Good evening gents. Spurred on by the recent frontpage "Be a Villain" thread, I decided to post a bit of a counterpoint to that post. I feel its very important to note why we value heroes, and why a hero has all of the masculine qualities that a villain lacks.

First, let me tell you about one of the oft repeated words that I encountered in my time as a grunt, "integrity". To the common soldier, integrity meant someone doing the right thing knowing they wouldn't be awarded for it. Whether that means whoever dumped the old beer off of the barracks catwalk admitting it and doing his extra duty, or sticking up for a friend about to take the fall, integrity is a very masculine trait that is apart of the "hero" definition: doing the right thing knowing we won't be awarded for it. Often times, the right thing is indeed the harder path to take compared to the wrong thing, which can quickly earn a bad reputation among your peers.

Now, let me tie this into what the hero is. Here, first, is what he isn't, taken from the other post:

The "hero mentality" as I like to call it, waits for a chance to prove he was great all along, doing little to prepare for it in the process. That is, he fails to achieve greatness, because life doesn't give us a weak point in our obstacles that we don't have to find ourselves.

Heroes never ask for the chance to be "proven great", they step up in dire situations and complete the task they were never even asked to do. Villains, on the other hand, wait for their chance in the spotlight and usually at the expense of others.

The hero is a beta. The villain is an alpha. Don't be the hero of your story, be the villain of everyone else's. Crush "underdog heroes" beneath your feet, and you'll find you're a hell of a lot higher in the world than the broken bodies under your boots.

The crux here is that a "villain" takes the easy road because he steps over others to make a gain and has no integrity, which he throws to the wayside. You can go ahead and feel good when you get home that you pushed aside some lower male to fuck the girl, but in the end, I and any other self respectable man will look down on you for it.

Why? Because a man with true self worth builds others up in his path. The hero is valued because he boosts the value of everyone around him on his way to goals. He is the "alpha" the weak flock to, and when he is faced with an obstacle he overcomes it instead of slithering around it. In addition, we value the hero because he has some form of integrity, which lets be real, many of the population doesn't have.

Don't fall into the trap of taking the easy road gents. Be the hero of your life. Let every person who comes into contact with you walk away a better person because of it, man or woman. Have some fucking integrity and get it done.

Here's a quote to summarize my point, from "The Charisma Myth" (Great book by the way, highly recommend it to make you a more effective man):

Legend has it that British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and his political rival William Gladstone had a date with the same woman on different nights. When asked her impression of the two men, she said,

“When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr. Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But after sitting next to Mr. Disraeli, I thought I was the cleverest woman in England."

If you are a great man, people will know it. So take the high road, and as others cross your path elevate them as well, and your reputation as well as your own opinion of yourself as a man will climb. Be a hero.