Level Up is a new category I launched last year to share my extracurricular writings on becoming a better man. My latest essay posted over the weekend and centers on a few traditional activities all but guaranteed to improve your sense of well-being: weightlifting and martial arts on one hand, and prayer and meditation on the other. Taking up these things will probably also curtail any urge you might feel to leave anonymous petty comments on the Internet, which plants seeds in your subconscious that you are weak and spiteful.
Here’s a preview:
If the mainstream media constantly demonizes traditional masculinity, then pop culture counters with endless fodder for rupturing the unconscious fault lines of male psyches and dislodging fossilized masculine archetypes. Such as the kind of man desirable to women but devoted to a higher calling. There are the wifeless wall guards in Game of Thrones and the chaste Templars of History Channel’s “Knightfall,” and then all the bold, free men in countless cinematic depictions of Arthurian legend, Greek battle, and the two world wars.
These heroes of the eras, as Alexander Dumas put it, “when life was life and men were men,” have all the requisite alpha-male qualities from strength to bravery and even rugged good looks. But their life is devoted to something higher than using their high status to procreate. That’s because the whole notion of sex as the primary preoccupation of a man’s energies is but a recent blip on the timeline of evolution, a product of the 1970s, as it was only then — thanks to birth control and the Sexual Revolution — that it was made possible for men to ape the exploits of Jacques Casanova. In the heroic annals of history, manhood was not formed by languishing in perfumed sheets, but was forged like a sword by other men. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio tries to set lovestruck Romeo’s priorities straight when he essentially says: “Why are you so into this woman when you could be practicing your fencing?”
So what are today’s lone wolves doing when they “go their own way”? Many are gathering around online channels devoted to weightlifting and martial arts on the one hand, and spiritual matters on the other. And in doing so they are reviving a long-lost archetype, the warrior monk.
Along this journey, you might find within yourself a most unexpected discovery. And then you’ll be in a much-better position to graduate from monkdom, find a mate, and take her is she is, not what you’re projecting on her based on what you want her to be.
Head over to National Review’s website to check out “Rise Of The Warrior Monk: Men dissatisfied with society drop out of it — but may discover something surprising about themselves in the process.” — CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD
This has got me thinking of the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Bought myself a copy in college that I never completed, but I picked it back up Sunday and am just about half-finished.
Also – where is that image from?
To bench presses and Marcus Aurelius! From the cutting-room floor:
These men-in-revolt who’ve resisted programming by the Devouring Mother of the egalitotalitarian gynocratic matrix (as they might put it) see their foes as not only the pink-hatted future cat ladies who do not want them as husbands (though nor do they want them as wives), but the unforgivable co-conspirators in the demasculinization of society: soy-consuming drone males with skinny-fat physiques characterized by zero musculature under a pasty layer of high-fructose corn flab. Behind their nerd glasses shines alternately vacuous and vengeful glare of males raised on violent video games and hi-def porn. When not virtue-signaling their progressive street cred on social media, these NuMales fetishize consumer gadgets and comic book movies, while spiritual impotence renders them incapable of confronting deep existential questions. “Small-souled bugmen” is the epithet hurled at them by the low-carb devotees of bench presses and Marcus Aurelius.
Painting is “The Knight of the Holy Grail” by Frederick J. Waugh, 1912.
Erik, I’ve just started “The Quest Of The Holy Grail;” you know, the old anon text.
The irony of lambasting huge segments of society while preaching moral superiority? Now where have I seen that before!
This is your best yet, Christian
This is good.
And the man who becomes strong, fit, stoic and prayerful must also be … well attired.
Sorry, what website is this? I seem to have wandered over to the wrong one… Instead of Ivy Style, this appears to be a new version of “the Art of Manliness.”
Good piece at NR. “… the kind of man desirable to women but devoted to a higher calling …” That very fact makes them desirable.
It reminds me of this:
To Lucasta, Going to the Wars
BY RICHARD LOVELACE
Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee (Dear) so much,
Lov’d I not Honour more.
This stuff is just way too deep for me. I’m still trying to understand why Spike Lee was dressed like a bellhop at the Oscars. 😉
Mac
You watch the Oscars? Manly!
