Order of Man - October 09, 2020


Modernity and the Demise of Masculinity | FRIDAY FIELD NOTES


Episode Stats

Length

35 minutes

Words per Minute

190.64539

Word Count

6,743

Sentence Count

401

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

In this episode, Ryan talks about modernity and the demise of masculinity, and how we can deal with this in a relatively easy time in which we have come to realize is the end of masculinity in our society.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart
00:00:04.980 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.
00:00:10.420 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who
00:00:17.220 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,
00:00:22.780 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan
00:00:27.460 and I am the host and the founder of this podcast and the order of man movement. I want to welcome
00:00:32.840 you here as I do every week. If you are new, this is a podcast of a movement dedicated to giving you
00:00:38.280 the tools, the resources, and specifically with this podcast, the conversations you need to thrive
00:00:43.400 as a man. Now I've got to say, I already recorded this podcast once about two hours ago and come to
00:00:52.160 find out the audio file was corrupted. So this is actually round two. I've got a few notes here.
00:00:58.180 I'm not scripted or anything like that. So let's hope that the second time I record this particular
00:01:02.960 podcast is just as good as the first. If it's not, you'll never know. All right, guys, going to get
00:01:09.480 into it today. Not a whole lot of announcements. In fact, no announcements. Cause I want to talk about
00:01:12.960 this today. I titled this particular conversation, uh, modernity and the demise of masculinity. Now it is
00:01:20.080 apparent to me that the modern times that we have, uh, have attributed or contributed, I should say
00:01:27.540 to the ultimate and slow painstaking demise of masculinity. I think this is very, very evident
00:01:35.520 in society today. I know there's a lot of conflicting ideas about this. And I know there's a lot of people
00:01:40.880 who seem to think that if I ever talk about this demise of masculinity, that somehow I'm painting men as
00:01:46.920 the victim. That's the furthest thing from the truth. I'm going to explain a little bit about
00:01:50.060 what I mean there. Uh, but before we get into that, I think that we all are familiar with that, uh,
00:01:55.960 that quote or that term, we've all heard it. Uh, how does it go? Strong men create good times. Good times
00:02:01.900 create weak men. Weak men create hard times, hard times create strong men. And I think that's a pretty
00:02:08.320 good summary. Uh, of course it's a lot more nuanced than that, but a pretty good summary of what we're
00:02:12.740 dealing with right now. Uh, we as a society are standing on the shoulders of, uh, the greatest
00:02:18.160 generation, we're standing on the shoulders of men who have toiled and worked and done significantly
00:02:25.760 more than any of us. Well, I shouldn't say any of us significantly more than us generally as,
00:02:33.260 as a society today have done. Um, you know, a lot of the times I think about my military service,
00:02:38.760 for example, and people thank me for my military service. And I try to, as best I can accept that
00:02:44.120 gratitude graciously and with humility. But at the same time, I think to myself, man, I don't hold
00:02:50.500 anything to some of these warriors and soldiers who have sacrificed so much. And in some cases,
00:02:58.600 given their all to protect our way of life, to protect the things they see valuable. Uh, and I
00:03:04.700 wonder if we'd be willing to do those types of things in this day and age. I think if push came to
00:03:09.660 shove a lot of us, of us would, I think the overwhelming, at least I hope the overwhelming
00:03:14.540 majority of us who are listening to this podcast and tuned into the movement to reclaim and restore
00:03:19.840 masculinity would certainly do so. I would hope. Uh, but it's a question I ask myself quite often.
00:03:26.420 And am I the man that I'm fully capable of being and becoming the answer is certainly no, but I'm on
00:03:32.420 the path. And unfortunately what I see in society is a decline. And a lot of this is because we've
00:03:38.780 created this environment where everything is so easy and everything is so convenient and we've
00:03:45.360 fallen into comfort and complacency. And if we can't remain vigilant about the threats that we
00:03:50.960 potentially face, although they may not be as prevalent as a life and death type situation,
00:03:56.300 uh, then I think we're going to find ourselves in a bad situation. And maybe it's not ourselves,
00:04:02.000 but certainly our children and our grandchildren. And, uh, I've taken this battle upon myself to
00:04:08.460 attempt to come up with some solutions in how we can deal with this demise of masculinity in this
00:04:15.060 relatively easy time in which we live. And I don't think anybody would, would disagree with me on
00:04:20.140 that. I mean, if you're hungry, you go down to the convenience store, gas station or grocery store,
00:04:24.760 and you get some food. Uh, if you're cold, like I am today, you know, you turn up the, uh, the heater.
