time it’s just the methods of control have morphed from outright military force to the subtle Faustian methods of financial and economic control and the accompanying propaganda. These methods have succeeded well beyond and above what direct military conquest ever could, for far less direct cost.
It could well be argued that the western method of warfare most employed now is that of media control and propaganda (CIA and MI6 exert enormous control over all sorts of media), so in that sense Trump is really the perfect Faustian Caesar; a business Titan and actor.
Skip – yes, it’s noteworthy that it’s fashionable in America to know and brag about your European ancestry – “I’m half Swedish, half German”.
Your point about the warrior caste still running the show matches perfectly with the symbolism of King Lear i.e. the hyper-masculine and the shadow feminine go together. That’s why we are ruled by the Devouring Mother. It’s more convenient for public relations 😛
In relation to the shadow feminine, there’s some interesting symbolism from history. For example, Europe starts out with Mary representing Soul. But then you get the black death and it was really hard to pretend that “mother nature” was on your side. Interestingly, there seems to be a relation between the Black Death and Protestantism. The Black Death killed indiscriminately. Didn’t matter how holy or noble you were. Flipped around, that’s pretty much the Protestant theology: God chooses who he wants to save and it doesn’t matter what you do in life.
Also noteworthy is that the Church is symbolic of the feminine (Mary) in Christianity and that’s what the Protestants rejected. They even when around destroying statues of Mary. I think a strong argument can be made that the hyper-masculine begins with the Reformation. Luther was certainly a heroic figure and not a philosophical one.
Simon- I was thinking more about a civil war in the American Empire which could be started by another Caesar. A large part of the population despises the ruling class and what they stand for. Since the Trump years have made it clear that the ruling class will not go down without a fight, I would expect some violence in the future.
I would agree that hyper-masculine begins with the Reformation. From that point onwards, it seems like we are on a downhill slide of moral and communal decay while we are (or were) climbing upwards on the prosperity ladder. A few years ago, I would say that it is still a net positive. Nowadays, I am not so sure.
Skip – I always wondered why the German aristocrats just stepped down from the positions of power voluntarily after the first world war. You don´t give up power that easily. Could it be that they just moved into the dark and influence the public by using propaganda spouted by their lackeys (politicians, journalists, teachers)? Seems realistic for me. I know that the Hohenzollern family is still very rich and influential even though they don´t sit on the throne anymore since 1918.
Nevertheless, I don´t have the feeling that bragging about your European ancestry is still fashionable in America. Instead, you have people faking heritage of some oppressed group, like Elizabeth Warren pretending to have American Indian heritage.
Secretface – it’s possible, especially if the economic disparity grows. I’m not sure who would fight against whom, though. As Joe Biden is fond of pointing out, the US government has bigger guns than the public. There could be a military mutiny but that would probably result in an overthrow of the government rather than a civil war.
The Americans do still have an inferiority complex in relation to Europe. The reason I notice this is because we used to have the same thing in Australia, but it’s mostly gone now. So, it interests me that it’s still prevalent in the US.
The front lines seem to be along the party lines. I think that many people in majority red states (e.g. fly-over country, basket of deplorables) have seen enough of the national government, no matter whether it is red or blue. So, you could say that you have the Trump voters as possible troublemakers. I won´t bet on whether it will be some kind of civil war, coup, rebellion or revolution, but the situation in the USA cries for a violent outbreak. Sure, these people don´t have tanks and an airforce but they have a lot of handguns bordering on military equipment. Since the “deplorables” make up a large part of the army grunts, an army mutiny seems not that unrealistic. This could be an explosive combination for the government.
Are there any other ways than refering to the European heritage in how this inferiority complex manifests in the US? I always had the impression that the Americans think of themself as God´s chosen people (e.g. manifest destiny) and look down on everybody else.
Simon: “In a scene meant to be (and succeeding to be) comedic, the samurai is reproached by a local noblewoman who tells him it’s bad manners to kill people. “The best sword is kept in its sheath,” she says reproachfully.”