Cheers,
Will
Sacksuit
I didn’t watch the Oscars, but saw Spike Lee as part of a local news collage about the Oscars Monday morning. I haven’t watch the Oscars since the early eighties. I was too busy to watch the Oscars anyway, I was working on my bench pressing, fencing, and tuning my pickup truck. 😉
Cheers
Mac
“…universal law of cause and effect has brought us the growing phenomenon of “men going their own way,” or mentally dropping out of society — particularly the mating game. Whether these men are middle-aged and embittered from divorce or lifelong rejection, or in the prime of life but prematurely disillusioned, these male dropouts share the view that contemporary society is soulless and effeminate, increasingly demonizing men for all of their natural instincts.“
Hmmm. Grace surely abounds, since I think the intent here is genuine: to help guys who feel as though they’ve been kicked to the curb.
Lofty and admirable rhetoric invoking history and (unnecessarily) ‘anti-social justice’ darlings of the new Right (Peterson)… but one wonders: could this, overly distilled, be little more than “the outsider”’s frustration that the pretty, popular girls are paying more attention to the party-hopping, outgoing jocks?
And then there’s this: plenty of athletic, good-looking alps males are proudly liberal and affirming of progressivism’s abiding commitment to helping the poor and the “less fortunate.” Interesting: It’s this sense of noblesse oblige that draws others (including attractive mates perhaps?) to them. Monastic self-searching would appear brooding and mercurial (and boring) when placed next to the philosopher kings who seek action in the public arena.
The correlation between concern for justice (even social) and robust, seize-the-moment (“by God!”) masculinity — it feels forced, and, alas, just plain wrong.
A likely outcome is that the warrior monk, introverted and awkward, lingers too long in the shadows— persists in nurturing all sorts of resentments that render any potential progress (particularly at mate-finding) hopeless. It takes a strong man to acknowledge the beautiful, terrifying power of a certain kind of woman. And the monk, too eager to look for the day’s petty battles, may never muster that sort of strength.
That said, some good writing.
“alpha” male, rather.
Another edit: not merely good but excellent writing, CC. You have a gift. Glad you’re getting published.
@SE
I’m the consummate conservative but I have, in my past, behaved as a liberal. I did it to get pretty liberal girls who, as it turned out, were a not fun to be around.
Too angry.
Will
Starting about the time a certain candidate blew the election, a demographic identified as white, college-educated men age 22 to age 70 who work in corporate America — a demographic vilified by those who supported the Lost Cause candidate — began trimming down several pounds a month, month after month, by eating less, and lifting heavy things up in the air and putting them back down on the floor, repeatedly. As that demographic did so — first trimming to tennis player physique and then later to movie actor physique, as they added half a dozen pounds of muscle — they began to wear higher and higher yet inseams in their trousers, with a little extension in the pouch. This left the ladies with the choice of noticing the men or doing without company. Blue jeans from Levi’s and Wrangler are not yet as they were back when Ricky Nixon was president, but getting close. Even the winner of the election, no svelte man at all, is wearing pouch high trousers these days. If a certain segment of female demographic wants to complain how unfair life is, a certain segment of white, educated men are stepping out to be decidedly, if seemingly casually, noticed. It’s taken a bit over two some years for non-white, non-college-educated men age 22 to age 70 to follow suit. If men can no longer act socially as biological men what for all the screaming and yelling and recriminations, men can and will act as bait. The worm has turned, and in the end people makes friends with each other. That’s been going for millions of years. Every election has a winner, every election has a loser. Generally, the winners get to eat cake as dessert, the losers get to complain. Anyone notice how much trimmer these days are the guys chatting at the office water cooler?
The author can speak for himself, but here’s my take:
“Traditional masculinity” takes many forms and manifests itself in a variety of ways, but there are, for better or worse, certain signs and indicators. Sacraments, if you will. “You know it when you see it.” A 70-year old neighbor of mine, Marine and former college lacrosse player, speaks of his wife in glowing terms. He lifts weights, eats a lot of steak (which he cooks on a sizzling charcoal grill), gets a haircut at least twice a month, plays golf with his “buddies,” makes chairs and tables with his hands, adores his old Jeep CJ-7, and delights in blaming those “f-ing liberals” for the “f-ing mess we’re in.” He retired at 65 from a “hell of a great career” in banking and “really–and I mean REALLY–can’t stand those god damned hippies.”
