Traditional Man (trad-man.com) has debuted today — Christmas Day of 2019 — and was launched by Ivy Style founder Christian Chensvold.
The site is devoted to the traditional in both the outer and inner senses. On the surface, a celebration of traditional masculine virtues, while below the surface is the guiding light of Traditionalism, the little-known philosophic school of the 20th century, related to what is known as the Perennial Philosophy, Wisdom Tradition, or Primordial Tradition.
Partly inspired by the mythopoetic men’s movement of the 1990s, it seeks to navigate contemporary society through the study of Jungian archetypes, the concept of the hero’s journey, mythology, comparative religion, and the philosophical school known as Traditionalism, which believes the modern world took a wrong turn long ago and seeks to reconnect man with his divine nature and eternal metaphysical truths.
Traditional Man accepts submissions, pitches and queries. Email christian@stickpinmedia.com, and follow on Twitter: @Trad_Man_
+1
Need more information.
Still waiting, CC
Information will be coming. In the meantime, check the Twitter account Trad_Man_
Googling Trad_Man_ twitter elicits a window-cleaning service ???
Perhaps it’s already been deplatformed.
Isn’t that just http://www.artofmanliness.com?
Christian – You took down the Patreon link from Ivy-Style. Will you be putting up a new one at some point?
Please explain further, Charlottesville. It doesn’t seem right to fundraise for Ivy if I’m going to be going into semi-retirement. It makes more sense to seek patrons to help launch Traditional Man. I informed present patrons of the change about a week ago.
Thanks, Christian. I see. I was not sure about the continuation of the Ivy site, or whether your publication arm (Stickpin Media maybe?) would be supporting both Ivy Style and the new site. I hope that the new editor you have found will want to keep Ivy Style going, with at least occasional new content. It really is a unique and much-loved presence on the web. I assume that more information will be coming once the transition take place. Looking forward to seeing what is coming next and where the new CWH (Chensvold World Headquarters) will be.
Best,
C’ville
Much more interested in Ivy/trad/preppy clothing than in dime store philosophy.
What you most need is where you don’t want to look.
“Anglo-Dox” Traditionalist here and longtime reader of Ivy Style; really looking forward to this! A good friend of mine, a priest, and I are putting togehter a podcast if you’d ever like to pop in…
@Evan, any more information on this podcast?
Christian, I was going to make a small kickstart donation but I would prefer to use
PayPal. A lot more secure than putting credit card information on any site. See if you can add it to your list of options.
Oldschool59
@Michael
Very kind of you. Please email me and we can proceed. Address at top of site.
C.
This sounds great, and really interesting Christian, but how does it differ from The Art of Manliness, which also looks at all of these aspects of manhood?
Check out the Twitter feed to get a feel. Target launch date is 12/2.
Read THE STOIC CHALLENGE: A Philosopher’s Guide To Becoming Tougher, Calmer, And More Resilient.
By William B. Irvine.
Sounds good. A book came out last year called The Practicing Stoic, which is my desert island survival manual.
Irvine invites a man to go places …where most modern men will refuse. A hard earned (“School of Hard Knocks”) realism undergirds the Stoic approach–a deep, Calvinist awareness of humanity’s potential for self-delusion and self-destruction. (see Reinhold Niebuhr) What Freud referred to as the death (Thanatos) instinct. What traditional Christians refer to as original sin.
A myth-busting Stoicism reminds us that we have been seduced by many Modernity-inspired ideas. Most forms of Romanticism, including the Christian (Shchleiermacher, who overshadows modern-day Protestantism) and atheistic (Nietzche was a Romantic, at heart), are stripped of their pretense. The pretense undergirding Enlightenment aspirations (progress) is also nullified. (One would have thought the 20th century, including the Depression and two world wars) was sufficient to drive a final nail into the coffin.
A (very) modern myth that we’ve not yet outgrown plagues men of all ages– the myth of Romantic Love. It’s perpetuated by popular music, theater, film, and books (“The Bridges of Madison County” being a particularly nauseating example). Lots of people are making a lot of $ off of it. Once you relinquish this particular illusion, you can recognize “Romantic Love” what it actually is–the serotonin/dopamine/endorphin rush one ‘feels’ as one experiences a positive (idealized/adored) vision/version of oneself through the eyes (experience) of another. That’s all it is. (Really). And it fades almost as fast as it appears–mostly do to familiarity. Thus the endlessness of the quest–the never-ending desire for another “hit” of it. No wonder a majority of marriages end in divorce and a majority of husbands and wives admit (within the confines of a confidential questionnaire) to having had affairs. Real Love–a lasting combination of storge, philia, and agape–are within our reach, if only we relinquish the adolescent obsession with Eros. The Stoic Man ought to remain romantic about the potential for genuine friendship with other men (C.S. Lewis is a great source for more about this) and women who have surrendered the illusion.
Stoicism, particularly the Christian varieties, isn’t for the faint of heart. It demands honesty about the human soul–the human condition. It demands confession and repentance. Sadly most men prefer to remain robots and slaves.
“Great men–great nations–are neither boasters nor buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life. And they have manned themselves to face it.” – Emerson
correction. “due … to familiarity…”
SE, please expand on that into a post for the new site! You’re already halfway there. I’m about to start preparing the first batch for launch and it would be great to have a Stoic piece in the opening lineup.
Email me for details,
C.
Will do.
It’s extraordinary— how we’ve permitted science to try to do what it cannot do (penetrate the mystery of God), yet we cling to sappy, tortured notions of ‘Romantic Love’ between two people, even as science reveals it to be a potent form of narcissistic (reverse) projection: A steady flow of chemicals throughout the brain and body—induced by the desire to desire … and be desired by another (beloved). From an evolutionary perspective, this drive makes sense: reproduction. The survival of our species.
If you marry, do so for lifelong friendship (the higher love) and hopefully some good sex along the way. For your own sake, gents, don’t get hooked on “falling in love.” There’s too much to do and see, and your prostate is mostly worn out by 65, anyway.
Sublimate Eros into a longing/quest for the Divine.
Funny — historically WASPs have excelled at this realistic approach toward partnering and mating. Yet another way the decline of that particular culture has been bad for the world.
Just saw this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijcJhCqlnLQ
SE
At the risk of sounding snarky, given our regular disagreements, I think that you simply haven’t found the right lady yet. True romantic love is one of the greatest gifts God has given us.
Cheers
Will
Found her–more than once. Each time was a high, to be sure.
Maybe again.
Christian,
Ha! The college I attend assigned selections of The Practicing Stoic in our Civ class. Superb compilation, summation, and explanation of the various practitioners, I think.
Having already seen the video you linked, I actually sent it to my seminar group when we covered stoicism; entertainment was had!
Looking forward to the blog with great anticipation!
(Been reading without commenting for several months, by the way; I’ve been nothing but delighted by the content you publish. I find it inspirational, as well, being one of only two trads on my campus… as a freshman! [And the other is a professor! Disappointing, being mere miles away from an Ivy League college, though the situation is similar there.])
Congratulations, Christian, on getting the new site up and running. Best wishes!
Congratulations on your new site.
I looked at some of the articles and I am still not quite sure what it is supposed to be about exactly though. The description in this article seems to make it sound like the site will be more about philosophy and hobbies and interests, but so far the content mostly seems to be religious.
Maybe because I am an atheist and have no belief in any supernatural beings or powers whatsoever that it’s just not for me?
Also I do not want to judge too soon or harshly seeing as the site is very new and only has a couple of posts so far.
Anders, I think the site will start to take shape after about 25 posts. You can also check the Twitter feed.
As for not believing in supernatural beings, do you not believe in yourself?