Okay, I burst out laughing when I read that. But then I thought about it. Would the Japanese laugh, too, or is it just us, crude foreigners? Not that I’m any sort of expert on Japan or anything, but the stereotype has it that manners are everything in Japan. So, “bad manners” may just be worse than “evil” or “immoral.” But what do I know!
Simon: “The Black Death killed indiscriminately. Didn’t matter how holy or noble you were.”
Ah, but apparently it didn’t! I remember reading in one of Peter Turchin’s books that the Black Death killed off something like half the peasantry (in France, I believe), but only something like 10% of the nobles. And supposedly, only one European king ever died of it. And the reason for this is that the best way to protect yourself from the plague is to flee as soon as it appears near you, which the nobles (and kings) could do, but the peasants could not. And this resulted in a situation of elite overproduction, because suddenly, the share of nobles in the population roughly doubled (half the peasants were supposed to support a roughly unchanged number of nobles), which led to some pretty serious violence. Anyway, I’m writing all this from memory, having read this a number of years ago. But no, it wasn’t indiscriminate! That said, it’s perfectly possible that it *seemed* indiscriminate to the nobles! 10% of your own dying is pretty scary, and you might not notice that others have it way worse.
Secretface – well, the Americans have had one civil war, so I guess they could have another. The first one was, however, also a battle over two competing economic paradigms and I don’t see what the two paradigms would be this time around. Looks to me like a quibble over two different versions of globalism.
The US inferiority complex shows up often in pop culture. It was a common theme in the old Seinfeld series, for example. I remember one episode with the “maestro” who is an orchestra conductor and therefore represents European culture. He has a house in Tuscany and the comedy of the episode revolves around him trying to dissuade Jerry from also buying a house in Tuscany (cos he’ll bring down the neighbourhood). These subtle implications of European cultural superiority are common.
Irena – unless the cultural and body language cues are completely different, I think it was meant as comedy. I’ll have to ask a Japanese person to verify it though 🙂
In relation to the Black Death, I was thinking more about the priesthood. Presumably they died in equal numbers to the peasantry or fled like the nobility. Neither is indicative of any holiness or faith on their part and that would have not gone unnoticed by the plebs. The elite overproduction issue was also very important since it tipped the economic balance massively in favour of the peasants who could demand much higher wages and better conditions cos of the huge labour shortage. Put it all together and the Reformation makes a lot of sense (as most things do in hindsight!)
Yeah I’m quite sure that secretface’s line of reasoning is correct there. After WW1 everywhere in Europe was ripe to explode with revolution so the nobility melted into the shadows, but they are all still around and I’m guessing are still the wealthiest people in Faustian culture. I never take the wealthiest person on earth lists seriously because it’s all make believe wealth and has a propaganda component. If your family has hundred of years to accumulate and be involved in thousands of investments I’m sure the bank account is looking pretty good.
Regarding the USA, it’s worth remembering that it isn’t a monolith. The inferiority complex is centred around the places they are most heavily under the Faustian psuedomorphisis, namely the north east and left coast. All the wealthy families of the north east have regularly intermarried with and are in large part descendent from European (especially English) aristocracy and have historically ruled the USA. New Yorkers like Sienfeld are right in the middle of it. Even Trumps wives have all been European. The rest of the USA it doesn’t really apply.
Skip – years ago I had an extended stay in Munich and the landlady of the building I was staying in, quite unprovoked by me, went into a rant about the “vons”; von being a marker of aristocracy – as in Count von Schwarzeneggersteinhausen. So, yes, I daresay they are still very wealthy and it seems some people are aware.
I read Alex Jones’ latest book, THE AWAKENING, and I thought about your solar/ lunar pieces, where you talk about the passivity of men aside devouring mothers, and how men like Trump don’t/won’t play that.
