Society wants you to be harmless. Don’t be too assertive or aggressive. If you have a little vigor left in you, if you’re working hard, building your fitness, and have a set of principles you abide by they try to label you as toxic or as radical-right wing.

Don’t be too ambitious, be meek and virtuous!

If you adopt this worldview, the world becomes a treacherous place..

On one end of the spectrum, you have guys who are weak and unskilled, who pretend to be moral and kind, not only to ingratiate themselves to women but also to parade their weakness as moral virtue.

‘’I’m not the mean guy, I’m not the bad guy’’

People would say he wouldn’t hurt a fly.

But I say he couldn’t hurt a fly. You’re too weak to be bad.

Instead of admitting and doing something about it, they wear it as a badge of honor. Women despise these guys and I don’t want to have them around either.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have guys who have an intuitive understanding about what they ought to do and act on it but have no integrity or honor and therefore become too crude, too vulgar.

This side of the manosphere represents the opposite extreme.

You should be dangerous, but civilized.

“He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, to effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar-athlete, the man of thought and the man of action.” - Plato

You might be thinking, why can’t I just be nice, keep my head down, and go through life without the hassle of becoming lethal?

Let me ask you this: Should a woman be able to cross the street at night with her figure showing and be safe?

Yes!

But does that mean she will be safe?

No!

There is a difference between right and wrong and a difference between reality.

If there are no consequences for violating you, what do you give them to respect about you?

’If you’re not capable of cruelty, you are absolutely a victim to anyone who is’’ Jordan Peterson

You want respect without laying the foundations

Let’s be real. You don’t want to be liked, you want to be respected. If you’d have the choice between being loved or feared, the answer is obvious. The problem is, you’re arrogant.

The world doesn’t owe you a thing. And if you want something from it, you have to bend the world to your will. There’s no glory without war. The optimal male experience is on the other side of pain

• ‘’It is impossible to respect yourself until you grow teeth’’ Jordan Peterson

What are the foundations?

1. Physical Prowess.

2. Martial Arts

3. Competency

4. Honor

Physical Prowess

Having a great physique is a status symbol that can’t be bought. When you walk into rooms, heads turn. You radiate self-respect and discipline. In turn, the world mirrors that respect back to you.

You don’t have to be 200 pounds of pure muscle to reap these benefits. As long as you have a body you’ve worked hard for and you’re proud of, you will project the confidence it gives you outward without saying a word. Even if you can’t fight yet, people tend to leave you alone and not try anything stupid.

It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength his body is capable of - Socrates

Martial Arts

If every man in the world did martial arts, there would be fewer fights because of it. If you know you can destroy a man with your bare hands, you have nothing to prove. You’d rather walk away from altercations because one blow can end in a life-long sentence.

‘’It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than to be a gardener in a war. Miyamoto Musashi

90% of men on the street have never participated in martial arts classes, yet they have this delusional self-confidence that they can fight.

That is the difference between intelligent confidence and fearless stupidity.

I have never seen a man who knows how to fight that doesn’t walk through the world with swagger and confidence. This is exactly why I have taken up boxing myself.

When you’re physically dangerous, you get to be nice. If you’re meek and harmless, you have no choice but to be nice. Do you see the paradox? Is an undesired man who sticks by one woman really loyal? Or does he have no other choice? This is where honor and integrity become the foundation of your character.

‘’The warrior sharpens his blade even in times of peace.’’

Competency

Strive to be the best at your craft. If you haven’t picked one yet, become a competent speaker. The reason for this is that the socio-economic hierarchy is made up of domains of competency.

You could be the world's greatest golfer, and get respect in that area but it’s still a small domain. Ask yourself, what’s the biggest domain, that’ll give me the most leverage for my outputs?

Most people would agree on it being articulate. It doesn’t matter what you talk about, if people notice you have a mouthpiece on you, you’re instantly perceived as an expert and garner respect across all domains.

People would rather avoid a verbal altercation because they know they can expect a tongue-lashing and prefer to pass on being embarrassed.

If you can convey your ideas to the people around you in a clear and concise manner, you have the world at your fingertips.

Actionable steps to becoming more articulate:

Read books on topics you like. Read what you love and you’ll love to read.

If come across words you don’t understand, look them up and write them down. Try to use them deliberately in your everyday conversation.

Practise doesn’t make perfect, deliberate practice does. Make a habit of recording yourself explaining your beliefs. Being articulate is nothing more than making sense of things.

It could just be 10 minutes a day. Then self analyze. What are your eyes doing while talking? Do you use unnecessary filler words? Do you have conviction when you talk?

‘’The world belongs to the articulate’’ Edwin Land’’

Honor

Have a code of conduct. A set of principles that are absolute red lines that you wouldn’t cross under any circumstances. You live by these beliefs. They give you dignity.

You build a sense of self-worth and self-respect because you know you can’t be bought. Without them, you lack an identity. Without an identity, you’ll be whatever your environment wants you to be and there’s nothing respectable about that.

Don’t be that guy who suffers from situational ethics and changes his principles based on his circumstances, to cater to the masses. That’s a clout chaser.

• Live your life as if you're going to answer to God for everything you’ve done.

‘’I believe that any man without principles that he is ready and willing to die for at any given moment is already dead and is of no use or consequence whatsoever’’ - Unknown

Thank you for reading.

-Armando