Book review

Man Up — Masculinity Amidst Madness by Ryan Landry Reviewed

The Spanish conquerors were amazed by the giant pyramids of Teotihuacan but nobody could tell them who built them. In today’s Washington Post one Brandon Hasbrouk employed by Washington-Lee university writes that the names of both racist terrorists should be deleted. Teotihuacan —
Edward N Luttwak

It is a nice coincidence to discover Luttwak’s tweet (we met this gentleman earlier) while reviewing Landry’s heartfelt essay, Masculinity Amidst Madness.

The Enemy’s plan of raising up barbarians inside the gate, instead of rousing foreign invaders, was brilliant. It’s not that the alarm against destroyers in our midst wasn’t raised, often and loudly, but that because the barbarians were, we thought, our own people, we believed they would come to see their sins and repent.

They did not.

We now pay the price of our failure to heed the warnings, itself the result of our love of comfort, fear of open conflict, and, it must be admitted, our own lapses into barbarism. Before we get to that, what makes Luttwak’s remark important is first the obvious historical parallel, but also the unspoken one. The obvious connection is that many scholars believe Teotihuacan fell because of riots, its destruction caused by its own people.

The less obvious connection was what came after: the Aztecs. Something to look forward to. Only instead of feathered priests cutting the beating hearts out of prisoners, we’ll have blue-haired Karen priestesses doing front-alley post-birth abortions. The sacrifices in both cases are to the same Enemy.

Trump well summarized our situation in South Dakota this weekend—and it does’t matter who wrote these words—“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children. Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.”

The war is upon is. What can we do?

Man up.

The days of comfort and ease are over. We have to figure a way to both draw back and remain in the degrading culture simultaneously. We can’t all flee. We have to fight, but fight wisely since our enemies are much stronger.

The best way to rebel, says Landry, is to restore the tradition of manliness, cast off all vestiges of equality between the sexes, and rediscover the true understanding of the essence of men.

Landry, like Bronze Age Pervert before him, does not beyond broad targets offer a blueprint or a step-by-step guide to achieving our goals. He instead reminds us what we lost, a most valuable service.

There is today a distinct absence of manliness, a deficit encouraged and facilitated by our enemies. It starts at birth. “Today, a young man of 18 is lucky to have had one man in his life to emulate”, beside what he sees on line and on screen, says Landry. “We now have a mass of young men who have grown up with their heads hung low, never knowing their father.” Other men must step up to provide these boys with guidance. We must look after our own.

How to become worthy of emulation is what this essay is about. There are many ways.

Shut off the noise. Eschew your thinking suppression device when going for a walk. Wean yourself from it entirely if you can, or treat it, like TV and the internet, for the tools they are. A carpenter is not forever fondling his hammer.

Read old books. Learn something in depth. Learn to use your hands. “Do not consider your small studies to be insignificant.” Be humble and approach your betters—not in credentials, but in ability—and be willing to be taught.

The biggest problem for most of us is food. Stop eating crap. Eat meat. Keep in mind the inverse relationship between quality and processing. The more a thing is created in a factory and developed by food scientists—food scientists!—the less likely it should pass your lips. Learn to cook—and sit down in peace for a meal.

Get in shape. “The human body is not meant to be overinflated skin filled with fat. Those that encourage this want you sluggish and slow. They want you sick and limping through life.”

Incidentally, how many people do you know who take no medicines? In Paul Harvey’s For What It’s Worth there was a story of a lady who lived to be 103. Asked the secret of her longevity, she replied with an answer regular readers will recall: Stay away from doctors.

Everybody already knows how to stay away. To learn to eat well, or to get into shape, is the same to learn anything. “Control your emotions”. Self discipline is not going to come easy, especially in a culture that views self-control as a vice. I fail more than I succeed. But we must all try harder.

Not only that, this: “If you see an obese man at the gym struggling on the treadmill or with a weight, do not mock him. Encourage him.” If we are going to develop a brotherhood, we must have it in all things.

A gym is not a necessity. Join what my Number One son calls “the push-up club”. “Three simple, foundational compound movements are the pull-up, push-up, and the squat. What is the excuse when a doorframe pull-up bar costs as much as a case of beer?”

We must resist the matriarchy. “It is a mad world or a sick society, but one where men comply with feminized norms.”

It’s only going to get worse.

No one is coming to save you. You can assume the mantle of authority in your life. Build a life around you and it will become your realm. A moment of crisis may endanger you or a loved one. Do you have that spark to defend your honor or your territory? Have you lived so that others know what stakes you are willing to risk for your honor and loved ones?