00:04:29.540 If you're hot, you turn on the air conditioning. Uh, if you want to get to a different place,
00:04:34.540 you hop in your car or hop in a train or a plane, and you get there within a matter of hours. And
00:04:38.960 that a hundred years ago would take days and days, if not months to get to that same location. So
00:04:44.960 I'm not complaining. I mean, I I'm sitting behind this amazing desk using this microphone and this
00:04:52.720 camera and this computer, and I've got the lights on and it's climate controlled in this beautiful
00:04:57.280 home in which we live. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just saying that we've got to find a way
00:05:01.360 to, uh, embrace what it means to be a man, that of a protector provider and presider.
00:05:08.240 If you look at all of those components, they all represent, uh, an element of, of, of service,
00:05:13.300 service to other people, protect, provide, preside, serve other individuals. Uh, and in order to do
00:05:19.500 that, you've got to bear the burden of responsibility. And unfortunately I see that there's a large
00:05:24.480 percentage of men and young boys who have not learned how to make themselves capable of bearing that
00:05:30.880 weight. And I think it's going to create some real unfortunate, uh, circumstances. A lot of this
00:05:36.580 conversation I wanted to talk with you about today was spurred on by the podcast I did earlier this
00:05:41.460 week with, uh, Charlie Kirk. And we had some great conversations. A lot of people agreed. A lot of
00:05:46.220 people disagreed. Uh, but what was interesting because the people who disagreed, uh, one thing I
00:05:51.420 saw a lot was that they felt that as I talk about this demise of masculinity and look, let me be clear
00:05:57.100 on this. I'm very hesitant, uh, or maybe not, maybe even against the, the idea of using the terms war
00:06:05.760 on masculinity, uh, war on men attack or assault on masculinity. And I say that because words have
00:06:12.800 meaning and I'm not sure that it isn't a war or an attack on masculinity. I think it's just the
00:06:18.300 gradual erosion and decay of the foundations of what it means to be a man, uh, traditionally,
00:06:23.760 and it's hindered a lot of men. It's hurt a lot of men in a lot of ways. And so, uh, I wanted to
00:06:30.140 share some of this stuff with you today. It's not based in victimhood, which is what a lot of people
00:06:34.000 said. I think being a victim is somebody who, uh, might recognize a problem, but perpetually remains
00:06:40.820 in that problem or continues the same behavior and expects and hopes for a different outcome.
00:06:45.060 Uh, somebody who, uh, takes pride in being at the mercy of other people. Uh, but it's certainly not
00:06:54.880 somebody who's proposing solutions. And I feel like if there's one thing that we've done within
00:06:58.720 the order of man movement and podcast is we continually over the past nearly six years now
00:07:03.080 proposed all sorts of solutions via this podcast, the courses, our exclusive brotherhood, the events
00:07:09.000 that we do, uh, proposed all sorts of solutions that move us from a potential victim hood type
00:07:14.220 mentality into a victor mentality where we can recognize what's actually happening. We can look
00:07:20.320 at it as objectively as possible. We can open our minds and our eyes to the possibility that maybe some
00:07:26.040 of this exists, and then we can actually do something about it. And that's the point. The point
00:07:30.700 isn't just to complain or to mope or to gripe or to bitch or to moan. It's to actually move the
00:07:35.380 needle towards helping you as a man, a father, a husband, a business owner, a community leader,
00:07:40.720 a coach, a mentor, a brother, help you find and develop the meaning and satisfaction and purpose
00:07:46.560 that comes when you step into who it is you are meant to be a man. So what I'd like to do today,
00:07:54.340 first and foremost, is share with you a couple of points and places in which I think this, uh,
00:07:59.660 this erosion of masculinity is coming from. And then, uh, more importantly, what we can do about it.
00:08:05.540 I mean, like, like I said, ultimately that's the most important thing that we actually figure out
00:08:09.140 a path forward. So let's, let's break this down. Uh, the first place I think this demise is coming
00:08:13.580 from is, is governmental. And by the way, guys, if you disagree with me on this, that's great.
00:08:19.180 Let's have a conversation about it. But here's the beauty of what I'm going to share with you.