It’s exciting to see the re-birth of masculinity with its intensity of love and epic sense of service. I love how you men can fight then come together as deeper friends. I’m thinking of Tucker Carlson trashing Alex then making up. That would happen among us bad girls in school: we’d be bitchy until we fought, then suddenly respect and even trust eachother…and way more than the regular normal girls who did everything passive aggressively behind scenes.
I’m excited about men turning away when excluded from The Normie World of Stuff and simply starting their own new reindeer games. This is when things get funny sexy and interesting again.
X
Erika
Erika – Alex Jones is at number 1 on Amazon while also guest appearing with Elon Musk live on twitter. Pretty sure neither of those things could have happened two or three years ago. It’s hard to know where it will go but I prefer a world where Elon Musk is telling people to go f**k themselves in public while also stopping the government from fiddling with the algorithms in some dark room somewhere.
“It’s hard to know where it will go but I prefer a world where Elon Musk is telling people to go f**k themselves in public while also stopping the government from fiddling with the algorithms in some dark room somewhere.”
I think it’s gonna stick. Here in Mordor this is the first year, probably since I moved here in 1994, that anyone has said “Merry Christmas” to me! And it’s been at least 5 folks. They’re regular working folks and it feels like a secret form of defiance. Just happened earlier with the cashier at the pharmacy. She was giddy when I said Merry Christmas back.
I tentatively returned to saying Merry Christmas last year, and it was a defiant thrill for ME! People stammered.
The lady manager “corrected” me the other day in the frozen aisle at trader Joe’s by thinning her lips in a condescending smile and answered, “Happy HOLIDAYS!” As I passed on towards the frozen corn.
Who knew “Merry Christmas” would turn out to be such a complicated tell?
So yes. Regular folks giggly shiny and giddy about just saying “Merry Christmas” for the first time in decades of Devouring Bitch Lockdowns, I think things are gonna change in a big way. Like how unsheathed swords are now not only polite but desperately needed wanted adored…
Finally appreciated.
Merry Christmas, Mr Sheridan. And all youse guys reading this.
(Smile)
X
P.S. I live in San Francisco. Even thinking the words “Merry Christmas” in San Francisco is like parading Alex Jones through the streets slathered in “Vote for Trump” signs. It’s a huuuuge deal especially if you’re someone’s employee here. Not wanting to get evicted in San Francisco makes whores of us all.
So, Simon, do you think the increase in trans females is a reaction to the latest rise of the hyper-masculine?
Erika – wow, you really do have the thought police over there. We have the usual crap about Christmas here but it’s only relevant in government or corporate lobotomy-factories (bureaucracies). Nobody on the street would take offence at being wished Merry Christmas. So, Merry Christmas to you too. Not just the usual Merry Christmas but “Merry Christmas and GFY to the NPCs”! 😛
Shane – I’d say there’s a few interrelated things going on with the trans issue. First and foremost, it’s an ideological wedge the elites can use to terrify the majority into submission. Within that framework, I’d say that trans female thing is partly related to the old eunuch phenomenon. For most of history, eunuchs were adult males who willingly got the chop in order to win positions of social and economic power. Now we have males doing something similar to climb through the government bureaucracy or win sports competitions. There’s probably also a sexual fetish element for some other men. (Then, of course, there are a small number of people who really are transgender).
Simon – I think that there is a faction rising in the USA of those that did not profit from globalisation and is therefore opposed to it. Trump was able to rally their support by promising to make America great again. Their woes did not go away when Biden was elected. Some of these people never accepted him as the legitimate president (e.g. accusations of voter fraud during the 2020 election, January 6th “riots”). I think that the frontier between these people and the coastal elite (Democrats and Republicans) will harden in the future with a high probability of violent confrontations.
I will look for the manifestations of this US inferiority complex more closely, thanks for the example. From the European view, the USA are culturally inferior. Their whole culture seems very shallow and the typical American is usually mocked for their primitive behaviour. Interestingly, we are still becoming more like them due to them influencing us with their soft power (music, films, etc.).
Erika – In Germany, I never had any problem with saying “Frohe Weihnachten”, but then I don´t interact very much with the national thought police. I could imagine that it could be more problematic in a city like Berlin which is a cesspool of the thought police.
