The second post in my dissection of MASCULINITY AMIDST MADNESS by Ryan Landry (The New American Sun, formerly Social Matter and the Weimerica Weekly podcast). For this post, we'll be looking at Chapter 02 and TAKING BACK THE DUTY TO UNDERSTAND.

(Note that this series of essays serve as my own reaction to portions of Landry's book that I find particularly interesting- these essays do not serve to encapsulate the book as a whole, recap the book, or replace reading his excellent and practical meditations on media toxicity regarding masculinity, and how to reclaim a sense of masculine purpose in a toxic world.)

"One of the greatest media lies is that reading fiction is a joy because no one is trying to sell you anything. It is a lie because in every character, in every situation, and in every choice, values nd ideals are being framed as good or bad" (11)

To save you a little bit of time, I'll start at the end: the problem is democracy. In a democracy, you are a pawn in a power game that is much larger than you, or your community, and one that doesn't give a fuck about you- democracy is the true Terminator scenario of Skynet becoming self-aware; democracy is a self-perpetuating, disingenuous and immoral machine.

Alexis de Tocqueville called democracy the "tyranny of the majority," which is something they won't teach you in public school History class- which serves as a microcosm of the larger problem; all classes in public schools are infomercials for democracy. As a microcosm of the problem as a whole, the issue becomes that in a democracy, nothing is genuine. Everything in a democracy is selling you a political agenda for you to gladly accept as true, and support in whatever small ways that you can (vote and then STFU).

Outside of public school, whose English and History curriculum can be more accurately described as political meme transmission rather than any kind of skill building, or nuanced understanding of the complexity of the human experience, Hollywood- people who are highly invested in seizing and maintaining political power, infuse everything they make with the same political memes- maybe even more so, as television and film is the easiest medium to manipulate and can too easily be confused with reality. Have you ever had a friend take romantic advice based on what worked in some 80's rom-com? People confuse fiction with reality.

Everything around you is pulling you in a political direction, because this is the nature of the demon machine that is democracy- and, therefore, there is very little reliable truth in what you're being told. This is why you read old books on history, written closer to the actual events being described, rather than textbooks.

Don't accept the textbook version of life! Don't blindly believe what you're told! Don't allow others to interpret reality for you- especially when it takes tremendous hoop jumping and sophistry to even swallow any of it! Look to what they say you aren't allowed to question or criticize and the game they're playing becomes obvious!

This covered a tiny fraction of the second chapter of MASCULINITY AMIDST MADNESS- purchase it on Amazon, and join the discussion!

K I LL T O P AR T Y (latest post: "Purity and Mayhem")

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