00:08:22.640 If you agree with me, good. What I'm going to share with you as far as a path forward is going to
00:08:27.400 serve you. It's going to help you become more effective. If you don't agree with me, and it's very
00:08:33.220 possible that there's going to be a lot of you who don't, and that's fine too. The beauty of what
00:08:37.060 I'm going to share with you is that the path I'm going to illustrate here in the next little bit
00:08:41.100 is actually going to help you whether you agree or whether you disagree, the things that I'm going
00:08:46.000 to share you, the path forward is going to serve you. And it's going to serve the people you care
00:08:49.260 about. Well, all right. So let's talk about this, uh, government look. Um, the bottom line is that
00:08:56.880 weak men are more easily manipulated and more easily controlled. And I think ultimately the powers
00:09:04.440 that be want to be able to control and manipulate the last line of defense in a free, uh, in liberated
00:09:10.980 society. And that's men that has historically been men that is currently men. And it will always be
00:09:17.180 men. And if you're more easily manipulated or controlled, uh, then, then obviously the control
00:09:24.000 and the power and the authority goes to those who are controlling you. Uh, we see this in a couple of
00:09:29.180 different places that I wanted to, uh, point out. Number one, we see this in the school system.
00:09:34.120 The fact of the matter is, is that the school system is stacked against young men. It truly is.
00:09:38.860 If you want to look into some additional work and resources, because it's deeper than what I want to
00:09:43.960 get to in this podcast today. Uh, you can look at Dr. Warren Farrell's book, the boy crisis. I think
00:09:50.720 if you're watching this on video, I believe without looking at it, I believe that's the boy crisis right
00:09:55.420 there. So the boy crisis by Dr. Warren Farrell. Uh, and then there's also two other books, both by
00:10:01.620 Dr. Leonard Sachs. One is called boys adrift and the other is why gender matters. So if you want to get
00:10:09.180 into how the school system is stacked against our young men, I would highly encourage that you go
00:10:14.200 take a look, have a listen, have a read. And you can see that there's some real threats to the way
00:10:19.580 that our young men, our boys are being raised. In addition to what's happening in the school system,
00:10:25.100 I will, I would like to point out the family core system. Uh, there are some real, real problems
00:10:31.180 with men having access to their sons. And obviously this creates a problem. We see a rise of fatherless
00:10:41.840 homes, little Timmy and little Sally are growing up without dad increasingly. And it's a real shame
00:10:47.820 at best. It's a real shame. It's destructive to them. It's destructive to fathers and it's dangerous
00:10:53.520 to society. Guys, the court systems are stacked against men. It's unfortunate. And I would say
00:11:01.480 that you have to, as a man, you have to protect yourself, right? Marry and commit to the right
00:11:05.620 woman, bring kids into the world when both of you are prepared to do that and make sure that you are
00:11:10.500 protected so that you can maintain and preserve your rights to father your children. That's very,
00:11:15.780 very much needed in society. So this is a multifaceted approach. Number one is the government,
00:11:20.720 the school systems and the family court system. Uh, number two, take a look at the media.
00:11:26.660 All right. If you look at the media, men are portrayed as, as idiots, as dopes, as goofballs.
00:11:32.700 Like they're never serious. They're never committed. They're never the type of men that I've been
00:11:37.440 fortunate enough to have in my life. Uh, you look at other, other, uh, commercials that try to
00:11:43.720 undermine what masculinity is and paint it in this negative light in terms like toxic masculinity of
00:11:49.100 permeated, uh, popular culture and the, in the, the library of words they use to attempt to undermine
00:11:55.160 what it means to be a man. Now I know there's a lot of people who say, well, toxic masculinity is
00:11:59.440 real. Look, I understand what people are saying, but the whole idea and the whole reason I don't use
00:12:03.900 that term is because it's an attempt at least by some to conflate masculinity with inherently being
00:12:10.640 toxic. And it's certainly not. Can it be used for good? Absolutely. Can it be used for bad?
00:12:16.720 Absolutely. And I think those who use the term toxic masculinity, the majority of them would say
00:12:21.460 it's when masculinity is used for negative outcomes. But again, I I'm very wary to conflate
00:12:27.520 the two terms, but again, media is continually portraying, uh, men as the losers, as the dopes,
00:12:35.800 as the idiots. And then you have these movements in addition to the media. And this is more along the
00:12:39.760 lines of, um, I would say culture in general, but you have these movements, uh, like the feminist
00:12:45.520 movement, um, third wave feminism, uh, that, uh, that hate men that believe all men are bad.