Regarding the trans madness, there is also the option that our artificial environment plays a role into it, as there are so many chemicals out there that disrupt hormonal cycles in the human body (e.g. estrogen mimics).
Hi Simon,
Tell you a funny story, my dad left when I was so young, he’s barely a memory. So I grew up in a household where I was the only male. There was a step dad for a while, but I guess my mother was problematic. He left too. My grandfather put me in an all male private school from Year 9 onwards. The kids had organised after school fights, you know. Seriously. Faced with that reality, took myself off to the local Dojo and trained for many years. It’s true what the lady said, you learn to fight, so you don’t have to fight. A person carries themselves differently, dunno.
Dunno, I’ve had some strong male role models in my life, and they teach you stuff. But in the end, you’ve gotta be yourself, and know your will. Hyper masculine, sounds to me like someone else trying to direct your energies. It’s an option, but it sure is a hard way to learn don’t you reckon?
Cheers
Chris
Secretface – one way or another it will have to resolve itself. It may work itself out via politics. With the increasing weaponisation of the institutions of the federal govt in the US, it’s quite likely both sides will slowly eliminate one another (politically, not physically). Then perhaps you get at third party rise up, a bit like what is happening with the AfD in Germany.
Chris – yes, exactly. Every great leader, by definition, has to have a huge number of followers who will just do whatever they are told. So, you could say that at the societal level the hyper-masculine can appear even during a time of low aggregate masculinity (if it was actually possible to measure these things). The main dynamic is the concentration of force in the leader. That’s pretty much the story of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Caesar becomes the conduit for the energy of the mob and therefore a threat to other free men.
Simon – agree there are a few interrelated things going on. Just a few. 🙂 About 30 years ago, at least here in Sydney, trans culture felt transgressive. It’s turned orthodox very recently, especially in the last decade, since smartphones became standard physical appendages & hype about making reality whatever you want has exploded. Constant online activity has changed how the brain works & untethered folk from their bodily instincts. For a few years now, or since Trump’s election, the left has been panicking about the rise of the far right, embodied in violent hyper-masculinity, while the far right reviles trans/queer culture. Endless distraction. You seem to implicate the internet in a bid to preemptively derail the return of the hyper-masculine. Yet the internet began as a military application. And it’s not doing the trick. It seems to be increasing polarisation.
Secretface – what you say re oestrogen could at least partly explain why so many more males opt to transition to females than vice versa.
Shane – I didn’t mean to imply any of this is done purposefully. Rather, it’s the response to events which is revealing. For example, governments are currently passing “disinformation” bills to regulate speech online. They have no problem with the obvious damage being done psychologically by porn, social media etc. They are only worried about the political implications. That reveals where their priorities lie. Which is not surprising since they want a compliant population just like every government does.
Can the internet lead to an actual outbreak of the hyper-masculine in the “real world”? I don’t see much evidence for that. Case in point, during the corona madness there was supposed to be a big trucker rally here in Australia. My recollection is that this was before the Canadian one. It never happened. A few people showed up and got arrested. That was it. It turned out to be just internet illusion. When the Canadians did theirs, we heard about it only after it was already underway. That’s the difference between real organisation in the real world and digital organisation via social media.
Simon – if the internet is doing anything, it’s neutering humans. But I think it also promotes or at least favours & tends to reward polarisation, either/or logic. A kind of left-brain orientation. Which is incidentally conducive to competition. And a relatively militaristic mindset.
Shane – I agree. But bear in mind that a hundred years ago there were genuine street battles between communists, fascists, anarchists, (whoevers) on the streets of most western nations. So, you still had the militarism and excessive left brain orientation but it was manifesting in the real world. Nowadays, it plays out mostly online. Back then, violence was violence. Now, words are violence.
I agree that a political solution is not impossible. From my point of view, the AfD is not the best example as they are blocked from any government. This would only change if they were able to get the majority of the votes. This could happen at some point of time, but the anti-Nazi propaganda is working against them very well.
