I write a fair amount about great men, trying to find the lessons that they left behind either in their words or their actions. I read about them a fair amount as well.
I’ve loved the books on Teddy Roosevelt and Robert E. Lee that now rest on my shelf. I just put down a book on Captain James Cook and books on Churchill and Napoleon and Cato have all been read and absorbed, their lessons in audacity, their virtues, and sheer determination guide me through my days and help me create a fair amount of content for the site and whatever else I’m writing.
This isn’t the greatness that our society will miss most, however. There will always be men who, with an invention, with their might and courage, their imagination and their grit, shape society. They’ll fight tyranny and lay their lives down for their brothers.
The greatness our society and especially our coming generations may miss out on is even more important. It’s the greatness found not in political office or business or art, but the greatness found at the head of the table as the family sits down for a late evening dinner. As everyone talks about their day, their struggles, complaints, and gripes, this form of greatness sits silent in appreciation of what he has before him. His lessons are rarely written down. Instead you have to pay attention to even realize that they’re being taught. They may come in the form of a word or two, but they’re usually shown through his daily, even routine actions.
They aren’t proclaimed. They aren’t put on a page for the world to see. They aren’t put on Facebook. They exist in the day-to-day struggle of great men who do what must be done to provide for their family, to give their kids a better life.
I’ve never heard my dad complain. The guy isn’t perfect. He’ll tell you that too. But he worked hard to give my mom, sister, and myself all we needed. We couldn’t afford all that much when I was growing up so what needed to be done around the house, he did. He wasn’t handy by any stretch of the imagination, but with the guidance of the “for Dummies” series of books he fixed leaks and renovated a deck, two bathrooms, and a couple other rooms in the house that he bought.
He didn’t do these things for glory. He worked because work is important, it makes a man feel of value, it gives him a purpose. He worked because he needed to. He could have earned more money but he let his faith lead his career choice. (Read This: Find Happiness in Work. Not Work in Happiness)
He taught me a lot, but with few words. They’re lessons I’m only really beginning to fully grasp now. I’m sure when I have a family of my own I’ll only further understand his greatness.
Throughout the evolution of our cultures and societies we’ve been led and uplifted by great men that sit at the head of a filled table come dinner time. They’re leaders of families, not leaders of nations. They don’t seek glory in the slightest. A smile on their child’s face and maybe a thank-you now and then is more than they’d ever wish for.
As our values change for the worse, as we become a more entitled culture, one that feels we deserve things like jobs or food or an education without having earned them, these men become an after thought. As we’re taught to complain about whatever we feel isn’t unjust in our lives our sons cannot grow up to be the men that made our nations great and free.
As we feel we’re the center of the world, boys cannot grow up to be men as many of have known them. The great men I’m speaking of were the center of nothing. Everything was on their shoulders, but their career, their vacations, and their weekends were about their family, not their desires or emotions or dreams.
I can’t believe this, but I’m about to quote Tom Hardy…
“A great man is largely forgotten by the public. He doesn’t stand on top of a mountain waving a flag saying, “Look at me—I’m a great man.” A great man often disappears into the ether.
Hardly anyone notices that he was even there, apart from his family and close friends. He was reliable. He showed up. He was there. He was useful where he could be. He made mistakes.
Tried to make better of those mistakes. Doesn’t mean you have to cure cancer or understand the theory of relativity. It’s not necessarily as rock-and-roll or as cool as you might think.
Part of being a great man is accepting that. To dare to be average and normal is actually a pathway to becoming a great man. To have more humility. To accept responsibility more. To just get on with what’s in front of your face. And to leave no fucking indelible mark of your ever being here, apart from the fact that you were there for your family to the best of your ability. It’s not an easy task. I’ll probably fuck it up.”
Political Correctness Causes Cowards
There are forces in our society right now that we can brush off as being a part of the times. But they’re dangerous. They’re dangerous because they threaten to make the values that bore a great and free nation obsolete and evil. These forces come under the guise of political correctness and a society that’s trying to be more accepting when the opposite results. We create divisions. Goodness and greatness are no longer things we aspire for, but mediocrity. We praise the odd, the weird, we give a man who turns himself into a woman the woman of the year award. (Read This: A Man Cannot Be Politically Correct)
Saying that fathers, those hard-working leaders who woke up early, without complaint, day in and day out, are the backbone of our society is likely even politically incorrect. But it’s true. And when we teach our youngsters that working hard isn’t that important, and we don’t award them for the fruits of the effort, nor tell them simple truths like there are two genders, and what you identify as is nice, but it isn’t founded in reality, we confuse the heck out of young humans are are already confused enough.
When we tell our teens that they can hide from the realities of the world and from the differing opinions of others we remove their ability to become tough. And in removing the trials and the grit that our men need to develop, we create generations of spineless pussies who cannot do what men have done for thousands of years: defend their homes and lead their families.
Men are and always have been the burden-bearers. When we get it into our son’s minds that they can avoid the harshness and toughness of life we remove the crutch that everyone else would lean on in their time of need. (Check This Out: Life Is Hard. Deal With It.)