He’s taken on the warrior role in too many arenas to count (and lived to tell about it), and he retreats daily to his “man cave” and his woodworking shop in the basement–not unlike a monk. After all, the world out there (beyond the walls of his sanctuaries) is a wilderness filled with “dangers, toils, and snares” (translation: liberals, hippies, and sissies).
We know the type. To pretend we don’t is silliness. And, if we’re being honest, we admire the hell out of the guy. I’m blessed in that I’m describing an actual, real-life guy. I’m infinitely blessed in that I’ve been around a lot of them throughout my life. I’ve worked with them; gone to parties where they hold court; played tennis and golf with them. If pressed, I’d say they are, in part, what makes American such a great place.
And if we’re being honest, we know that pasty, nerdy, horn-rimmed guy who’s never lifted a dumbbell or watched a minute of football on ESPN. He sips his soy latte. He boasts of his commitment to “social justice” (especially for the “disenfranchised,” whoever they are) while condemning the “brutes” of the world–the sports-loving, beer-swilling, meat-devouring barbarians who beat their chest and seek to conquer. He finds comfort in this persona, and may have even convinced himself that the “chicks (albeit Emo or punk) dig it.”
Walk around downtown Seattle for an hour. Or Portland. Or Vassar, Oberlin, or Reed. He’s out there–in the natural habitat. There are a few possible reactions to him, including pity or disgust…or the easiest of all: just walk by him without noticing. The latter probably infuriates the hell out of him.
For all the criticisms of “trad,” it’s one of many (viable, I think) attempts at re-claiming old-fashioned masculinity as it was embodied by our grandfathers and their fathers. It’s an aesthetic (sorry, CC) approach. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a majority of guys who are into Ivy or Trad simply want to look like their (our) forefathers. Nostalgia is powerful stuff.
I’ve claimed that the connection between the look in question and the outgoing, proudly masculine BMOC is strong. I’ll stand by it.
Chens is a MGTOW fanboy now? Jordan Peterson wasn’t enough?
This is silly.
Mainstream media demonizes traditional masculinity? The biggest movies of 2018 were about muscular men saving the world and rock stars. I can’t tell where this assertion came from.
Ivy Style is neat – I have a wardrobe full of Mercer and Sons shirts, cords & slacks from Brooks and J. Press, and Alden shoes – but linking Ivy to conservatism is a canard. An appreciation of the classics relates to having values. Maybe that means leaning rightward, but it could just as likely mean one wants to give back to the world rather than get involved in banking. Perhaps it means questioning our current state of capitalism, which has left so many people behind. There are numerous leftist values that link to an admiration of higher learning & of old New England.
Additionally, for what it’s worth, I bench sets of 225 – well above my bodyweight – and I love drinking soy lattes while driving to yet another social justice rally (or football game) here in the great northwest.
Time for something by Richard Press or Bruce Boyer as an antidote to this nonsense.
So, the pictures have disappeared again…..
Can’t see the pictures again. I’m in Europe , Using Google Chrome and all i see instead of the image on the posts now is a clip art. It was fine in the last couple of days.
Good essay btw…not my thing and don’t agree with everything but well written.
“That type of narrow minded populism is what’s given us a President Trump and a dangerous refusal of people to socialize with others they believe (thanks to many of the exact prejudices you outlined) aren’t just like them…”
VEA, sorry to disappoint, but plenty of people were refusing to socialize with people who weren’t like them LONG before our current president was elected. “Birds of a feather flock together” may be the longest-standing principle of Anthropology/Sociology 101.
“…linking Ivy to conservatism is a canard.” – Eric
If we’re talking political (as in policy) conservatism, I don’t disagree with this. Look at my first comment. It could be argued that two of the most “traditionally masculine” men of the relatively recent U.S. Senate were Joe Biden and John Kerry. (anybody who declares the latter “effete” might want to consider his record as a soldier and a pol who wrestled with tough, Irish Boston pols). Both were/are, in terms of policy, old-school, FDR/New Deal Democrats. Progressives.