Honor is a dead word. We all remember what CS Lewis said: “We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” But we seldom recall what he said right after: “We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Seek honor for yourself, but first make it your duty to honor that which is deserving. Your ancestors, the best of your culture, and not some other peoples’ (Landry warns strongly about “purchasing” experiences). Seek the transcendent in everything. Worship God. Find a priest who still believes in mystery. (Priests should only be spiritual leaders, by the way.)

Seek beauty. Junk art and music and entertainment does the same to your soul, or worse, as soy-drenched breakfast flakes.

Men these days seem to have trouble finding good women. This is because women have bought the lies of our matriarchy. When women live by them, they become wrecks. Don’t complain about average women, says Landry, but become a better man yourself to attract superior women. Women long to find strong men.

There is much more, covering every time of a man’s life, but perhaps the most important is the discussion, well familiar to certain of us, of the creation of a Männerbund. This is “a group of men that is organized and aligned with males instincts and drive.”

This is much more than a fraternal organization that men join to get ahead in life and spend some time away from the ladies. It is a true brotherhood, a network of men—only normal men!—who count on, support, and rely on each other. A community. And the best, and probably only, defense against the accelerating corruption.

The Männerbund respects its members’ family, property, and women. The Männerbund is formed prior to the addition of women and children. It helps encourage family formation. What member of a Männerbund would seduce a friend’s wife, harm a peer’s child, or not care for his fellow member’s family as if they were an extension of his. To be part of a Männerbund is to fulfill these responsibility and duties for your fellow members and to enjoy greater security for yourself.

Nobody knows the best way of forming these brotherhoods, but Landry has apt advice: don’t write anything down, no membership lists, control entry rigorously and limit membership to those of your own people only. No “fed poasting” or active talk about overthrowing anything. Forming these bonds seems to me difficult to do in a city, if only because there are more spies about.

“Every male virtue,” says Landry, “Is treated as a vice for which we must repent and apologize. Simply exhibiting [manly] traits makes one suspect in the eyes of the bugmen.” It is our duty to save what we can from the bugmen, and to save what bugmen we can, too—while well recalling the aphorism about pearls before swine.

If you are already convinced of this, then this book will be a reminder to you of how much has been taken from us. In that case, the service you can do is put this book in the hands of some young man who is vulnerable. But if you’ve not yet seen through the lies and filth that surround us, then you will want this book for yourself.

To use the old cliche, you might not care about the culture war, but the culture war cares about you. Join the fight.

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Categories: Book review

18 replies »

  1. Excellent post. We all need insight and encouragement in our post-masculine time.

  2. What I seem to hear, over and over, is ‘Divide and Conquer’. The ‘deleting of the difference between men and women’ (an absolute necessity that we be different). and the ‘thinly veiled issue of diversity’. They all are a method of division. Couple that with the attack on our culture by BLM and Antifa, is a cadre of ‘useful idiots’ that are expendable by the standards of Garry Schwartz (George Soros) and his paid minions. They may not succeed but if they can create enough chaos they have one a part of the battle. We need to return to our “Biological” imperative and do our “job” in the Social Structure. It will NOT all be Great of even Good but it is necessary.

  3. “We have to fight, but fight wisely since our enemies are much stronger.” Are they? I doubt Soros pays them what private mercenary groups pay and without MUCH MUCH money, most of these people are not willing to die. If it came down to it, and the cowards that only give lip service to the 2nd Amendment (Hey, they paid the NRA. Why should they have to actually defend us??????) manned up, it would be interesting to see what happens. Of course, it will never happen. Republicans are flat out cowards and all the 2nd amendment people believe owning a gun is all it takes. NEVER EVER would they have to use it. That’s not what the Founding Fathers meant by a militia—they were poker players and this was meant to be a BLUFF. It’s working, for the enemies of America.

    There is no step-by-step guide and if there were, ONLY AN IDIOT WOULD PUBLISH IT. Landry addresses this later on with his ideas for remasculating men.

    Since people will not pull their kids from school, shut off the computer and cell phone, Landry wasted his time. Of course the simple fact he can publish this is proof. It there was the slightest chance it would make a difference, it could not be published. It’s not indicating we still have freedom, though you hopeful Happy Bettys keep believing it does.

    Other men do not substitute for a father. None of the psychobabble you have heard on that is true. “Big Brothers”, “mentors”, special teacher that saved my life, etc. Too few, too ineffective. First, children emulate their parents and in the absence of a parent, they have nothing. Second, there are “fathers” and those are called gang leadrs. They succeed because they own the kid. All other useless substitutes can be dismissed at will by any mother or guardian.

