Manly Virtue in Art, Life & Literature"

Virtue is not typically associated with manliness when one hears the word Virtue

they are more likely to think of Mother Teresa than Julius Caesar but this has

not always been the case indeed in Antiquity manliness was thought to be

the main or only virtue in order to appreciate this point we will turn to

the work of Machiavelli Machiavelli was born during the Italian Renaissance the

Renaissance sought to both revive and surpass classical Antiquity it inspired some of the greatest works of art known

to mankind but Machiavelli was not that impressed by The Marvelous works of art created in his own Lifetime and even in

his own City of Florence indeed Machiavelli was profoundly dissatisfied with the Renaissance he saw underway at

the beginning of the discourses he complains that those of his time are intend to honor Antiquity by buying

fragments of ancient statues for their homes and having them imitated they were imitating Ancient Art rather than

imitating ancient virtue this begs the question what is ancient virtue and what

does it have to do with Manliness Machiavelli did not use the English word Virtue instead he used the Italian word

vertu Virtue was an italianization of the Latin word vertus which means man

vertu was associated with manly qualities such as strength Vigor boldness and Ingenuity

Machiavelli also Associates it with ruthlessness and the willingness to do evil when necessary hence the quote in

Nature's book The Antichrist virtue in the Renaissance sense vertu virtue free

of moral acid Machiavelli believed that vertu was the seabed of all great works

and deeds he argues that the two can be found at the beginning of any state founders of states are usually men of

great courage and brutality but he Associates the quality most closely with the ancient Romans the two is strongly

associated with bodily strength Machiavelli felt that Christianity had

bread weakness by focusing almost exclusively on the soul the Ancients by

contrast had focused much more on the health and strength of the body in other words they had focused on virtue rather

than virtue to quote him reflecting now as to whence it came that in ancient

times the people were more devoted to Liberty than in the present I believe that it resulted from this that men were

stronger in those days which I believe to be attributable to the difference of Education founded upon the difference of

their religion and ours for as our religion teaches us the truth and the true way of life it causes us to attach

less value to the honors and possessions of this world whilst the pagans esteeming those things as the highest

good were more energetic and ferocious in their actions we may observe this

also in most of the institutions beginning with the magnificence of their sacrifices as compared with the humility

of ours which are gentle solemnities rather than magnificent ones and have

nothing of energy or ferocity in them whilst in theirs there was no lack of Pomp and show besides this the Pagan

religion deified only men who had achieved great Glory such as commanders of armies and Chiefs of republics whilst

ours glorifies more the humble and contemplative men than the men of action our religion moreover places the Supreme

happiness in humility lowliness and a contempt for worldly objects whilst the

other on the contrary places the Supreme good in Grandeur of soul strengthened

body and all such other qualities as render man formidable and if our religion claims of us fortitude of Soul

it is more to enable us to suffer than to achieve great Deeds these principles

seem to me to have made men feeble and cause them to become an easy prey to

evil-minded men who can control them more securely seeing that the great body of men for the sake of gaining Paradise

are more disposed to endure injuries than to avenge them Machiavelli claims that ancient manly

virtue had largely been supplanted by a feminate Christian virtue the virtue of

Caesar had been replaced by the virtue of Mother Teresa to quote him once again of that ancient virtue no sign has

remained with us I'm not sure that this is true Christianity produced many men of great brutality and courage the

Spanish conquistadors were examples of manly virtue we find examples of manly virtue in

popular culture as late as the 20th century the Frontiersman was glamorized and

glorified in Hollywood films but our culture no longer celebrates manliness instead manliness is demonized

disprivileged and deconstructed this deconstruction process has been so successful that people find it

increasingly difficult to Define what a man actually is those who Embrace gender neutrality say that manliness is simply

a social construction a set of learned behaviors those against gender neutrality point to Scientific

literature that contradicts this idea they mention the fact that men on average have eight to ten times the

amount of testosterone that women have this video is titled manly virtue and

art life and literature it is tried to offer a definition of virtue that is at odds with our modern one it will now try

to Define manliness it will do this with reference to art and literature rather than science though science plays an

important role in explaining sex differences it is unable to explain what Manliness really is this is because

science deals with averages rather than anomalies men have on average eight to

ten times the amount of testosterone that women have but among men we find pronounced differences in manliness

these differences are not dealt with by science wants Concepts that cover all instances

of what appear to be man but the defining qualities of man are those of the best men rather than the average

male in other words man is not defined by the average but by the exception the

exceptional man is not the subject of science but he is the subject of art

poetry and literature art poetry and literature are not concerned with

averages they are concerned with exceptions they are in other words concerned with men amongst men I want to

