30 Legitimate/70 Posers
Many years ago there was a little girl that the ole Captain may have had a soft spot for. She hailed from a divorced home, her father a complete prick, but she had enough sharps to spar toe to toe with Cappy which made him view her as a kid sister. Like every other child in the history of children she was doing well until she became a teenager, and now whatever wisdom Cappy tried to pass on to make her future bright or better is largely dismissed and falls on deaf ears. The Captain has exercised incredible amounts of stoicism accepting what will likely be a mediocre fate for this surrogate kid sister and it is completely outside of his influence.
Not too many years ago, the Captain also had a couple "associates" or "colleagues." These were up and comers on the relatively new-frontier of the internet, and he was impressed with many of them as they demonstrated independent thought, intelligence, and an entrepreneurial passion to make a go at being truth-peddlers on the internet. That was until he realized - that though intelligent - they were ultimately lazy more than anything else, and were perennial losers who merely looked to co-opt and parasite off of the philosophical, red pill, and political movements on the internet, thinking their ship of a work-avoidant-life-ship had come in. Some would boast conservative or libertarian politics, while never holding down a real job and living at home. Others would claim to be "pick up artists," while in reality they were very likely all virgins. It all didn't happen in one day, but over the years, it became quickly and very apparent who was legitimate, and who were posers, a ratio of which was a shocking 30/70%.
There's the capital flight that SHOULD be occurring from Minnesota to anywhere else. I get a daily barrage of e-mails, facebook posts, and twittergrams from "conservative Minnesotans" who just complain, complain and complain. But once you recommend (even to close friends) that they should follow you out to South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, or Vegas, the majority of these roaring lions become sheepish sheeple, kicking the rocks below their feet and meekly whispering "well....they do have good schools here...and my family is here....maybe some time in the future."
And finally, there was Silver Dollar Bikini.
Oh, mock the Captain if you must, but my entrepreneurial venture into selling essentially a string bikini made of silver and silver dollars (and *ahem* strategically placed Mercury dimes) was well worth the effort in that it told me so much. Not only did I make a small profit off of it, but I realized that for all the bragging and bravado from "strong, conservative alpha males" about their "hot wives who would do whatever they wanted sexually" there wasn't a single true Alpha Male out there. Most "conservative" husbands were hen-picked, weren't alpha, and were not having the "hot sex life" they claimed they were. They were not much better off than the soy boy leftists whose wives were hyphenating their names.
I could go on, but the examples all above have one thing in common - they are the most disheartening and defeating force I face today. And the reason why is that all these failures, all these let downs, all these defeats are on my team. They are loved ones, colleagues, friends, and allies. Family members, associates, compatriots, even mentors. And whereas I completely understand that the left is going to left, the socialists are going to socialist, and the parasites are going to parasite, when you look at your team and realize there are so many posers, so many frauds, and so many "mail-it-in-'ers" it makes you ask "What am I fighting for? Why bother fighting? And are ANY of you people coming with???" It makes "Enjoy the Decline" an even more important and poignant piece of philosophical work.
Teamless
With no team to fight for, no tribe whose members ALL are willing to put in the work, truly exceptional men have to ask themselves "what's the point of pursuing excellence if nobody else is there?" Truly exceptional men (and you guys know who you are) may argue that the pursuit of excellence is the reward unto itself (and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, as it may be the ONLY thing to pursue), but until you've "Wandered the Desert of Excellence" for enough years, this loneliness and peerlessness will grow on you, even depress you as you not only suffer the normal psychological toll of loneliness, but a larger philosophical depression/realization of "Why the fuck aren't more people pursuing excellence??" It goes well beyond a mere treatise on observations of intelligence on a bell distribution curve, becoming more of a damning and depressing testament to the human race. It becomes doubly depressing when you realize just how few and genuine peers you actually have in life to make it worth living. And it becomes TRIPLY depressing when those people who you thought were on "Team Excellence" turn out to be posers, frauds, theoreticians, or just plain normies too lazy to take action and execute excellence into their lives.
You yourself may be an excellent man or woman. And you may be thoroughly enjoying your life, finally enjoying the fruits of your labor. But I cannot emphasize this enough. The time will come you will have wandered "The Desert of Excellence" enough and get mighty bored with the lack of peers in it. And if I were to make a bold prediction, it is going to be the single largest problem truly exceptional people will face.
There is No Solution
It is here I would normally give some kind of sound advice or wisdom, either outlining a solution in whole or theorizing where one might be. But there is no solution to this problem. Once the years, even months, of the original euphoria wear off, and you go "yachting" for the 8th time that year or run your 12th marathon, you will inevitably realize that though physically surrounded by people you are indeed alone. The "marathon runners" are one-time marathoners who will quickly return to their sedentary office job and put the 26 sticker in their car. The yachters will do...well...whatever it is yacht people do. And while you may have engaged with these people in an instance of excellence, realize that's all it was - an instance. Less than 1/100th of 1% of the population have attained and achieved excellence in every aspect of their life, and everyone else will be forced to go back to working for somebody else at a physical location, removing them from the pool of potential genuine peers and colleagues. Thus, like all hard things in life, you only control your reaction to a problem you don't control. And this leaves you with your only "option" - returning to normie conformie land.