    I agree we need to eat more meat and learn to cook. However, condemning food scientists is not really fair. Yes, the morons made fake processed not really meat substitute, but they also made food safer. Maybe ignore anything the scientist does that the government endorses.

    I would be dead if I stayed away from doctors, but okay, I guess Briggs really has zero knowledge of medical science or else wants fewer readers. How about THINKING while see a doctor? (Funny, I think Briggs is using ONE analogy and trying to create some fallacy that a 103 woman is everyone in the world. He left out the hundreds that died of curable or treatable diseases because of his advice. You know, like those worthless cancer survivors, diabetics, epileptics, etc. We know what Briggs thinks of his readers now, don’t we? Also, when did analogy substitute for actual science? I thought that was wrong when the global warming people did that….)

    Really????? You’re blaming 4 year olds with diabetes, cancer, cleft palate for FAILURE to take care of themselves??????

    NOTHING was taken from men—they fought over who could hand these things over first. They sold out, were cowards. NO ONE TOOK ANYTHING.

  4. Excellent post!
    Wisdom is so simple, ignorance and stupidity so complex. And it seeks to endlessly “complexify” everything, endlessly.
    I say simple, but it does take effort…and faith is something greater then ourselves.

  5. Sheri,
    I have no idea who you might be but you might consider reading Dr. David Grossman, M.D. (A Psychiatrist that taught at West Point) and discusses what we DO NOT do willingly. We do not like to kill our fellow man. To that end the military has done a lot of study on how to change that set of numbers. This might bring you to understand why the segment of the population that wants to be free (interpreted to mean, “Wishes to be left alone to live life as we see fit”.) Will not go quickly to arms and why Garry Schwartz is willing to pay ‘useful idiots’, that are expendable, money to get this thing started. I am not sure that he, and the the Bill Gates of this world want war but certainly want control. That said, ‘Money and Power, like Mass and Energy are neither created nor destroyed and if you have one you have the other’.

  6. Dr. Wineman: Humans were taught to have an aversion to killing in each other, mostly in the USA and other “civilized” countries. It is in no possible way considered natural. See Cain/Able. For all of history, violent societies wiped out their enemies without remorse. As Briggs noted with the Aztecs. It is who we are. This is part of the emasculation of humanity and the easiest way to destroy a country–teach people it’s wrong to fight tyranny. I understand how the communists grew this and how people are taught to behave as sheep, which is what this is. I also learned more in concealed carry class from a person who actually had shot someone and was bothered by the reality that it was justified but not socially acceptable. So how do we fix this? We let it go too long as far as I can see or people wouldn’t be hiding like sheep watching the enemy burn their lives down. I am not disagreeing with Dr. Grossman that we have certainly developed a mentality that makes us unwilling to fight even when be torn apart by the wolves. I just don’t see any fixing what the Communists and progressives brainwashed into decades of school children. Ours is a cowardly society. It may be too late to worry about the “why”.

    Yes, freedom is often considered wanting to be alone–mostly by hiding and hoping the real world is not real. Freedom only exists as long as people are willing to fight for it. Good vs evil struggle never ends. Either you fight or you become a subject or slave. We had a good run before the subversives won. Be happy.

  7. I would add: When someone, especially female, asked about a concealed carry class or buying a gun, the first question I ask is “Are you willing to kill another human being?” If the answer is “No” or there’s hestitation, I tell them NOT to get or carry a gun. Also, if one is only willing to use the gun in defense of their children and not themselves, the answer is NO, you don’t need a gun.

    The second question is “Are you willing to practice with the gun shooting at a life-size human target that is a photo, not a silhouette?” This, in this day and age, is more a thought exercise, but if there’s hesitation, you probably should not have a gun.

    You have to teach people to rehearse using a deadly weapon mentally before they need to use it. They need to be clear when deadly force is appropriate and when they should try other options. They need a clear moral code, one they always follow because if they use the weapon, they’re going to need that code to help them deal.

    I do understand. Which is probably why the “2nd Amendment” bluffers bother me so much. Guns and death are not bluffs. You don’t say you will defend something if you’re going to hide under a desk. It’s wrong.

  8. Sheri,
    I don’t believe anyone knows how they will react when faced with the decision to kill. You can mind game the issue all you want but I am not sure you are any better a judge than Grossman.