Define manliness not as a biological characteristic but as an ideal something

to strive for rather than something one is born with this approach is at odds

with much of what is written on the topic in our times today manliness is

explained in one of two ways it is either something you were born with or something you become through social

conditioning those in favor of the gender-neutral society prefer the latter explanation they think you become a man

by playing with certain toys I think this is wrong and yet I agree with puglia's statement that a woman simply

is but a man must become most males will never become men the

Greek word for courage was Manliness the average man lacks courage and therefore manliness this video will look

at the small group of men throughout history who have possessed manly virtue the men amongst men who have been at the

center of European High culture but before we look at examples of manly virtue in European High culture I will

try to provide a broad definition of what manliness is manliness is knowing how to be confident in situations where

sufficient knowledge is not available in chaotic times the vast majority crumble but manly men flourish they welcome

drama war and conflict they are in other words prompted by chaos this brings us

to my definition of Manliness manliness seeks order but is prompted by chaos in

other words manly men seek to control uncontrolled space in order to do this

they must Master other men and wild nature man seeks to control nature and in so doing bring about order but once

this order is established the society's need for manliness diminishes the manly

man is therefore constantly creating the conditions for his own Extinction

manliness has a tragic quality this video will deal with the tragic nature

of Manliness it will also attempt to explain how manly virtue is cultivated

and created in other words it will try to explain how one becomes a man to

summarize what has been said so far manliness can be defined as the quality that creates order out of chaos this

definition might strike some as too broad but I wanted the definition that captured a wide range of of manly

archetypes not just the warrior with that said let us turn to our first example of manly virtue which comes from

Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea first published in 1952 the book

is about man and nature the old fisherman takes to the Sea a liminal space that is not controlled by any

government he fights kills and takes possession of a Marlin he does not rely on advanced technology to do this but on

his own cleverness and cunning this sort of Manliness does not depend on newly acquired power over nature if anything

it is endangered by such power many manly archetypes such as the fishermen

have been made largely obsolete by technology this point is worth lingering on technology and science have an

ambiguous relationship with manliness man's techniques enable him to establish order over chaos they are his main

weapon against Mother Nature the scientist is prompted by the chaos event nature he seeks to understand nature in

order to control it he is motivated by an unquenchable curiosity he goes beyond

the given and received he recklessly charges into the unknown seeking to

master it the manly scientist is perhaps best depicted in the works of iron Rand

described herself as a male chauvinist and all her novels promote manliness as

an ideal and virtue the manliness that Rand admired was that of the scientific

entrepreneur rather than the warrior not fisherman the man of great industriousness is at the center of

rand's novels her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged is an epic in the tradition of

The Iliad Moby Dick and the Lord of the Rings but Atlas Shrugged does not dramatize great battles instead it

dramatizes the modern economy with its vast production and distribution networks her heroes are not Dragon

Slayers they are railroad Executives steel magnates and theoretical physicists they struggle against nature

their environment and Petty bureaucrats their manliness is diverted from war to

Commerce Rand has a Bourgeois conception of heroism throughout history the

Bourgeois individual has been a subject of scorn amongst artists they denounce his regularity and Petty materialism but

I believe there is something truly heroic about the randian hero who Masters his environment through

Innovation and industriousness but what happens when these characters win their battle with nature in other words what

happens when the scientific entrepreneur Masters his environment herein lies

Sciences ambiguous relationship with manliness scientific and technological

advances are driven by manliness But ultimately erode manliness scientific

and technological Pioneers such as those depicted in Atlas Shrugged bring about the conditions for the extinction of

Manliness advanced technology has made many once dangerous and manly professions such as the fishermen sailor

and even Soldier safe by eliminating the chaotic and dangerous elements of these

jobs the old man in Hemingway's novel does not rely on advanced technology to capture the fish instead he challenges

nature with with only a few basic tools he successfully captures the Marlin but in order to do this he has to go out

further than he has ever gone before on the long journey back to the shore sharks begin eating the Marlin he worked

so hard to capture he tries to fight them off but there are too many of them the Sharks represent nature which he

fights but does not conquer whenever nature is conquered risk is eliminated and whenever risk is eliminated the need

for manliness subsides the old man does not conquer nature but he is not defeated by Nature either he battles

against nature until the end to quote the book but man is not made for defeat

a man can be destroyed but not defeated next we turn to Achilles on the surface

Achilles and the old man have nothing in common Achilles is a warrior in the prime of his life he frequently speaks