00:12:51.480 You know, these are individuals, primarily women or these white, white night type men who have
00:12:57.380 potentially been damaged by men. They've had a bad experience. And, and none of what I'm about to say
00:13:02.780 is meant to diminish, uh, an individual's horrific potentially experience. But if you have one bad
00:13:09.780 experience and you paint everybody with that broad paintbrush and assume that just because you had
00:13:16.780 one bad experience with a man, that all men are like that, it's a, it's a sign that, that you
00:13:22.520 haven't healed correctly. And it's certainly a sign of, of immaturity. There's certainly emotional
00:13:26.640 trauma. And again, I don't want to diminish any of that because I feel for any, any individual who's
00:13:32.000 gone through any horrific experience at the hands of a man or anybody else. Um, but we need to not
00:13:39.740 conflate all evil, all toxicity, all that's wrong with the world, the tyrannical patriarchy,
00:13:46.640 uh, with, with men generally, because that hasn't been the case for me. And it certainly,
00:13:52.440 well, I should say probably hasn't been the case for you. You've had great men come into your life
00:13:55.960 and you've had some not great men come into your life, but certainly all men, uh, aren't the enemy.
00:14:00.420 And we're not, we're, we're not the bad guys. Okay. Now the third component of this is, uh,
00:14:06.020 the medical community, the medical community has jumped on the bandwagon and has attempted to
00:14:11.280 undermine masculinity. And, and one area I'm specifically referring to is the American
00:14:16.660 Psychologicals Association's, uh, quasi study on masculinity that they did several years ago.
00:14:22.500 And, uh, what they had said, or their findings reported that the traits and characteristics that
00:14:30.140 we would generally attribute or characterize as, as masculine are somehow inherently toxic to young
00:14:35.460 boys that of, I believe they use the term stoicism, uh, aggressiveness and competitiveness,
00:14:42.420 which in and of themselves, none of those factors are inherently negative. In fact, I would say
00:14:49.460 they can all be when used appropriately, very, very good, but they're not inherently bad or evil
00:14:54.740 or destructive to our young boys. I mean, stoicism is simply the control of your emotions. Actually,
00:14:59.520 it's, I'm not going to say it that way. It's the understanding of your emotions because control is
00:15:04.260 what people think men do. Don't cry. That's not what anybody is saying. Okay. I've cried. My sons
00:15:10.140 have seen me cry. My sons have cried. And at times I'll tell them, Hey, now's not the time to cry.
00:15:15.440 It's not appropriate. Stop crying. And people would say I'm toxic because I, because I do that. And then
00:15:20.820 there's other times where, you know, I offer a shoulder to cry on because it's appropriate,
00:15:24.520 but stoicism is simply the understanding of your emotions. So you can use them as an effective tool
00:15:30.640 for producing effective outcomes for you and the people that you care about. It's understanding your
00:15:35.000 emotions. So you can actually do something with them, not suppress them, not hide them and not be
00:15:40.380 overly emotional where you're allowing them to dictate your course of action. Now, aggression and
00:15:45.440 dominance, again, under the right set of circumstances, those are very good things.
00:15:48.980 There are plenty of situations in the corporate environment, for example, where a man would need
00:15:54.420 to be aggressive, to be able to share and add value, to be first to market, to compete with,
00:16:01.260 with other people, with other companies, because it drives him to thrive and to excel.
00:16:06.220 I know I operate very, very well on, on a healthy dose of competition. And it's my job as a father
00:16:12.980 and a leader in the community and a leader of this organization and movement to teach my sons and
00:16:18.660 the people that I'm responsible for how to use these characteristics that are coursing through
00:16:23.360 our veins as men for productive outcomes. The other component of this with the medical community that
00:16:30.140 I've seen is, and this goes back to my comments on the, the, the boy crisis by Dr. Warren Farrell.
00:16:36.820 And what I was saying with the school system is that anytime anymore, it seems like a young man,
00:16:42.440 a young man steps outside of some perceived limitations or boundaries by a school teacher
00:16:51.220 or administrative board, just because he might be a little rambunctious, a little hyper, a little
00:16:56.320 lack of focus that he's popped with pain medications and pills and sedation tactics. And it's just not
00:17:03.520 healthy. I mean, it's not healthy. You should see the statistics on the over diagnosis of ADD and ADHD.
