You’re judged by the company you keep. I started cutting through the bullshit with people I was “friends” with a while back. Probably about 20.
Too many hanger’s on and people who exist only to cut you down, whether or not they do it while you’re around.
I have a few circles
Family:
My immediate family- mother, father, sister… and friends that I KNOW would take a bullet for me. At the moment this is just my one friend and I consider him my brother; i usually introduce him as my brother anyway.
Friends:
Like minded people who are few and far between, usually training partners or mentors. Tend to be much older than me but I can seek them for advice and they respect my opinion enough to bounce ideas off of me.
Associates:
This is where most people of my generation end up. Too much innane idiocy regarding interest in popular culture that has no effect on life other than to distract you from the important shit that IS going on.
The same people that are STAUNCH Obama supporters (not there is anything wrong with him) but cannot name their Congress-person or the head of the Federal Reserve.
Same people that buy things because they’re trendy, not utilitarian.
The one’s who I invite to go to the gym with me, but they make excuse after excuse. Yet will berate me for my dedication with terms like “gym rat” or as TC wrote in the recent Atomic Dog “Like Hell You Can”, They say they could look like me or accomplish the things I have if they stayed in the gym all the time.
90% of my battle is OUTSIDE the gym, watching what I eat, not staying out all hrs of the night, etc.
but I dont judge them, that is who they are. If they seek me for a paradigm shift. If they want to achieve more than just day dreaming about success they can ask me and travel my journey with them. If not I’m not going to NEVER talk to them, I just know what circle to keep them in so they don’t pollute my life.
I will not become one of them.
It just doesn’t suit me.
Moving along…
as far as emo culture, which gets a lot of other things lumped into it i’m sure. I truly do not give a fuck. There are far larger issues going on than for me to worry about what other people are doing. Plus a large percentage of the time its a fucking phase. I’m sure we all have something we’re embarassed about in our past especially if you spent your teen years in the 80’s.
I went off on Analog_Kid (probably unwarranted but oh well) regarding the whole “man-hood” idealism. That sort of thinking is what sparks women’s lib and other nonsense. Men have enough pressure in society to perform to unrealistic standards as it is.
We could cite the lack of justifiable role models as the problem
We could point to xenoestrogens or other ‘womanizing’ (just a synonym for weakening) of the culture.**
But what is the real issue here?
There are only two rules a man should live by…The rules have infinite depth in efficacy and application, but is staggeringly simple and completely consistent:
1- Don’t be a bitch.
2- Don’t give a fuck.
One doesn’t refer to female, but the overall premise of what a male-bitch is should pop into mind. An overwhelmingly emotional weakling with no original thought in there head. Someone who’s word is not their bond. Someone who backs away from a challenge. Someone who lacks courage. The list goes on.
Two, Not giving a fuck means that you not only do what YOU feel comfortable doing without the strangle hold of society and its predetermined “man values”, but also that you do not give a fuck what another man chooses. Ask yourself, truly “HOW DOES THIS EFFECT ME”. 99% of the time it doesn’t. So you see a strange dressed “emo” kid walking down the street… do you allow that to fuck up your entire day? Is that kid now your topic of conversation? Why? Because he’s odd looking? Get the fuck outta here thats hardly a reason. More than likely a sociologist or psychologist would pick apart your own insecurities and fear of the unknown.
This agrees with an above posters point that we (as men) constantly look to seek approval from women, though my fuck-it-all theorem reasons that we seek approval from other men JUST as much. You can lift weights to get chicks, and then meet a girl that likes skinny travis barker looking types. It all just goes back to peacocking really. You do these things to impress other males enough to back off so you can have the woman you want, or you do it to get the woman you want to show off to other males. It all goes back to your fucking approval rating with other dicks.
Oddly enough, the fact that you shouldn’t give a fuck…means that you shouldn’t listen to these two rules im espousing either. Or at least give fuck-all about what I think.
My point is, take the blue pill.
Again, probably a side issue, but I needed to address the above posters…
What in my opinion is described in the article is a comfort zone that no “Gen Y’er” is willing to break free of.
Your grandfather was a man at nearly 14 because he HAD to be. There was no social security, his folks had no retirement plan other, and very few people in the country at that time had a legacy in which they could start something with an inheiritance.
He had only himself, no comfort zone. Hell the great depression was beginning and with the industrial revolution dawning children became a liablity not a benefit (Farm life- kids =free labor, industrial rev.- kids = another mouth to feed)
This continued till we created a middle class in the New Deal Era, everyone (as is the nature of democracy) had a feeling of entitlement. We all wanted a better life for our kids
This grew and grew till we reach our technological age and nearly everyone has a safety net.
The Gen Y’ers he’s describing have parents with a 401k, stock, and probably some real estate.
If things go bad they can always “go home” and move back in. Mom & Dad are always the back up plan
This is the pinnacle of wanting and being able to createa better life for our kids.
But what is a better life?
Not having to take any risks?
Having everything decided for you?
Never having to work for anything?
Never facing failure?
Never losing?
Everyone in little league gets trophies?
If you can’t learn you take a prescription?
If you can’t keep up physically it’s discriminatory?
This is generation that is lamented in the article the culmination of the American dream.
Apathetic, Unappreciative, Talented beyond all measure, but completely unmotivated.
Our ancestors gave us the best they had, with all the best intentions. But some of the worst things in history were done with the best of intentions (forgot what movie that’s from).
It’s nothing that can’t be remedied with a good kick in the ass. But where is this shock of reality going to come from?
We don’t lack confidence persay… what we lack is what the greeks would term as Dynamis or Kanong Seuk (I think) in Thai…
The Will to Fight.
Hell, we don’t have anything to fight for.
HELL, we don’t even have a word for it in English.
oh and FRAT^ (fuck reading all that)
**Off topic but ask yourself WHY “womanizing” (‘of the culture’) is considered weakening. Why do we consider women naturally weak. Women can be some of the strongest people on the planet, why denigrate them? Emotional and wimpy is (obviously) not just a female trait. Just something to think about.