In my video chat with my friends (a bunch of dudes in mid 20s to early 30s) this week, a friend show off his collection of books he read over the past year. A total of 31 books from scifi novels, literary classics, political theory, outdoors/nature books, and car maintenance. Which got use discussing how we'd all probably "should" (I mean this in the least reactionary way possible) read more. We then started discussing other things we all "should" and things we all "should" know as men. Then we all kinda circled back to so much of the "man-o-sphere" is like half a step away from some real regressive and slimeball mindsets across the spectrum. Then we on to our evening gaming session (we are getting back into RTS and played 2v2 sets of Dawn of War, we are all very bad at the game).
However, it got me thinking that there is probably some value in me knowing how fix the sink or whatever. One friend mentioned he'd love to learn and do more, but everything is so cheap so much is meant to be replaced, it doesn't make sense to learn how to maintain them. Personally I find the idea of self-sufficiency (in the least "rugged man/classical masculinity" online cosplay-y way possible) to be dope, but I find that trying to learn that sort of stuff brings you into proximity of lots of nasty ideology.
Personally I think it's rad a working-class guy like my friend has time to be so well-read and manages to find time for "bettering" (again, I find this wordage to be a bit lib-y in the sense it's often used to make oneself more marketable or whatever) himself without falling into a "12 Rules For Life" sorta trap. I'd love to improve my "manliness" but would like to do so without all the toxicity of the antiquated archetypical stuff.
Sorry this doesn't make a ton of sense. Typing on my lunch break. My question, I guess, is what are some "traditional" values you think are worth "returning to" without the gross underlying traits that make them quickly turn conservative nonsense.
after a revolution, the society that forms will enjoy a bit of protection by conservative elements because of their drive to protect the status quo, whatever it is -- this will work to our favor in protecting such a society from reactionaries. that is, if you divest conservative of its liberalism, its only function is to keep society from changing too much, which works as well to ward off a counterrevolution as it does to prevent a revolution today. so the goal of a revolutionary movement must be to install an engine of continued change such that class antagonisms are erased before any victories by counterrevolutionaries can start to roll them back -- this way, conservative elements quickly come to accept this new state of affairs as normal and work to defend it, rather than continuously fighting it. we've seen this work in the Soviet Union and other socialist states, though the constant pressure from external counterrevolutionary forces makes any final victory impossible until the revolution encompasses us all.
I'd separate that tendency from the reactionary urges to essentialize and fetishize people -- literally reducing entire categories of people into objects of either fear or desire. that just needs to be stamped out and it can't be tolerated on any front.
masculinity is not one of these. it's the essentialization of men into impossible ideals that creates the insecurities and subsequent fragility of self that makes recent articulations of it so reactionary. be a man. just look for a version of masculinity that recognizes shared, collective vulnerabilities as strengths, rather than weaknesses to be eliminated.
good post