with the gods his great-grandfather was Zeus the old man by contrast is not

religious notice he contend with other men the old man asserts himself against nature whilst Achilles asserts himself

against King Agamemnon the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon is a sensibly about a woman but this is just

the tip of the iceberg the real conflict is about sovereignty they are fighting to determine who rules Agamemnon

believes he has an ancestral right to rule whilst Achilles believes his virtue

gives him the right to rule Agamemnon appeals to the scepter Achilles to the

spear in other words it is a contest between manly virtue and Authority

both Achilles and the old man assert themselves and tried to prove a point Achilles takes on Authority whilst the

old man takes on nature to quote the Harvard Professor Harvey C Mansfield manliness is steadfast it is taking a

stand not surrendering not allowing oneself to be determined by one's context we can see these qualities in both the

Old Man Achilles and the randian hero before we move to the next example of

manly virtue I would like to say one more thing about Achilles Achilles was of course the central

subject of Homer's epic poem The Iliad The Iliad was perhaps the first great work of European literature Homer sought

to immortalize Achilles in this work which brings us to the relationship between poets and manly virtue for most

of European history the role of the poet artist and sculptor has been to immortalize manly virtue as has already

been said manly men are drawn to drama as a consequence they've been at the

center of our great dramas poems and art whether it be rosini's overtures

Shakespeare's plays or Donatello sculptures European High culture has centered around the adventures of manly

men such as Achilles compare this to the relationship that our Literati have to

manly men today instead of immortalizing them they denigrate them in so doing they rob themselves of one of their main

subjects our next example of Manliness comes from life rather than literature up Teddy Roosevelt was born in 1858 as a

child he suffered from poor health debilitating asthma and a weak Constitution as a consequence he was

often bullied to quote his autobiography having been a sickly boy with no natural

bodily prowess and having lived much at home I was at first quite unable to hold

my own when thrown into contact with other boys of rougher antecedents I was

nervous and timid yet from the reading of the people I admired ranging from the soldiers of Valley Forge and Morgan's

Rifleman to the heroes of my favorite stories and from hearing of the Feats performed by my Southern forefathers and

kinsfolk and from knowing my father I felt a great admiration for men who were

fearless and who could hold their own in the world and I had a great desire to be like them until I was nearly 14 I let

this desire take no more definite shape than Daydreams then an incident happened

that did me real good having an attack of asthma I was sent off by myself to

Moosehead Lake on the stagecoach ride thither I encountered a couple of other boys who were about my own age very much

more competent and also much more mischievous I have no doubt they were good-hearted boys but they were boys they found that I was a four ordained

and predestined victim and industriously proceeded to make life miserable for me the worst feature was that when I

finally tried to fight them I discovered that either one singly could not only handle me with easy contempt but handle

me so as not to hurt me much and yet to prevent my doing any damage whatever in return this event inspired Roosevelt to

take up boxing his father enthusiastically approved of this decision believing his son could

strengthen his mind by strengthening his body this idea would stick with Roosevelt for the rest of his life

indeed it became essential tenet of his worldview in addition to taking up

boxing he began wrestling hiking horseback riding and shooting the ladder

activity inspired him to leave New York and head West where he hunted Wild game and ran a ranch he described his time in

the wild west as follows it was still the Wild West in those days the Far West the west of the Indian and the Buffalo

Hunter the soldier and the cow puncher that land of the West has gone now gone

gone with Lost Atlantis gone to the Isle of ghosts and of strange dead memories

it was a land of vast silent spaces of lonely rivers and of planes Where The

Wild Game stared at the passing Horseman it was a land of scattered ranchers of

herds of longhorned cattle and of Reckless Riders who unmoved looked in the eyes of life or of death

in that Land We led a free at Hardy life with horse and with rifle we worked

under the scorching Midsummer sun when the wild planes shimmered and wathered in the Heat and we knew the freezing

misery of riding Night Guard around the cattle in the late full Roundup in the

soft Springtime the stars were glorious in our eyes each night before we fell asleep and in the winter we rode through

blinding blizzards when the driven snow dust burned our faces there were monotonous days as we guided the trail

cattle or the beef herds hour after hour at the slowest of walks and minutes or

hours teeming with excitement as we stop stampedes or swam the herds across Rivers treacherous with quicksands or

brimmed with running Ice we knew Toil and hardship and hunger and thirst and we saw men die violent deaths as they

worked among the horses and cattle or fought in evil feuds with one another but we felt the beat of hearty life in

our veins and ours was the glory of work and the joy of living Roosevelt's time in the wild west

alongside his training in the Arts of self-defense transformed him from a sickly boy into a manly man he embodied

the manly Virtues Of The frontiersmen who settled the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean he embodied The Same

