This is the fifth of a 12-part series remixing Jordan Peterson’s book 12 Rules For Life, one chapter a week to coincide with the 12 weeks remaining for my one year celibacy vow.
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We can argue all we like, but the fact is we have new rules in our society.
Why else did we go MGTOW? The legal rules in divorce and family court made it too risky to get married, and the new social rules of #MeToo make it too risky to date if you are or even will be a man of status.
As we know, there is a section of us that are still in the Red Pill Rage, and frequent these circles that continuously churn out content related to the various ways we are degrading as a society, especially pertaining to the behavior of women. But returning to the scene of the crime isn’t going to help you heal.
“It is the things that occur every single day that truly make up our lives, and time spent the same way over and again adds up at an alarming rate…
No matter how good your intentions, or how sweet and tolerant your temperament, you will not maintain good relations with someone you fight with for a month and half of work weeks per year. Resentment will inevitably build.
Even if it doesn’t, all that wasted, unpleasant time could clearly be spent in more productive and useful and less stressful and more enjoyable activity.
p. 117, 118
We need to start seeing our lives more holistically, through the theme of compound interest. Every day is just a single brick to build the castle walls that will one day become the headquarters of your empire. Every day won’t be easy; some will feel like pennies, others like a dollar. But as long as you stay focused on building momentum, you will steadily see growth in positive directions.
The issue at hand, of course, is the lack of emotional support on dealing with the discontent within the “rage” phase. Men just don’t have the same emotional release ability that women do. As much as feminists want to believe it is due to toxic masculinity, the presence of testosterone makes it extremely difficult to physically expel those difficult emotions through therapeutic discussion and/or crying.
As men, we need to find a better outlet.
I’m not even sure I can admit that I’ve gotten over the rage phase. I just don't have the opportunity to consider it often due to establishing a different mental environment in Monk Mode. I know for certain that nothing positive will come about from my participation in the circles I mentioned earlier, but something of worth can be achieved if I instead seek within.
Today’s episode is about how we have actually gained much more than we have lost by going MGTOW Monk Mode.
“We assume that rules will irremediably inhibit what would otherwise be the boundless and intrinsic creativity of our children, even though the scientific literature clearly indicates, first, that creativity beyond the trivial is shockingly rare and, second, that strict limitations facilitate rather than inhibit creative achievement.”
p. 124
People view the lives of celibates, ascetics, and minimalists as ones with strict limitations, but what if those are the groups of people that are able to express and collect the most experience out of life?
Most people are slaves to their food and sex drives, and so fasting and abstinence are actually practices of freedom. Likewise, “the things you own end up owning you”, and so we put a limit on our possessions too through minimalism, so that we may move more freely.
“Discipline is freedom”, after all.
Not only am I on a one year celibacy vow, but I am also practicing No Fap, and so far I have gone six months without consuming any porn.
But every day that I encounter the urge to break the streak, I continue to search deeper about where those feelings are coming from, and why? Is it loneliness, or lack of self expression? Equally I also ask myself why I should continue with these limitations, but then I look back on all the time spent on this experiment, and how putting a hard cap on my sexual exploration has allowed it to express itself in other ways.
Firstly, it was interesting to see myself seek out romance through watching anime, which I discussed in an earlier post: 1 Year Celibacy Update – 98 Days Remaining
A failure to properly sublimate my dissatisfaction and desires led me to engaging in escapism.
After the Yoko incident, I chose more wholesome anime, but still consumed it for a slightly similar reason. Over the last month, I have binge watched around 300 episodes of Naruto, with the urgency stemming from wanting to get to the end of the series and the start of its sequel, Boruto, as the romance between the main character and his love interest is finally resolved with them marrying and having children.
I was not interested in watching the filler episodes this time, but the only ones I would have sat through were the ones with Naurto and Hinata, so I actually searched YouTube for a compilation of all their exchanges so I wouldn’t miss out on anything. One of the YouTube comments said “I wish Hinata was real.”, and I really resonated with that, I must admit.