  9. From the mass media race-baiting photos of 12 y/o St. Martin to the
    Soros funded riots this has all been designed to provoke a violent reaction.
    By all means defend yourselves if necessary but don’t fall for the violent
    mass reaction they are trying to provoke. The self inflicted austerity they
    have brought upon themselves is a punishment they will feel for years to
    come. When they have to drive for an hour to find a grocery store or job it
    will slowly sink in. There’s an old adage about defecating where you eat and
    this is really all they’ve accomplished .

    These are all blue cities being damaged and by the election the absence
    of shopping opportunities will weigh heavily upon them. A united silent
    majority that never responds to polls takes it’s revenge at the ballot box, this
    is what they really fear. These rudderless idiots are imploding and will languish
    in obscurity like the occupy movement of yesteryear’s news. Frankly with their
    pink hair and tight jeans they don’t have the grit to be worth the bother. Leave them to stew in their liberal sewers with their rat governors and mayors and
    hollowed out tax bases. Quarantine is the best solution they’ve chewed
    off their tails soon they’ll feed on each other.

  10. Dr. Wineman: I don’t know if I’m any better or not. That remains to be seen. I have an opinion and stated it. In spite of the “mind games” dissing, it’s a psychological fact that rehearsing your reaction increases the probability of making the correct decision. (No, I don’t have the studies available.) Think about it. When you need to react, if you’ve played it out in your mind hundreds of times, what are most likely to do. Works with defensive driving, too.

    No one knows what will happen, but it’s being a fatalist to assume that nothing increases the probability of increasing that success. Yes, a professional training with paint balls that really, really hurt and being pulled out immediately when you’re killed is better than a mind game, but not everyone can find such activities. (Properly done, it can make grown men cry.)

    I fully understand that a real human and possibly bullets flying by cannot be totally practiced, but that may be the reason cops are so bad at their jobs at times. Zero practice and zero thinking ahead is guaranteed failure.

  11. @Sheri — I viewed your series of questions not so much as a foil to make a decision against, but a lesson to check my intentions with.

  12. Indeed, unless it is life-or-death situation stay away from medications, I cannot emphasize this enough. It is important to note that ALL drugs (taken chronically) cause physical dependence, not just psychoactive ones. It is also important to note that drugs do NOT treat illnesses only manage symptoms. But since the causes of so many diseases are not known, all doctors can do is manage the symptoms with drugs, but by interfering with and disrupting so many negative-feedback loops in the body drugs may themselves cause many diseases. We cannot influence our genetics, but moderate physical activity and a healthy diet are of supreme importance for health. Also lifestyle changes: avoid stress & always get enough sleep.

  13. “(Priests should only be spiritual leaders, by the way.)”
    What is the road ye are goin down, Briggs?

  14. May God bless you for this effort, Mr. Briggs — please, please, please keep it up.

    It’s a shame to see the discussion derailed into para military discussion.

    This is about working on one of the root causes of the insanity surrounding us.

    I don’t really want to poke my female nose into it because I think female noses pushing in everywhere is one of the primary root causes of the insanity of our age. The men need to work on this.

    But I did want to pass along two suggestions.

    On forming fellowship. It is my experience with age that real friendships form from ACTIVITY. I think it’s part of how God built us. Sorta like how feeling FOLLOWS doing, not the reverse. So for instance there, if you decide to start treating your husband kindly you will start FEELING kindly about your husband. Surprise!

    Anyways, getting together with men that want to do some manly thing together, say shooting, or fishing, or building things, or whatever, will build real friendships.

    And Fr. Ripperger has an outstanding video on this topic. Do a search on: how to raise a man sensus fidelium

  15. I’m sorry, I failed to mention a key element in using activity to build relationships.

    The activity must be, at least to some degree, difficult or challenging.

    Say for instance, going out to the local abortion mill, week in, week out, in horrifying weather, to try to save poor sinners and their babies.

    So, going to the shooting range together will be fun, but by itself won’t build deep friendships. The kind that allow fraternal encouragement and fraternal CORRECTION and fraternal pulling together in crisis.

    The camaraderie is a benefit of what is built, not what does the building.

    But you could take that same activity and grow that deep friendship by using it to help form boys that need male role models.

    Virtually all of us at this point have nephews, or cousins, or grandsons that are being raised without a decent male role model.

    Root cause, big time.

    And the enemy took out boy scouts just for this moment!

    But what if, very, very, informally men just started pitching in.

    Say a couple men with a few of these boys they personally know just make a commitment to working with them on a regular schedule.

    Doing manly things. Preferably at least somewhat hard manly things. Like learning all there is about proper sportsman shooting. Or all working on fixing mom’s faucet. And mixing the hard with the fun, because St. John Bosco said doing the fun with the boys is critical too.

    Seems it might produce a lot of good effect.

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