00:17:09.500 It's horrific. And, and much of what the medical community is doing is sedating our young men and
00:17:16.000 asking them to act more like women. It's shameful. It's a travesty. And, and not to mention you have
00:17:22.800 other components of the medical community who are suppressing hormones for those who might believe at a
00:17:32.220 young age that they're a different gender or different sex guys, this is not, this is not a healthy
00:17:37.640 thing. It's, it's very, very dangerous. So all of this, if you kind of tie it up in a little bow is
00:17:44.900 I use the term doctrine of popular culture. I use, I've used that a lot. Um, and, and, and it's a
00:17:51.580 danger, it's a threat. Again, it's not an attack, but it's a threat. And it's something that we need to
00:17:55.960 be aware of is that there's this doctrine of popular culture, which is, says that you need to be
00:18:00.900 promiscuous, that, uh, you don't want to commit to any one person that traditional family values or
00:18:05.880 traditional, uh, church values are, are, are, are not as effective or useful as they once were
00:18:13.960 that you can, you know, quit on a, on a relationship or other things that you're doing because you don't
00:18:20.160 want to do it and that everybody's special, regardless of how they show up and what they do.
00:18:24.520 It's a real shame. It's a real shame and it's damaging to men. And here's the result is that more
00:18:30.660 and more men are feeling, uh, depressed, anxious, lack of drive, lack of motivation, lack of clarity,
00:18:40.020 lack of, uh, ability to lead other people and potentially at its worst, uh, suicidal
00:18:44.940 because society has told them to act like women. If only more men acted like women,
00:18:51.380 then the world would be a better place. I don't, haven't seen any evidence of that.
00:18:54.800 Yeah. You can show me some anecdotal evidence where a woman might be running an organization or
00:19:00.600 the head of a country and think, well, see, she's a woman and that's why they're doing better. Well,
00:19:06.000 correlation doesn't equal causation guys. What we need in society is strong, honorable, committed,
00:19:12.680 capable men. And again, I want to reiterate and be very clear that I'm not painting men
00:19:17.540 in, in some sort of victimhood role. Maybe we live in the best time we've ever had in the history of
00:19:24.280 mankind, more wealth, more abundance, more prosperity, more Liberty, more freedom.
00:19:31.060 If you want to look at any metric that you could possibly measure with how it relates to the
00:19:35.840 success, the overall and general success of mankind, we live in the best time we ever could.
00:19:40.700 So I'm not here to tell you that we're the victims and that we need to play the victims and that
00:19:45.420 there's this enemy that's going to attack us. I'm just stating that we need to be aware of some of
00:19:51.180 these things so we can address them and we can move forward in a way that's going to help
00:19:56.560 everybody continue to thrive, continue on the same path. I had a gentleman, as I was talking earlier
00:20:03.340 this week about the potential demise of masculinity, I had a gentleman say, well, you know, the fabric of
00:20:09.480 society is still intact. We still have freedoms and you can still worship how you want, and you can
00:20:14.000 still pursue a career and you can still build wealth. And all of those things are still intact.
00:20:19.300 And I agreed with him. I said, absolutely. Those things are intact, but without men to maintain
00:20:25.560 and preserve the freedoms that we enjoy, those things are under threat. And that's my whole goal
00:20:31.560 with order of man is to make and create and enlist an army of men who are willing, able, and capable of
00:20:39.580 defending themselves, defending their families, defending loved ones and people who can't defend
00:20:43.600 themselves, willing to lead honorably with, with virtue and, and dignity, and that they're willing
00:20:52.060 to provide, provide the resources that their families and community members need to thrive.
00:20:57.300 That's what this is about. So second part of this podcast is all designed around and geared towards
00:21:02.660 how do we fix this? Then how do we get back on the right track? How do we maintain keeping men
00:21:08.360 in the right perspective and in the right place, which is that of leadership and authority and
00:21:13.340 credibility and influence with other people? Guys, number one, you have to recognize that there's a
00:21:18.080 problem. All right. So many of you are, are not willing to say that there is a problem. Maybe you
00:21:23.800 don't acknowledge it. Maybe you don't believe that's the case, or maybe you're just not all that
00:21:28.300 interested in. I would say it's a pretty good time to get interested in masculinity, manliness,
00:21:33.620 and helping the men in your life, including yourself, step up to the plate. I would say this
00:21:38.220 is a pretty good time to do that because if we can't recognize there's a problem, there's nothing
00:21:41.960 we can do about it. You wouldn't go, if you're playing football into a football game against another
00:21:46.580 team without trying to scout the other team, without trying to get some film to be able to watch
00:21:50.860 so that you can create a defensive strategy and offensive strategy. You wouldn't go into battle
00:21:56.140 without knowing your enemy to some degree. It's why we send in forward observers and scouts to be
00:22:01.040 able to see what the enemies are doing and gather Intel so that we can create a plan and a course of
00:22:06.600 action. And that's what I'm talking about. When it comes to recognizing a problem, you have to
00:22:11.220 recognize that there's something going on. And I'm not saying it's dire and I'm not saying it's
00:22:16.000 catastrophic. I'm simply saying we're on a decline and it needs to be addressed. Number two, make
00:22:22.940 yourself more capable guys. We've got to make ourselves capable in all ways, strong, bold, resilient,
00:22:28.920 smart, intelligent, articulate every way we possibly can. We've got to make ourselves more
00:22:33.840 capable of leading ourselves and leading the people in our lives. Look, I talk with a lot of
00:22:38.760 guys who they want to, they want to be influential. They want to lead. They want to make their dent in
00:22:45.260 the universe. And while I can certainly appreciate all of that, you've got to lead yourself. It all
00:22:50.640 starts with you. You can't turn outwards and fix other people until you learn to turn inward and fix
00:22:55.540 yourself. So again, this is the antithesis of victimhood. Victimhood is remaining there forever.