Sadly, this is not a solution since once you attain excellence you won't be able to go back. Yes, it sucks seeing peer after colleague turn out to be a poser or not really have the ladies he claimed he could scrounge up like he said. It's even worse when some of them ask to borrow money! But a peerless day in the life of an exceptional person beats a 57 commute to a corporate office where all the sheep are forced to take diversity training. It's just a matter of realizing and reminding yourself of that fact daily.
Still, you may believe the tone of this post is a bit too dour, perhaps even black pill. You may think having no debt, being a minimalist, and bumming around the country on a bike is the dream. And it is! But mark my words, especially those of you who are learning from the red pill community, majoring in the right things, and avoiding the mistakes your older brothers made. If you just avoid HALF the problems we made, you are well on your way to a path of excellence. And you will no doubt be a much happier man/woman when you do. But you will be forced to walk in the Desert of Excellence. And you have been warned.
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21 comments:
what to do if you're one of those "older brothers" who made all those mistakes?
It's not that bad, Aaron!
One of my hobbies is multi-day backcountry hiking, sometimes solo but usually with other people from a hiking club.
Overnight hiking weeds out all the posers, frauds, theoreticians and normies. Only those who are living lives of reality and excellence can hack it, and I find myself surrounded by those high-quality people.
Only those with lives grounded in reality and excellence can cope with what nature can dish out - encountering unexpected hazards such as flooded rivers, nightfall before reaching the expected camp, scrambles up steep dramatic terrain, needing to light a fire in cold wet conditions, needing to locate water in the desert, etc. And there's a real bonding experience with those with whom you share these adventures.
Since you're already a day-hiker, anytime you can get yourself to Australia I'll be delighted to introduce you to the delights of overnight multi-day hiking. I think it will blow your mind.
Next month I'm visiting Colorado, Utah and Montana and am looking forward to hiking in some of the areas that you have posted photos of in your blog over the years.
It was from you I learned the rarity of non monkeys. Not being forced to interact with them is excellence enough. Creation is excellent, but there is a lot of dross.
The answer is, there is no answer. One can pursue excellence, or not. Do, or do not. The path of excellence gives you more life-choices over a life of passivity. It's like playing GTA 5 vs Pac-Man.
You would have more hope if you had children. Your choice, but loneliness is the price for going totally minimalist. Children bring a dimension to your life. Without them, you get to a certain age and you think, what was it all for? Now my loser relatives will inherit all that I worked for.
I'm in the same boat, got zeroed out in 2011 and spent the last 8 years rebuilding my life. I worked on all fronts, physical, mental, spiritual and financial only to find myself in the wilderness as you state. It's probably why some men go into monk mode for extended periods, the reality of it is too depressing.
Another gem of wisdom. At best I'm on the fringe of normie land and it's lonley enough already. I can't get family and what few friends I have left to stop destroying their own lives. I read Enjoy the Decline 3 times, and I have to re-read it occasionally for sanity purposes. Again, not in excellence zone, just the fringes of Normieville. I don't envy you.
Post meet Patero Principle -- to paraphrase, "20% of the people will accomplish 80% of the things worthwhile in life." The other 80%? Well they are like the picture shows, far behind in the pack.
The most dangerous word in the English language is "someday". "Someday I will ....", fill it in. It is dangerous because Father Time must be paid along our road of life. It is like a tree, and the older one becomes branches of opportunity are trimmed along the way. Best to do that transatlantic race at 20 than at 80 when the only racing is in a wheelchair. So many just think that they will do it when the 'time is right' only the right time never comes.
Lastly, know your limitations. If you know you don't have the skills, don't pursue it. Find that out early, way too many live are wasted in pursuits never to be achieved.
Try all you wrote and being a female too. My family worships trivial, shallow crap. Most women I know are vapid. I am a scientist, executive, and have a background in Finance. I read philosophy, know my history and economics, and have a lovely husband and daughter. I have NO ONE but my husband to talk to. He must get tired of me going on.... Even one of my male co-workers (who first told me about you), ask me upon meeting me, "Who exactly do you talk with?" he is my friend, but there are no women for me unless I fake it. Try going to mom's activities at school for a real eye opener. I feel so very alone...
Interesting to see photo of Secretariat demolishing the field at Belmont for this 'lonely at the top' post.
from Wikipedia...Secretariat's paddock at Claiborne Farm bordered three other stallions: Drone, Sir Ivor, and Hall of Fame inductee Spectacular Bid. Secretariat did not pay much attention to Drone or Sir Ivor, but he and Spectacular Bid became friendly and occasionally raced each other along the fence line between their paddocks.
