I have been writing more and more on my own sub, but I think this can be helpful to newcomers of mgtow as they try to find it in themselves to continue in life when they realize that money and sex isn't even that important.

Studying stoicism and going through r/stoicism in general, the most common conclusion people come down to is that one must live a "virtuous life". The funny thing, is that is not the conclusion I came to myself. The issue with virtue lies in it's definition.

Virtue:

behavior showing high moral standards.

The issue is modern society either does not have moral standards, or, has a skewed point of view of what morality even is.

Morality

principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

Being a religious person, and believing in what the bible says, I immediately think about Adam and Eve. What morality can we even talk about, if the fundamental reason humanity was cursed (from a christian perspective) is that they COULDN'T OBEY a basic fucking rule. Rule's are there to guide morality because people are not morally correct, EVER. It is physically impossible to be morally perfect. There for it is impossible to be fully virtuous. Having High moral standards, and having the behavior is two different things. Walk the talk.

Stoicism in itself breaks virtue down into 4 categories: wisdom, morality, courage, and moderation. But personally, I disagree. From the very definition of virtue, it is based in morals. Morals are the foundation. This foundation requires wisdom to understand how to build said foundation. Moderation to control and filter out the excess waste in your life. Courage, to go against the flow of society and to achieve said virtue. This last part, courage, will be my focal point.

Courage:

the ability to do something that frightens one.

Or in other words, to over come fear. Fear of what others will think. Fear of consequences for doing what is right over what is accepted. ETC. The reason I want to focus on courage is simple. There are resources galore for wisdom. Moderation is achieved through practice. But courage cannot be taught, or learned. Why can it not be learned? Let me explain.

Have you ever gone cliff jumping? I have, and jumping into water from some 40 feet is scary as shit. Knowing the water is practically freezing, there are rocks bellow me, and that if I don't jump the right way, I am definitely not going to make it to the ER. But I jumped. I over came that fear. I did it again...But I didn't feel any less scared, because the consequences of failure were still the same.

Eventually with enough jumps I would have conditioned myself to ignore the fear, but that does not mean it is not there, or that I am courageous. Once overcoming becomes routine, is it still courage?

The reason courage is even connected to virtue, is because having moral standards in a world that has next to none, requires the understanding (wisdom) and the resistance to outer and inner influence (moderation) to justify a courageous act. The reason you jump off the cliff and into the water, is because using wisdom you have justified that physics will not kill you this time, and that you are doing this out of your own free will and not peer pressure. See the connection?

The world we currently live in is anti virtue. It wants to numb your senses and pressure you into following the crowd. It wants to tell you that moderation isn't necessary, that you are free! Morality is no longer needed because you are free! Are you really free if you are a man who follows the crowd of retards? No. That is not freedom. Our society, is not free.

I will leave you guys on this thought. Personally, the goal in my life is virtue, using wisdom and moderation, to have the courage to stand in my moral standards.