00:23:00.960 The antithesis of it to be a victor is to recognize the problem and do something about it.
00:23:05.420 What do you need to do about it guys? And look, here's the deal. We as men are measured by
00:23:10.720 the value that we add to society. I contrast that a little bit with women. And this is something I've
00:23:16.240 been thinking about over the past, I would say just 24 hours or so. So I'm going to talk out or think
00:23:22.120 out loud here with you a little bit. I've been thinking, maybe you agree, maybe you disagree.
00:23:25.300 I'd love to hear what you think on this, but I think women by their very nature are inherently
00:23:30.300 valuable, right? They take the raw resources. I mean, I even look at the act of procreation,
00:23:35.700 man fertilizes, provides the raw resources. The woman nurtures a fetus, a baby in her womb for nine
00:23:44.180 months and provides sustenance and life-supporting nutrients to that baby. And then that
00:23:51.660 baby is born and we have the act of procreation and birth. It's a beautiful thing. I think women
00:23:56.900 are inherently valuable. I think about my wife, you know, she takes this house, the raw ingredients
00:24:01.940 of a house, the sticks and the plaster and the tiles and the flooring and the carpet. And she
00:24:06.500 takes all of the raw ingredients and she turns us into a beautiful home. I think, I think women are
00:24:11.040 generally very good at that. They're inherently valuable men. On the other hand, we have to earn our,
00:24:17.040 our value. You know, we have to deliberately and intentionally choose to be valuable.
00:24:22.060 We have to develop a new set of skills. We have to, uh, ask for promotions and add value into our
00:24:30.660 communities and add value into businesses. And we need to supply the raw ingredients, which means we
00:24:36.940 need to have a skill to be able to supply those raw ingredients. Again, I'm just riffing and kind of
00:24:42.400 just thinking out loud here, but we, as men are defined by the value that we add. And if you want
00:24:50.700 to be the type of man that you're capable of being, then you've got to add value. You've got to make
00:24:57.940 yourself capable of adding value. And that's where it all starts. It starts with you. I've told you
00:25:03.940 guys this when my wife and I went through our separation years ago, I blamed her for a lot of the
00:25:07.880 demise of our relationship at that point. How could she do this? Why was she being disloyal? Why wasn't
00:25:13.100 she doing the things that a quote unquote good wife should do? I said those things and worse
00:25:17.360 to myself and to her. And it wasn't until I came to the realization that, you know, maybe I had a
00:25:23.200 bigger part to play than I was initially giving myself credit for. And, uh, as I begin to take
00:25:28.960 responsibility of my life and stop focusing so much on trying to change her and instead focused on
00:25:34.600 changing myself, I noticed that she started responding. And not only did she start responding
00:25:39.120 that my colleagues started responding, my clients started responding, but it wasn't about control.
00:25:45.640 It wasn't about manipulation. It was about influence, which means that people are voluntarily
00:25:51.300 choosing to be led by you because they see something valuable in you and they want some of it for
00:25:57.920 themselves. And if you have an abundance of it because you're focused heavily on yourself,
00:26:04.520 then you have room to give number three guys from there, after you begin to work on yourself,
00:26:10.240 then, and only then can you expand your sphere of influence. Your sphere of influence talk starts
00:26:15.000 with the people in your house, your wife, your children, potentially your parents, whoever it might
00:26:19.780 be in your household, in your immediate circle. Then it goes to friends, neighbors, colleagues,
00:26:26.020 co-workers, and then it can expand from there into the political arena, potentially, or a youth sports
00:26:34.680 team that you coach. But it continues to widen, widen, widen as you at the center of this whole plan,
00:26:42.000 make yourself more and more capable. And the more you can focus on yourself, the more abundance that
00:26:47.280 you have to give to other people, to serve a greater number of people in a greater and bigger capacity.