The Compass of the Collective
I had my old man as a guide. More and more kids, because of their pussy “fathers”, won’t have any male guidance in their life, pulling them away from the wrong intentions and pushing them toward those values that all men need to develop. Men teach men not to provide excuses, nor complain, but also what’s truly important in life in the grand scheme, something that our modern society seems to have no clue about.
We teach our kids that money and image are all that matters.
Now, more than ever – and by a long shot – kids want to be famous as a profession. Fame is their goal, not service, nor providing for a family. Our goals are now all about us and the way we reach them has no value to anyone but the man in the mirror.
We teach our boys to be like girls. Fighting is a big no-no. We tell our sons to run and tell a teacher if they’re getting bullied because to stand up for yourself would mean that you’d have to hit another human, and under no circumstances is violence the answer. Well, violence is the answer. It’s always the answer when you’re dealing with a bully and when you’re dealing with an evil that only respects strength. (Read This: 10 Lessons Every Father Should Teach His Son)
My old man grew up in a much simpler time, and it’s a time I’m convinced that molded him into a dad that many in my generation and those before were blessed to have. His old man was the same. As was my great grandfather.
When we try so hard to change a value system, and when we do our utmost to make men and women appear the same, we threaten to rip these fathers from the society that they built.
The lesson is simple.
If you’re a dad, or just a single fella, and you’re looking at celebrities, these whores of fame whom our society has anointed as great, as important, as the most valuable, understand that greatness isn’t shouted, it’s something you show day in and day out, devoid of complaint and praise, in the name of making others lives better.
You may never be rewarded for what you do, but you are great.
And for those who educate our youth, winning does matter because to win you have to work hard. You have to push through pain and remain disciplined.
Losers will always try to explain the victory of others by saying that they had to have cheated.
They’re losers. They can’t comprehend what a real, honest work day feels like, let alone a lifetime of working their ass off. So they award everyone and in the process they remove winners from a society that’s dependent on them to create jobs, build buildings, pave roads, raise cattle and crops and feed an ever-growing population.
And yes, women and men are different. It’s best shown in young boys and young girls. Let boys be boys. Let them fight. Let them get beat up. Let them solve their own problems. Let them get in trouble. They aren’t meant to sit quietly in a classroom all day. They have too much energy and adventure within them to be confined to a desk.
We’ll need them some day soon to once again defend our nations from the evil that sprouts and festers and gains strength thanks in large part to the growing tide of political correctness, the sickness that’s popping up in every corner of our once free society.
Don’t hide from the truth, and don’t be afraid of it.
Speak your mind and teach your sons to speak theirs, but to live their truth and their values more than anything else.
Aspire to be great both with audacity and humility. Follow in the steps of a Theodore Roosevelt or James Cook, but never neglect the greatness sitting at the head of the table, putting food in your mouth and a roof over your head. That’s true greatness. It’s greatness that shapes a nation and lifts a society up. We need these men now more than ever as losers would rather have us limp along in dependence and misery.
Read This: 5 Ways Men Are Becoming Little Bitches
About The Author
Chad Howse: Chad’s mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live. He’s a former 9-5er turned entrepreneur, a former scrawny amateur boxer turned muscular published fitness author. He’ll give you the kick in the ass needed to help you live a big, ambitious life.
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Right on the money young man. Now you just keep being a pied piper for bringing back alpha males but don’t forget to have children of your own. Earlier in my life, through work and ambition I put myself in the position to do big things but for one reason or another I squandered it, now that I have children I often think if someone were to tell me that they could allow to go back in time and relive with success everything big opportunity, but to do that I would have to give up my children, I would punch him right in the face.
I actually had this conversation over the weekend with a pal of mine. He has two kids. One’s my godson. It’s something I think’s incredibly important, and something I’ll put more effort into for sure.
Pass on those good genes. Good genes with a good father figure will provide more warrior’s, both male and female, to do battle with the evil that is trying to destroy what’s left of our freedom.
This is good shit. I wish I gave 2 shits about what people thought. If I did, I would inquire about the authors litmus test that discriminates the ‘great’ men from those who are too busy creating he perfect Android home screen.
It doesn’t matter really. The mediocre man can piss-off for being a douche bag who has no-respect-for-his-own-4th rights. Look at all that group think that gets generated. And the ‘man’ who has been waiting to be judged a ‘Great’ man using the Great Process of telling men they are great.crowned by his peers, deemed ‘Great’ by some other man… should be told to doubly PISS-OFF for participating in a contest that gives someone the opportunity to tell you about you…when you shouldn’t be giving 2 shits about what the declination between a ‘Great Man’ and the normally aspirated man, but this judging of men by men who keep other men waiting around in suspense makes him look like a bitch.
I’d rather my self declared own man, than have whatever it is that keeps the bitchboy hanging out to get the man to give him the man nod on his Greatness.
I hope that it’s over soon.
That’s what she said,