From the day we are born, society begins to view us as tools. We are innocent only in childhood then soon begin our training to become the human doings that we are intended to become. In light of this truth, only three paths are ultimately available to men in life:

1) The way of the slave

Plantation life. Man up, fit into civil society, get a job, get married, breed. In other words, follow the life script. Do what you have been instructed to do by mother until she passes your reigns over to your wife, and she will continue to instruct you until your eventual passing.

2) The way of the patriarch

The patriarch is the ultimate provider. He is king of his domain and his wife and kids are his subjects. His word is law. This is the path that most slaves believe they are, somehow, eventually going to be on. However, the patriarch is special. The patriarch is not just boss at home, he is boss at work. His family consists not just of wife and children but also of employees and distant relatives. The patriarch commands respect because he is powerful and benevolent.

As most disillusioned tradcons have come to realize, the patriarch path has been indefinitely closed by the dissolution of the nuclear family and subsequent cock carousel rockslide. Government at gunpoint enforces the female will over the male and makes the patriarch an impossible anachronism. Most men who embody the patriarch in today's paradigm are likely to have already experienced a divorce or two.

3) The way of the free man

The free man is unwed and unencumbered. Nobody cares about the free man, which comes as both a blessing and a curse. The free man is not necessarily a disillusioned man or a temporarily-embarassed patriarch like the slave is, the free man may simply be driven by pursuits that make the notion of being a patriarch undesirable (e.g. inventor, warrior poet, adventurer). that naturally shuts off the desire to gamble and risk becoming a slave as well.