So I was sitting on my couch earlier bummed out because the San Francisco 49ers, my favorite football team, lost their home opener. I thought back on all those disappointing moments in the past where the team came up short and Also those times where the team was triumphant. It suddenly occurred to me that I invested so much of my time and my emotions in the experiences of a team I'm not a part of. I was riding high on the successes of a group of men I will never know and beat myself up over their failures.

This is the spiritual epidemic of the age of mass media. The banality of our daily lives has us seeking emotional and experiential fulfillment from the television screen. Sports fanaticism, celebrity gossip, pop culture idolism and reality TV are the opiates which distract us from our misery.

The betafication of men is not just a product of Feminism but also of mass consumerism. The definition of a beta is a man who lacks control over his life and his identity. The modern man willfully forfeits these over to corporations and movements that don't give a fuck about him so that he can have a false sense of association with famous people he will never know.

The path of self actualization begins with the tuning out of all those things which do not matter. Only then can we devote ourselves completely to becoming men of action, achievement and fulfillment. This is the way of the alpha, but is also the way of hardship. It takes discipline, dedication, sacrifice and persistence. We must reject all that makes us weak and distracts us from our mission. Only then can we truly join in association with the brotherhood of successful men that we previously admired from afar.