Spirit of Adventure or at the very least tried to Roosevelt's admiration for these adventurous frontiersmen was

perhaps best expressed in his speech on manhood and statehood given in 1898 to

quote an excerpt from that speech there was scant room for the coward and the weakling in the ranks of The Adventurous

frontiersmen the Pioneer settlers who first broke up the wild prairie soil who

first hewed their way into the Primeval Forest who guided their white topped wagons across the endless leagues of

Indian horror to Desolation and explored every remote mountain chain in the Restless quest for metal wealth behind

them came the men who completed the work they had roughly begun who drove the great railroad systems over plain and

desert and Mountain Pass who built great popular cities cities in which every Art and Science of civilization are carried

to the highest point such as the record of which we are so proud it is a record of men who greatly dared and greatly did

a record of wanderings wider and more dangerous than those of the Vikings a record of endless Feats of arms of

Victory after victory in the ceaseless Strife waged against Wild Man and wild nature the winning of the West Was the

great epic feat in the history of our race Roosevelt's speech celebrated his

country's conquest of the American West he did however have some reservations about this Conquest the rapid

industrialization and urbanization of the American continent profoundly changed the American way of life prior

to the Civil War over 80 percent of Americans were farmers or self-employed businessmen they owned the property they

worked they produced tangible goods and they were not enmeshed in hierarchical systems of command and obedience instead

they owned their own businesses took risks and lived lives of hearty Independence where they tried to master

nature this began to change after the Civil War from 1870 to 1910 the number

of clerical workers salespeople government employees technicians and

salary professionals increased from 756 000 to 5.6 million the dependency

sedentariness and even security of these middle class positions clashed with the

ideals embodied by the frontiersmen namely Mastery Independence self-reliance competitiveness creativity

and risk taking Roosevelt worried that the rapid industrialization and urbanization of the American continent

would breed a luxury loving people who prized ease more than hard effort he

believed in other words that Urban living posed a threat to manly virtue the U.S was becoming over civilized the

wildlife and Landscape that he loved was becoming over farmed over logged over hunted and overpopulated in a letter to

the psychologist G Stanley Hall he wrote over sentimentality over softness in

fact washiness and mushiness are the great dangers of this age and of this people unless we keep the Barbarian

virtues gaining the Civilized ones will be of little Avail I feel weaker not too

strongly insist upon the need for the rough manly virtues Roosevelt turned to

environmentalism in an attempt to promote the the rough manly virtues after becoming president in 1901

Roosevelt used his authority to establish 150 national forests 51

Federal bird reserves four national game preserves five national parks and 18

national monuments on over 230 million Acres of public land Roosevelt's

environmentalism was very different to the environmentalism of our time today environmentalists do their best to

exclude human intervention in nature nature for them means what is non-human

Roosevelt by contrast wanted us to be shaped and sculpted by wild nature he

believed a strenuous life lived Outdoors bred strength and courage he spearheaded

the conservation movement because he wanted to preserve the manly virtue of the frontier like the fishermen in

Hemingway's novel Roosevelt confronted wild nature after a decade in the wild west he returned to New York walk he was

no longer a sickly boy instead he was a man amongst Men He surged back into

public life and Rose from New York Police Commissioner in 1894 to assistant

Secretary of the Navy in 1897 when the U.S went to war with Spain over Cuba in

1898 he resigned from political office and led a Cavalry unit of men from the

wild west nicknamed the Rough Riders he recorded the heroic exploits of the

Rough Riders in a book by that name this book made him a national celebrity and ultimately helped him become president

of the United States aged just 42. Achilles was born a man Roosevelt became

one through physical training he learned the Arts of self-defense and confronted wild nature whilst hiking and hunting

through these confrontations he transformed himself from a sickly boy into a warrior like Achilles the idea

that one can transform themselves from a boy to a man through confrontations with wild nature it's hardly unique to Teddy