Yeah, I made it to Boruto now, by the way. I finally became proficient enough at my job to watch episodes alongside it, and was able to put in some 9+ hour work days to finish up Shippuden and get to the wedding. Last night, I actually dreamed that I went on two dates with Hinata.
But alas, this is just one observation.
I’ve been drafting a lot of creative content recently, not like these blog posts, but music, lyrics, novels, and even video game ideas.
What was most interesting as well was that my most recent idea for a novel had mature sexual themes in it, which is obviously a direct expression of my sexual emotions, but of course redirected in a more creative way, rather than all that energy being expended into the void through consuming porn and masturbating.
This experience has taught me that when we choose to go Monk Mode, we must take time to reflect on our progress and ascertain what we have gained through our experiments, as opposed to a mourning of our non-participation within the mainstream.
So many men are treating the difficulties in dating and marriage these days as such a tragedy, but what if it’s a blessing in disguise?
Play By The Rules
“Each person’s private trouble cannot be solved by a social revolution, because revolutions are destabilizing and dangerous. We have learned to live together and organize our complex societies slowly and incrementally, over vast stretches of time, and we do not understand with sufficient exactitude why what we are doing works. Thus, altering our ways carelessly in the name of some ideological shibboleth is likely to produce far more trouble than good, given the suffering that even small revolutions generally produce.”
pp. 119
There’s a running fantasy within MGTOW for more men to become red-pilled and completely opt out of the system as a protest in order to restore society. Simps and spinsters get pies in their face, and declines in marriage rates and the closing of bridal shops receives applause. What was first an underground hideout for men seeking self-preservation has now, in some spaces, become a headquarters for a quiet social revolution.
What is ironic, though, is that the quote above is actually targeted at the more liberal groups pushing for far more social change through feminism and other diversity affairs. But I am opposed to both sides, however, as I stated in the previous episode, as I see conservatism (not politically, but culturally) decreasing, which I symbolized as ice melting, and instead of trying to freeze it back, we must see the future and know that water eventually evaporates, and then re-forms into ice much later.
A great practice in Stoicism is learning what is within our control, and foregoing all the things that aren’t is essentially the theme of Episode 3: Only Seek Your Power. However, this episode will differ slightly, as it is more about seeing worth (gratitude) in the very circumstances we struggle against.
Crisis and Opportunity
The Chinese characters for “crisis” are commonly interpreted in the West as a cross between “danger” and “opportunity.” This is particularly why I see futility in engorging ourselves in social change in modern times, as there’s always some other group that is benefiting (seeing “opportunity”) from whatever scenario you have labelled as “danger”.
For instance, the Pick-up Artists have benefited greatly from the sexual liberation of women through feminism, but more conservative men have obviously been bit by the bullet at the other end.
I don’t necessarily want men to become less conservative, but if your society has become so, I absolutely do not want them to swim against the tide, or yell at the sky. At this point, common advice to men who still desire the family life is to completely abandon America altogether, and marry abroad, (with strong emphasis on staying abroad as well).
“The evidence strongly suggests that human beings have become more peaceful, rather than less so, as time has progressed and societies became larger and more organized.
The !Kung bushmen of Africa…had a yearly murder rate of 40 per 100,00, which declined by more than 30% once they became subject to state authority. This is a very instructive example of complex social structures serving to reduce, not exacerbate, the violent tendencies of human beings.”
p. 121
Feminism can be said to be a consequence of peace and prosperity, and likewise, we could also be in the middle of the “good times create weak men/weak men create hard times” portion of the cycle. (If you’ve never heard of this, subsequently, hard times will create strong men, and strong men create good times.)
But we should step back and realize that we all benefit from this period of prosperity, even if it is degrading us culturally. The amount of wars in the world has been decreasing, and if I wasn’t so academically capable (and didn’t mind cutting my hair), I would have joined the military a long time ago to escape my circumstances. The military is more likely a safer career than a police officer these days.