00:26:54.560 But guys, we have to have that servant mindset. Seems to me there's a lot of guys, and this is
00:27:00.460 the victimhood mentality, is they've been hurt. Guys have been hurt by society, some perceived slight
00:27:08.240 by society or perceived slight by a woman. Maybe they had a bad relationship and they got themselves
00:27:13.920 into financial trouble. And maybe there's even some truth in that they can't see their children or
00:27:18.080 something like that. And what they've done is they've, just like I said, some women do. These men have
00:27:22.380 painted the broad stroke that society is the enemy, that women are the enemy. And so rather than
00:27:29.040 engaging and figuring out ways to come up with some solutions, they disengage entirely. This is the
00:27:34.280 incel movement, involuntary celibates. Somebody did something to me and that's why I don't have what I
00:27:41.420 want. Right guys, that's the antithesis of what I'm talking about here. I'm simply suggesting the
00:27:47.520 threats and I'm giving us strategies and suggestions to overcome those threats and to live a better and
00:27:54.280 more fulfilling life. So again, number three is to expand. Once you have the capacity to serve
00:27:59.380 yourself, then your family, then your friends, colleagues, coworkers, neighbors, then it might
00:28:04.700 expand from there. And the fourth component of this guy's his legacy. All right. The, the issues that
00:28:10.460 we see, and just like that, that quote I shared with you earlier, strong men create, let me see if I
00:28:14.860 can say it. Strong men create, uh, good times, good times, create weak men, weak men, create hard
00:28:20.580 times, hard times, create strong men. I don't know that the, the trajectory that we're on right now is
00:28:28.000 going to be solved in this generation. I don't know that it's going to be solved in my lifetime.
00:28:33.520 I think that, I think what we see is a demise of masculinity is going to be solved by our children
00:28:39.120 or going to be solved by our grandchildren. But that's all based on what we, as men are willing and
00:28:43.940 capable and able to do. And, uh, it's a lot of the reason why, when I hear people say, I don't want
00:28:50.140 to bring kids into this world. I, I cringe a little bit. It's a little upsetting because I can't think
00:28:55.420 of a better way than to enlist an army of millions and millions of men who are tuned into this podcast
00:29:01.520 and tapped into what we're doing and rallying around the mission of reclaiming and restoring
00:29:05.020 masculinity and having those men go raise righteous sons and daughters who honor masculinity, who honor
00:29:14.560 femininity, who believe in what it means to be a man. And their daughters believe in what it means
00:29:19.400 to be a woman, a woman, and they, uh, cooperate with each other. And they recognize that they aren't
00:29:26.480 enemies. They aren't at odds with each other. In fact, they're very complimentary of each other.
00:29:31.880 And we work best when, when we're like that, but guys, it's about leaving a legacy.
00:29:37.460 It's about recognizing that, uh, you've got to think beyond, not just you, but beyond your life.
00:29:43.880 I really feel like when we have this long-term approach and this long-term perspective that
00:29:48.640 life just gets better. You know, so many of us make decisions on the short-term. What can I get now?
00:29:54.760 How much money can I make right now? What's, what's in it for me today? And we do that at the
00:29:59.840 expense of the long-term ramifications of the decisions that we make. You know, like what if
00:30:05.380 you made decisions based on what was going to happen over the next 20 years, it might be a more
00:30:09.800 difficult two or three years, but over a course of 20 years, it'd be incredible. Well, what if we did
00:30:15.940 that over a lifetime? What if we did that generationally? It's actually one of the things
00:30:20.380 for all their faults that I actually admire about, uh, families like the Rockefellers and
00:30:26.200 Kennedys. And I know there's faults there, but at the same time, these are generational type
00:30:30.380 thinking and it, and it served their family. Well, again, we're not going to talk about their
00:30:35.200 faults with that today. That's for a whole other podcast, but it is something interesting to
00:30:40.120 consider. Are you creating an empire? I am, at least I'm trying to. And I sit down with my sons and
00:30:46.540 my daughter every day. We talk about what they're going to do and how they're going to behave and how
00:30:51.520 they're going to act. And when we run across this situation, what are we going to do? And I'm trying
00:30:55.080 to make them strong and bold and creative and assertive and passionate and courageous.