But if we’re talking *cultural* conservatism, I disagree. Even when it was connected with jazz, Ivy was regarded as an essentially “conservative” style. Sorry to inform, but it still is. A guy can be culturally conservative in all sorts of ways (listens to William Byrd while reading Burke while ironing his oxfords while planning his next fishing trip while considering his next tweed from J. Press…) while voting steadily for political liberals/progressives. The fictional president (The West Wing) Jed Bartlett comes to mind. He drank, smoked, swore, indulged in high minded Jesuit Catholicism, graduated from Notre Dame, loved sports, and wore Brooks Brothers…but he was a *political* progressive/liberal.
The prevailing issue is that the Peterson-quoting, weight-lifting, National Review-reading, soul-embracing guy seems, in the eyes of our philosopher kings, every bit the weirdo, every bit the weirdo the pale, skinny-flabby, horn-rimmed ‘techy’ is.
Plato’ Republic could help us with the categories of men, but {dear Lord} that’s a much longer conversation.
@VEA
“That type of narrow minded populism is what’s given us a President Trump and a dangerous refusal of people to socialize with others they believe (thanks to many of the exact prejudices you outlined) aren’t just like them.”
Wow…
I bet you are the type of person who regularly thinks to yourself, “Why can’t these people just do what we (me and my lefty pals) want and just get along.” (all the while you are blasting insults at anyone who voted for Trump as a fascist and racist homophobic moron…) Last I checked, American’s are free to associate (or inversely, not associate) with whomever they please, without you telling us who we should and shouldn’t socialize with. Trying to make the population do what you want will never work without severe punishment for disobeying – a path we’re already on the road to since punishing a small baker for not making a wedding cake – essentially saying “You must associate with that person or else you are going to jail/paying a fine/being sued. We say so and we know best – now do it!!!”
In my opinion, your phrase sums up you’re whole life to this point – someone who thinks they know best and can’t understand why others just don’t get in line and do it the way he does…
The good news is that there is still hope for you – you need only read this book:
https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/0345816021
😉
Peterson’s influence has been confusing to the point of disastrous. The cultural Right, heavily populated by nerds, has embraced him (and vice versa). It’s so strange—the attempt to merge manhood/masculinity with political/economic conservatism. Some of the most authentically “masculine” men I know voted fur Hillary, support LGBT rights and social justice, and favor both labor unions and a progressive tax.
Careful to not reference movies as THE defining moment of anything, most certainly not masculinity. Movies pander to movie theater ticket buyers, and have done so for more than a century now, and still running. FOR THE LAST EIGHTY YEARS — up until the time Disney found a new market with its “Frozen” movies, movies marketed to the girl-girl crowd — THE movie ticket buyer has been 16 to 25 year old males. Males who want to see movies with HEROES, and a bunch of beautiful females only slightly dressed. Today, this day, there IS a movement afoot by the angry supporters of the Lost Cause candidate of the last election, angry supporters who insist every Y chromosome is something to tied up in a straight jacket. The angry supporters screaming and yelling and ranting at the sky and statues of men on horses in the park will become background noise as normal young women decide “sleeping with the enemy” is far better than tossing and turning at night not bumping into anything. Three or four years ago, men were men and the sheep were scared. The Lost Cause candidate blew the election through arrogance, and LC supporters immediately started screaming at Y chromosomes. Men — highly motivated tactical geniuses at the Love Game — simply stopped acting as Men R Men, and instead became bait. Presenting as bait is actually a tiny fraction of the cost of buying a Porsche 911. A Porsche is a LOT of money to buy and maintain. Bait is no more than eating less and healthier, plus regularly lifting heavy things up and putting them down on the floor, and buying or having tailored clothing which fits a bit more snug. People make social friends, and have for millions of years. If men Tarzan-style beating their chests and yelling into the trees is currently against “media rules”, men will turn — and have been turning — to present themselves as “bait”, literally and figuratively. And, as always, people WILL make social friends. MGTOW and #metoo together in lock-step as enemies will fade to black at about the same moment. Eating less and lifting weights costs a great deal less than a Porsche. There are hundreds of ways men can present as bait, with eating less, lifting heavy things, and wearing well-tailored clothing being just three of them. A FINE sport coat at J. Press is less than the cost of an oil change on a Porsche. Just don’t wear sweatpants. As Langenfeld said, buying sweatpants is a sign of defeat.