When the world around us becomes too difficult, we should immediately stop seeking outward and only seek inward for our expression of power. But when we become strong enough to look externally again, we should cease in only seeing the danger, and instead always seek out the opportunities.
This also has nothing to do with optimism or positive thinking; it’s just about not allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Of course, society can be improved. Everything can be improved, and to seek that is to be a living human, constantly in motion. But someone somewhere actually thinks things are good enough, or that this situation is even better. You may not be seeing the full picture, and you could use more objectivity as well.
So what is playing by the rules, exactly?
Simple. Stop trying to change society. Don’t change the rules of the game, externally. If you want to keep the rules you enjoy playing by, simply change where you play.
“It’s also not for the best that all human corruption is uncritically laid at society’s feet. That conclusion merely displaces the problem, back in time. It explains nothing, and solves no problems. If society is corrupt, but not the individuals within it, then where did the corruption originate? How is it propagated? It’s a one-sided, deeply ideological theory.”
p. 118
I absolutely do not agree with America’s level of debt. But the citizens are in debt too, especially women, who hold the majority of the student loan debt in the country. Colttaine, near the end of his Matrix Behind The Matrix video believes that the bankers are never going to let that money walk, but there’s nothing stopping the majority of the voting base (women) from seeking out a way to socialize that debt, especially with the infinite printing press that is the Federal Reserve.
As someone with a 777 credit score, I think the country is absolutely rotten just for this respect only. But nonetheless, America is still the last institution expected to fall, and has only had it’s credit rating fall to an AA- since 2012, and at least before the Corona Virus fiasco.
Am I going to protest? Not at all. I’m going to continue to pay my taxes and be a good citizen (with my dollars at least, my cryptocurrency doesn’t exist), but I still definitely see “danger” here, as I don’t want to be around for when it’s finally time to tighten our belts, and so I’m simply going to quietly change MY game. I will ghost in plain sight, but secretly work on my exit strategy. I can find more fiscally responsible countries, or I can start to acquire more real assets, like land and self-sufficiency, and rely less on fiat currency.
The world is such a big place with endless opportunities, and so I am becoming deeply suspicious on why we hold such strong attachments to certain things, especially as MGTOW, that we feel we must lament it’s loss and fight to restore it.
Conservatism, by definition, is not creative. Once again, I do not have an issue with Conservatism itself, but only when one desires it when the rules have clearly changed. If you are Red Pill and you are like this, you are in the rage phase. If you are blue pill and you are like this, you will probably get divorced or #MeToo’d.
Now has it become clear?
Playing by the rules is just Stoicism and non-attachment. However, you can also benefit from the crisis if you play along and beat them at their own game. TFM (Turd Flinging Monkey) has repeated that trans activists have done more for men’s rights than the actual Men’s Rights Movement, and TFM himself identifies as a “masculine presenting trans-gendered lesbian”, and encourages others to do so with a legal gender change, as there have been several success stories of men saving their jobs and even their financial aid for school by just changing that one letter on their ID card.
If we live in Clown World, and you’re not a clown, then the joke is on you.
Jordan Peterson explained quite well that despite how much children rebel against structure, it is actually good for them, as regulated meal and sleeping times prevents them from becoming irritable, and a lack of discipline from the parent leads the children to become frustrated and angry all the time, especially out in public.
So rules are good for us, but the best rules we can play by are the ones we apply to ourselves. After all, you don’t have to be MGTOW and red pilled. But you keep choosing the lifestyle for a reason, and it’s probably because you recognize, maybe not even consciously, that some rules, some limitations, actually allow you to grow.
For example, you may have realized, despite your tantrums, that cutting out women from your life has saved you time and money that allows you to now more seriously pursue your hobbies or career.
So, play by the strictest rules of all, and go Monk Mode, and see how far the roots and branches of the Tree of Life can truly grow.
Meditate on these matters.
Thank you for reading. – Monk Moon Base
““No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” ― Carl Jung”
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