The young men who come to find TRP in their younger years have felt the sting of our societies cold nature earlier than many. For you younger guys: take heart. Society seems to be, and is, stacked against you right now. I would like to introduce you to how ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ can help you understand the timeline of the typical RP male and what is to come. The hare is a great metaphor for western women today, just as the tortoise is an equally powerful metaphor for men. Both of these play their prospective parts in the tale, as does the concept that having a huge lead in one area usually leads to stagnation and ultimately failure. Bring all of that together and you have a rock solid analogy for modern RP dynamics.

A version of this story occurs in many cultures, from Native American lore to a reference in the Bible. Most people are familiar with Aesop’s version of the story, but let’s recap. The tortoise and the hare are at a party, and hare is belittling tortoise. Tortoise challenges hare to a race. The hare convinces himself he has the race won before he starts, and falls asleep by the wayside. The tortoise eventually wins due to the hares arrogance and self-indulgence. Much like our society, the hare is the main focus of the story.

The hare is an excellent metaphor for modern western women. When a hare runs at full speed, it generally can’t keep a consistent course. In the case of our story, the hare is so confident that it goes to sleep, eats, and sleeps some more, then tries to catch up at the last second, only to face humiliation at inevitable loss. The parallels should be pretty obvious, but lets restate them. Most western women spend their twenties and thirties enjoying the significant advantages that good looks afford them. Once it is obvious that their looks and youth, and therefore advantage, are waning they attempt to secure their future, or catch up as it were, by marrying some beta shmuck. Usually this ends with a divorce and her bleeding him like a leech. Three decades of a life on a pedestal has left these women with no concept of money management and a poor work ethic combined with children, and the fact that they are no longer shielded from the negative consequences of their decisions. This doesn’t paint a pretty picture, and post divorce most women have lost twenty five percent of their net worth within one year. What’s the number one way these women regain that lost income? You guessed it: re-marrying. So how does the tortoise avoid becoming the prey of this parasite?

In Native American culture, the turtle represents a form of stoic behavior. Western men can commiserate with these humble beasts because they themselves have to develop a similar emotional outer shell to deal with daily life in our society. The reason for this outer shell is that men are judged not by looks but by accomplishment. Men are pushed to succeed every day and reminded of it harshly if they do not, each and every day. While on the surface this sounds like a raw deal for men and a good deal for women, TRP men should actually take succor from it. As TRP men embrace the call to improve themselves daily, their value to society will increase at a steady pace. In the same divorce scenario mentioned above for the hare, the men maintained the same net worth. Given that they now have child support and alimony, which one would most people agree is adapting to circumstance better? So how do many women squander the advantages they have in their twenties and early thirties?

Lets talk about the ‘Dialectics of Lead.’ This is a theory, which states that when a person has a significant advantage, they tend to stop progressing and lose the ability to adapt. At that point, others begin to overtake them. In his essay, which explained the theory, Jan Romein used London as an example. London was the first city to use artificial gas-powered lights at night. Later when many cities began to imitate London, they opted for electrical lighting. London did not upgrade to electrical lighting because they already had the gas-powered lights. London eventually had to play catch up by installing electric lights in many areas, but they were far behind other cities. Some areas of London still use gas lamps. In that technical sense, London never caught up. Applying the same logic to women, men, and the wall gives us a pretty succinct explanation of why, in the long run, TRP men will offer more value to society, and therefore reap more of the rewards it has to offer.

To conclude, many young men come to TRP feeling the sting of rejection and the pressure society places upon men. At issue is the fact that many have not been brought up in such a way as to have that thick outer shell that is a badge of stoic honor. The good news is that it develops over time. Keep that steady pace of self-improvement and you will find that deflecting the slings and arrows of life become much easier. It’s also rather amusing that in many versions of this tale, the hare loudly proclaims that the tortoise cheated. Some just can’t accept that their poor choices led to poor outcomes.

Be the tortoise.

Sources:

http://childhoodreading.com/?p=3

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/financial-hit-is-worse-for-women-after-marriage-end-20120723-22krf.html

http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/turtle-symbol.htm