In Great Britain, there was a change from the Liberal Party to the Labor Party of today as the major counterpart to the Conservative Party at the beginning of the 20th century. Maybe something similar will happen in the USA, with the Republicans being the more likely casualty.
Maybe the hyper-masculine is more likely to appear during times of low aggregated masculinity as the weak men combine their energy into one strong leader as they are not able to live a fulfilling live by themselves.
Secretface – I think it was Nietzsche who said that times of big power politics are always times of cultural degradation and vice versa. So, yes, people turn to politics when they have nothing better to do with their life. It was certainly true in Rome. The cult of Caesar arose at exactly the same time as the transition to military dictatorship.
Dear Secretface,
Because of San Francisco’s close proximity to Silicon Valley, this town has been used like a liberal globalist experiment before they took it live globally. If you can take over and “disrupt” the most freaky artistic, fun, musical, open, friendly and accepting town in America with money tech evictions closures divisiveness and scrape out families traditions history connections neighborhoods friendliness and social habits, you can disrupt and ruin anywhere. Disruption excites them, whether it’s ravaging a redwood forest for one of their fairy weddings or turning what’s left of the original populace into their service slaves.
“Merry Christmas” is our blue-collar cry that even the employed bureaucratic Lateenxes (latinX) wouldn’t even notice. But here, it’s a big huge deal. We’re all still reeling from the past two decades of assault.
______
dear Simon,
The internet won’t inspire actual masculinity because it’s inherently a passive aggressive system better suited to females, like poison as murder.
What I hope for and am seeing, is that most humans COPY each other, and it also gets people prepared for when they DO come across real men acting as Men.
Even though I’m an unmistakable woman with my DD’s, my open assertiveness is “masculine” and too outgoing and thus unpredictable to this Devouring Mother enclave. So when I’m suddenly catching smiles and merry christmasses instead of getting banned from my gym or library like before and recently, I NOTICE the change in balance.
Remember lots of you guys used to copy the alpha among you in bars. We girls learned that way, too.
So internet is just like TV here regarding keeping up with Mr. Jones instead of his whole family. And if things actually do get more masculine I think more men will be DOING things in the real.
But you men are having your consciousness raising sessions online fearlessly in public. I love it, I need it myself as I push and TEST in the real.
X
Erika – that’s a good point. It’s also why the pathetic attempts of the “elites” to denigrate masculinity simply don’t work. Yeah, they can ridicule masculinity by making sure no real man is ever portrayed in a film or even a TV advertisement but all that does it build up a kind of untapped energy which then flows to whoever can be a real man in public. Next thing you know, Donald Trump is president of the USA. Still, that fits the Devouring Mother pattern. She wants to keep her children dependent all their lives. But growing up is a force of nature just like masculinity and femininity are forces of nature. Denying them is like denying gravity.
Merry Christmas, everybody. Though I don’t celebrate it myself, I love how it gives lots of strangers including me an excuse to exchange friendly energy on the street.
Simon – little chance of genuine street battles here: these days, police shut down any conflict before it can get started. Even at small peaceful protests, they’re out in force.
‘Now, words are violence.’ Indeed. Digital culture has rendered, is rendering everything virtual/medial/indirect. Passive-aggressive, as Erika says.
In Jungian terms, cultural rejection of masculinity just gives energy to its shadow – forces it into crude & distorted manifestations.
Shane – Merry Christmas to you too.
Yes, the police’s main goal these days seems to be make sure anybody can protest for any cause whatsoever and the police’s only responsibility is to make sure the protestors don’t see any opposing opinion. It’s incredible to think that once upon a time citizens used to take it in turns to be the police (the watch).
Checkout Peter Turchin.He calls it Elite Overproduction.
Hill – yes, that’s related. Toynbee called it the Intellectual Proletariat. The trouble starts when the Intellectual Proletariat learns how to mobilise the general proletariat.