@SE
I believe there are studies correlating political affiliation to income, attractiveness, and strength/athleticism, as well as the Big 5 traits of Openness and Conscientiousness.
@John: what is “the girl-girl crowd” to which Disney marketed the movie ‘Frozen’?
I got to laugh. Some of you liberals aren’t very liberal, you are scolds, hall monitors. Your intolerance is why you got Trump. Your condescension is why you got Trump, that and everything you touch is fucked up for everyone but the connected. You need to get out of your bubble.
Eric
If you can’t bench twice your body weight you are a pussy! Just kidding, well done.
CC’s whole transformation to a Peterson-esque moral authority has been as fascinating to watch as his philosophical comments are cringe-worthy.
What part of the ubermensch handbook covers soliciting donations via Patreon? I guess if that GoFundMe worked for our hero Jordan…
Lol – I’m here for you, brother.
@Rake
Please revisit my Level Up work of the past couple of years. You need it.
http://www.ivy-style.com/category/level-up
Stop projecting all your negative qualities onto others, especially people you’ve never met and through the medium of the Internet.
Get on the esoteric path and take on the painful inner work, a psychological housecleaning.
Find the seed within and sprinkle it with a few drops of unconditional acceptance. Go into the woods and close your eyes until you find not that which can be seen, but that which sees, underneath the personality and ego construct.
Put your hand on your heart and speak to it. It will answer in simple responses.
If you have the courage to do what I have done — which I had to do out of necessity, for my very existence depended on it — it will be a long and excruciating process. The dark night of the soul. You will weep oceans as part of the alchemical purification process, burning off the dead wood.
There will be nights of the greatest nauseating horror you have ever imagined, but through it, over several years, you will come to learn that you are a spirit being having an earthly experience.
Then you will come to be able to say, as Dr. Peterson cannot yet, that you don’t merely act as if God exists, you know he does.
Girl-girl is a preference for involved social company favored by an identifiable demographic. Disney’s “Frozen” movies aim at this demographic, and is the first movie trope to sell more movie theater tickets than “HERO-Saves-The-Day-and-Gets-The-Beautiful-Half-Naked-Girl” movies since the 1930’s. ALL movies are escapist of some sort. Most movies made were, and are, “HERO-Saves-The-Day”. The most popular “literature” for young women is Romance Novels, for young men “Terminator”, “Terminator II”, “Terminator III”, “Terminator IV”, “Terminator V”, “Terminator VI”, “Terminator VII”, etc. Before “T”(-cell) movies, there were Tom Mix, Roy Rogers, Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy, Cannonball Run, Grand Theft Auto, Towering Inferno, 1 Million BC, Star Wars, etc. Go to a movie theater and you’ll see very young men. Go to a Romance Novel conference and you’ll see solo women wearing purple Spandex pants with orange Spandex tops and hoop earrings the size of coffee cup saucers, while carrying lime-green faux-alligator purses. Popular literature — HERO movies or Romance Novels — is escapist giving as much useful information on how people effectively interact with each other as a bubble gum comic. In the days of drive-in movies — and back seats of drive-in movie cars and vans — were horror movies. That’s what the trade called them, “Drive-In Movies”.
MGTOW is an over-reaction to #metoo, both screaming at the sky and statues in the park. Each and both will grow hoarse and be forgotten just as Zarathustra and Son Young Moon did.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, irritates MGTOW like like a sateen blouse open four buttons. Nothing, absolutely nothing, irritates #metoo like a Porsche 911 (high buck), or well-tailored Trad clothing (moderate or less), or lean muscles in a fitted t-shirt bought a size too small (cheap).
Where do I fall within your compendium on these subjects (“MGTOW”?) if I wore khakis, an OCBD and a Harris Tweed to take my 9 yo daughter to see ‘Frozen’, but all I got from it was that: a) the songs were wonderful; and b) my daughter thought the sisters sticking up for each other was a great ending?