30/70 is good, that's a general rule for most things (or 20/80).
Though I am not sure whether it is your expectation to Excell at the same things you like, or that not everyone is as good as you in a specific category (which does not say that he is not trying). Per definition, if you are excellent in something, it means you are maybe in the top 10 % and that's only 10 Real Dealers vs 100 Posers...
"But did you find your shoes?"
Lol just kidding cappy ... I'd love to see if your books sales got a bump after your Target tweet.
I think I do have a solver lining to this: should the lights turn off and resources become scarce again, the truly exceptionable people will be the ones that not only survive, but will thrive hand over fist over the commoners and posers. And then, that's when the exceptional will have more time to themselves. It ain't easy being superior, but it damn sure is much more satisfying investment.
“Ninety-five percent of people who walk the earth are simply inert. One percent are saints, and one percent are assholes. The other three percent are people who do what they say they can do.”
Stephen King, The Dead Zone
I wondered when I was a kid why one grandfather and one great grandfather seemed to withdraw from most company (except for me) as they got older. I think you've really hit on it here. Not only are the majority of people too lazy to pursue excellence in at least one aspect in their lives (imagine how much better the world would be if everyone would go for excellence in just ONE aspect of their lives!), but for those that do pursue it and achieve an excellent skill at anything outside of sportzball and swingystick, the majority of people are too dumb to recognize excellence when it's standing in front of them. Even worse, the majority of employers are too idiotic or corrupt to capitalize on excellence and compensate it accordingly. They'd rather sabotage or relocate it away from them than cultivate a relationship with it that would actually benefit them (going through this right now at work; my response has been to take your advice and work on achieving the F*** you position)!
It's far better, I think, to keep most people at arms' length or farther; pursue excellence on your own terms professionally and as a hobby in your own life, and to restrict relationships to family and a few key friends that you can share barbecue and a D&D game with between building hot rods and going shooting.
Rest assured Cappy, your words do not fall on deaf ears. Like you, I've seen how many are out there that talk the talk but do not even attempt to walk the walk.
I am ever-so-close to that freedom you talk about, and have stayed out of cubical land for seven years. Seven years of getting up every morning and getting to pursue excellence. No, I don't have all the toys, nor do I claim to be an alpha with a hot wife. But for seven years, I've never gotten up and asked "What am I doing with my life? Boy, I hope I get stock options out of this."
Thank you for continuing to be an inspiration to those of us who are still fighting the good fight (and yes, enjoying the decline as life permits).
Pretty true.
You've done a good deed to warn people that this path is lonely.
But brotherhood and fellowship with a cause is important. Don't concede that being alone is fated.
We should work together to form better communities. That's essential if you hold any hope that the decline is not inevitable.
The issue is resources. There are too many resources currently in the system. The average Conserve-nothing Conservative may be a shiftless, downcast virgin, but he knows that, compared to the life lived by 99 percent of his ancestors, he's (materially) got it pretty good. He's not scrounging on a subsistence farm, trying to stave off starvation long enough for his crop to come in, he's not losing 50 percent of his siblings to the Black Death, and he doesn't have to spend 16 hours in a coal mine every day so he can earn enough coppers to buy a crust of bread and pay the rent on the bed of straw in the corner of the smog-choked slumhouse he sleeps in every night.
Thanks to technology, his one bedroom efficiency apartment has central heating, a fridge full of fast food leftovers, and a desktop computer holding terabyte upon inhuman terabyte of some of the most creatively depraved porn ever produced by man. It's enough to make his brain say "Well...we're not cold and starving, and we're apparently getting laid a lot because I'm getting a lot of stimulation from the penile area and am sending lots of signals to the testes to produce sperm. So things are generally okay. I sure wouldn't want to ruin things by losing my job or jeopardizing my social position. Sure, I could take a stand on things, and tell that hag in HR to stuff her sexual harassment presentations into her own ass, but I would risk burning down my adequate life."
In a resource-rich world, those who signal their ability to go along with the dominant (progressive) paradigm are rewarded with the ability to continue having a soulsucking but "materially decent by historical standards" existence. There are very few who would turn their backs on that, because, although they might not remember what it was like to live in a cave and suck moss off of rocks to survive, the programming in their brains certainly does.
None of this changes the fact that Progressivism is much better at distributing abundant resources than it is at producing new ones, and is thus, doomed to collapse. One day, people will discover that screaming "bigot!" at the top of their lungs won't procure water, won't start a fire, and won't grow food. But until that day comes, Progressivism and all of the behavioral ills that accompany it, will be the law of the land. Even among Conservaclowns.
Basically, the moral of the story is to never put your faith in princes, be they called kings, presidents, or whatever faction you might think of. The only person you can rely upon truly is yourself, and yourself alone. Your friends, family, and acquaintances will fall short one way or another, and you might do so too. But at least, you can control yourself.
When I am by myself, I am not alone.
When I am by myself, I am not alone.
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