00:31:02.960 And that's what it's going to take. It's not just me. It's not just you. It's our sons and our
00:31:07.880 daughters, our grandsons, our granddaughters. And the legacy is what's going to continue to drive
00:31:13.280 not just this mission, but what we believe is the betterment of society. So guys, I, again,
00:31:19.420 this is just, uh, just some thoughts. That's what the Friday field notes are all about.
00:31:24.220 I've been thinking a lot about modern times and how easy we have it and the luxuries and the
00:31:30.020 creature comforts that we enjoy. And I've been thinking about how that might be and pertain to the
00:31:34.740 demise and the undermining of masculinity. Again, not the attack, not the assault, the demise.
00:31:41.260 That's the language I choose to use because I think that's more representative of what is happening.
00:31:46.020 So guys, here it is. Let me recap. Let's not be victims. All right. Let's not just spin our wheels
00:31:52.820 and say, Oh, these are all the problems. And I'm not here to bitch and moan and complain and gripe
00:31:56.060 about it with you here today. That's not what I'm doing. Okay. I'm here to illustrate and underline
00:32:01.440 and highlight some of the threats that I see and then talk about how we can deal with them. So
00:32:05.940 here's the, uh, the trifecta of threats that I see government, right? We've got the school system.
00:32:11.480 We've got the family court system. Those are a couple of areas, the media portraying men as
00:32:15.720 idiots. And then we have the cultural movements, like the feminist movement and things like this,
00:32:19.100 entertaining, uh, culture, media, that sort of thing, uh, undermining masculinity at every turn
00:32:25.360 and making the men out to be dunces and idiots and morons and the enemy. And then the third component
00:32:31.540 of that is the medical community, right? You have the American psychological associations that's
00:32:35.560 getting on board. You have hormone blockers for, for young men. Uh, and then you also
00:32:41.400 have the, what was the third component? Oh, the, uh, sedation of our young boys because of things
00:32:47.580 like ADHD, ADD, that sort of thing. And then here's the strategy. Number one, recognize there's
00:32:52.440 a problem. All right. Look, and if you don't recognize there's a problem, there's nothing
00:32:56.080 you can do about it. And maybe there's nothing you want to do about it. And maybe you genuinely
00:32:59.240 don't believe there's a problem. Well, okay. The three strategies I shared with you are still
00:33:02.280 going to serve you well. Okay. So number one, recognize there's a problem. Number two, fix yourself
00:33:07.100 first, work on yourself. Don't try to change the world without first changing yourself.
00:33:10.760 Okay. Change yourself first, fix yourself first, deal with that, become strong, become
00:33:15.500 skilled, start making money, get in shape, start leading, learn how to be courageous,
00:33:21.360 learn how to communicate effectively, make yourself more capable. Then from there, point
00:33:25.000 number three is you can expand that circle of influence, expand the circle of influence
00:33:30.220 to your family, to your friends, your colleagues, your coworkers, your neighbors, your city, your
00:33:33.600 state, even at the national level or international, like a movement like this. The only reason
00:33:38.660 I'm capable of being able to expand my influence internationally is because I continue daily to
00:33:44.340 do the work on myself. And the fourth component is think about this generationally legacy, leave
00:33:50.060 a legacy. Let's leave the world a better place than we were when we found it. You know, I was
00:33:54.720 walking with my, my oldest son the other day, we were setting up some, some decoys and we were
00:34:02.220 out hunting and we found some trash. And usually I try to bring a trash bag with me when I'm out,
00:34:06.340 just walking in our field. Cause inevitably trash blows in there and stuff. And so I'm picking up
00:34:10.520 trash and he was asking me about it. I said, you know, it's just better to leave a place
00:34:13.660 nicer, cleaner, better off than when you found it feels good, looks good. And it's our responsibility.
00:34:21.140 And I think that can certainly be true of, of culture, of this country, of the world in general,
00:34:29.860 but it's not about being a victim. It's about recognizing there's problems, looking at it from
00:34:35.360 a long-term perspective, coming up with the solutions and making ourselves capable of doing
00:34:39.240 so. All right, guys, that's what I've got for you today. Please leave me some messages, hit me up
00:34:44.320 on email or on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube comments, wherever you're doing the social media
00:34:50.280 thing. Let me know what you think. I talked about some concepts that maybe I haven't necessarily
00:34:55.760 hit on before. So I'd like to riff on those. If you agree, great. If you disagree, great. Let's
00:35:01.140 have some civil discussion about it. And we'll continue the conversation on the interwebs.
00:35:07.040 All right, guys, we'll be back next week. Until then, go out there, take action and become the
00:35:10.740 man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take
00:35:15.720 charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order
00:35:20.340 of man.com.