These posts make me feel like I’m supposed to be angry about a conversation happening in another person’s house.
Paul
Having a date with your daughter is a very trad masculine thing to do. My father did it with my five sisters even after they grew up. He was a balls to the wall fighter pilot. Eighty year old comrades cried at his funeral.
I think Sacksuit put it correctly, “Too angry”. It’s hard to be around people who are so “woke” that every thing is political.
I think
Paul
Congratulations, you are a normal.
Cheers
Will
VAE
I don’t really think about you that much.
BB sack blazer, red tie with blue bars BB, white Troy OCBD, BB loafers sans socks, grey pants cuffed today. Having steak (rare plus), asparagus a d baked potato with Stags Leap Artemis tonight.
I hope you have a good night.
Will
Sorry, VEA
Does anyone here ranting and raving and screaming at the sky and statues of men on horseback in the park realize just how dire is the biological plight of breeding age women who sleep in an empty bed? Yes some, perhaps many, breeding age women are feeling entitled at the moment. BUT, they STILL at base are biological women. They gotta “make nice” or they don’t get a chance at biological eternity. Those who foment all the “social justice” troubles right now WILL be passed over by the legions biological women coming up behind them. At this point, millennial women are having less than half the sex as did their mothers before them at the same age. The women soon coming on line behind them are going to see vast fields of poppies waving “Hello” to them. Like a kid in a candy store.
In addition, there is the ever present “office water cooler”, whatever its form going back centuries. For centuries, white educated fathers have taught their sons, and then their grandsons, and great-grandsons the in’s and out’s of “getting things done” “over the office water cooler.” THE reason corporations hire white college educated men is BECAUSE such men KNOW how to get things done as a team. Teamwork is bred in their DNA. There is history going back centuries. No skulduggery needed. Just a comment of “Let’s do this” and kingdoms are conquered. LOOK at how much higher are the inseams today of men’s trousers as compared to when the election became a Lost Cause by the blind followers of an arrogant, self-centered candidate in a red pants suit. Just a bit more fabric in the pouch of men’s trousers and the breed-able women coming on line notice. Look how quickly, how derisively late Baby Boomer women left behind early Baby Boomer women once there were enough men to go around. “Social Justice” is a code term for “entitlement without effort”. It will soon be yesterday’s fish wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper.
To the men who maybe feel a little put out at this time, the suggestion is made to get your trousers a bit more tailored. The breed-able age ladies will stand — their eyes a’lit — a little closer hoping to start a conversation.
John, God bless you, you are the Admiral James Stockdale of Ivy Style.
MacMcConnell – Ha ha, thanks. Self improvement isn’t just for the Right, which I suppose is what I was trying to get at.
I’ve been reading this website for nearly a decade, and I appreciate what C.C. has done here. I just could do without the wedging in of politics.
Eric
Self improvement is good for everyone, as is freedom.
Be most careful quoting movies trying to make a point not otherwise to be made. Adrian Cronauer the man said, in the Mensa Journal (he was a member), the ONLY thing accurate about him in the movie is they spelled his name right.
The movie quote above is strictly that of Robin Williams, a professional if deeply troubled joke-teller, a man never in the military, never served in Viet Nam, never in Mensa, and who killed himself. Robin Wms no more defines masculinity than Shirley Temple defines shoe making.
When a movement is in the last stages of running out of gas, they take to quoting celebrities rather than reasoned logic.
If one would not take celebrity advice on how to bake apple pie, WHY care a whit about their opinions on anything important?
VEA,
Since liberalism is the dominant ideology of our time, it is the default position for everyone. Even those who reject it are recovering liberals, still prone to fall back on the default. Sometimes, even people who reject liberalism are not even aware that what they say/think/do is under the influence of liberalism.
So while you protest that you are not a liberal, you espouse some liberal positions, if only by default.
It is an arduous challenge to refrain from thinking in liberal terms.
I love your new writing about the social and the metaphysical. Keep it up, Christian.
Thanks. Here’s a new one from far out:
https://nobhillgazette.com/the-beauty-issue-dario-nardi-on-inner-growth-through-ayahuasca/