Roosevelt cultures throughout history have understood that manliness is prompted by wild nature in many cultures

one transitions from Boyhood to manhood by spending time alone in the wilderness among the Australian Aborigines for

example males between the ages of 10 to 16 go and live in the wilderness for a

period as long as six months to make the spiritual transition into manhood in

Indo-European cultures young men typically between the ages of 12 and 19 used to join brotherhoods these

brotherhoods lived as landless Warriors in the wild for a number of years in the

wild the boys would identify and behave like wolves they would steal hunt and

pillage enemy settlements time in the Brotherhood was perceived as a transitional stage between Boyhood and

manhood more recently we have the example of The Scouting movement the leaders of the

scouting movement believe that America's transition to a highly urbanized and

industrialized Republic threatened the development of Manliness among boys they

believed that scouting could serve as a prompt for manliness the Boy Scouts provided an environment in which boys

could become men this begs the question why does wild nature prompt manliness to

answer this question we will turn to bap's book Bronze Age mindset own space is perhaps the most important

Concept in Bronze Age mindset Bap argues that life at its most basic is a

struggle for space to quote him at length a healthy animal not under the stress not maimed not trapped by men

seeks first when young space animals seek space in physical sense territory

but this meaning is incredibly physical I give this as Vivid image which is true

for many animals that seek ownership of concrete territory but more generally you must take it to mean something else

space to develop inborn Powers monkey that lives in trees seeks skills to

master canopy Beaver seeks ownership of river and Banks and reeds in its grasp

many big cat of course seek mastership of actual territory and claims to pray

and mates in this territory big feline hunting dogs seek full use of claws

fangs development of smell and other senses to extend their reach over space

they seek these things because they want to master matter all of this is higher organism organizing itself to master

matter in surrounding space earlier on I defined manliness as something that seeks order but is prompted by chaos I

could have just as easily Define manliness as the quality that seeks Mastery Over Matter it is the quality

that seeks to control own and dominate space this is what the scientist industrialist and the warrior have in

common they all attempt to master matter and dominate space but what happens to

manly virtue when matter is already mastered what happens to manly virtue

when space is controlled and owned in order to answer this question that once

again turns to zoology Chimp in state of nature never jerks off but in captivity

he does what does this mean in state of nature he's too busy to put plainly he

is concerned with mastering space solving problem alive in and under trees mastering what tools he can mastering

social relations in the jockeying for power and Status deprived of this drive to development and self- increase he

devolves to pointless masturbation in captivity where he senses he is in own

space and therefore the futility of all of his efforts and all his actions manliness is not an end in itself but a

means to control own and dominate space this is why manliness always appears in

liminal spaces such as the Wild West when space is already controlled and owned as in a zoo manliness becomes

futile life in the west increasingly resembles a zoo and Western man

increasingly resembles a zoo animal through his imperialism Innovation and

Industry Western man has conquered nature and brought civilization to every Frontier but whenever nature is

conquered risk is eliminated and whenever risk is eliminated the need for manliness subsides Western man has

ultimately conquered and domesticated himself his Barbarian virtues have faded

and he has become soft in Bronze Age mindset there is an aphorism that deals with the extinction of civilizations but

wonders if the process is random or if it is something inherent to civilization as such some circumstance or behavior

that leads to virulent disease he thinks the most common explanation for the extinction of civilizations has been

brotherhoods of savage men to quote the aphorism I think the end in previous Cycles has varied but the most

interesting cause has been the emergence of brotherhoods of savage men who have decided to purify the Earth and rid it

of the infestation of the human cockroach because unfortunately in the

long run the development of civilization and comfort leads to the proliferation

of damaged life the innovation of mankind leads to unspeakable abortions

of life and Men on the periphery who want to preserve the natural order begin to plot the end of everything this

brings us to the tragic quality of Manliness founders of states are men of

great courage and brutality they conquer their enemies break up the Wild Prairie Hew their way into the Primeval forest

and build popular cities in short they create civilization civilization in turn

breeds soft and comfortable people there are however people outside of civilization people who are still shaped

and sculpted by Wild nature such as the Huns throughout history these people

have acted as spanglarian shock troops they kill an already dying civilization

and found a new one and so the cycle begins again the same manly virtue that

builds cities also destroys them one is reminder of the quote from heraclitus

history is a child building a sand castle by the Sea and that child is the whole Majesty of Man's power in the

world reflecting on this quote Nietzsche wrote just as the child and the artist play

the eternally living fire plays builds up and destroys in innocence and this

game the Eon plays with himself transforming himself into order and Earth like a child he piles heaps of

sand by the Sea piles up and demolishes from time to time he recommences the

game a moment of say shitty then again desire seizes him as desire compels the

artist to create not wantedness but the ever newly Awakening impulse to play

calls into life other worlds the question is does anyone in our age have

the impulse to play when will the game recommence