21 Convention: PATRIARCHY EDITION
There is something in common with these two videos, a fact I’m sure the folks marking the 21 convention would not agree with, that irks me something fierce. Everyone and their grandmother has said their piece about why the Gillette ad was a miserable regurgitation of SJW man-hatred, and I didn’t feel like hopping on the caboose of that outrage train until I watched the promotional for the 21 Convention and found myself having the same gut reaction to what is essentially a polar opposite piece of messaging.
Most of the outrage over the $24.99 dollar shave club’s commercial was over the implication that all men are rapists, bullies, and bad fathers. That’s definitely something you might take away from that 90 seconds of mood music and bad acting, but it’s quickly deflected by the producers as being targeted only at making men “better”. “If you’re a good boy, then this isn’t for you”. Or perhaps it’s a form of group punishment; because one guy didn’t know how to use his dick correctly and now we all have to scrub the floors of the barracks with our toothbrushes. It would be misguided at best, but wouldn’t warrant the bile that has issued forth since it’s airing. Most of all it shows that the producers of the video at least ascribe to the idea that there is such a thing as manliness that needs to be shaped and formed by their hand.
Then there is the 21 Convention, which I know nothing about. At first I thought it was meant to be a parody. Men walking stiffly through frame, expensive cars, double-takes of the guy in a maga hat adjusting his blazer. When they called out for Elliot, I half expected Rogers to waltz in.
What struck me most though, after realizing it was not meant as a joke, is that I had roughly the same gut reaction to both videos. They both sent the same message, albeit on opposite sides of the spectrum. The message was “We know how do man good, you listen us if want be Real-Man ™. These are both pieces of media aimed at telling you the secret to manhood can be yours, if only you follow a prescribed, pre-packaged, and profit generating formula. Society will thank you, or perhaps your counter-culture will thank you, for standing up and doing things the right way.
Fuck that noise. Men are judged only by their peers, and occasionally a court of law when they fuck up real hard. There is no reality in which *men*, half the earth’s population, all start abiding by some universal code, nor should there be. Anyone who tries to sell you on how to be a *man* in anything but the most abstract sense is trying to sell you something and using your desire to be desired against you.
That’s not the same as the apologist's refrain of “anyone who identifies as a man is one”. Being good at being a man is hard. It takes work, sacrifice, and suffering. But what constitutes a good man can only be judged by one’s tribe. Your value or lack thereof is only relevant in the context of your mission. Any universal qualification for men is meaningless.
With all the talk of tribes taking place on TRP, and our own interest in the matter, A discussion started on how tribes form and grow. Then Rollo came out with his book Rational Male: Positive Masculinity that delves very heavily into the topic of families and raising a child as a red pill man. It all clicked.
The tribes that we are looking for are first and foremost families. In our ancient past the tribe was comprised of several family groups. Throughout history, the family has been the central unit of social organization. Most importantly, it is the family that we are missing today.
If you talk to any joe or jane off the street they are likely to tell you they are estranged from at least part of their family. Probably daddy wasn’t there growing up, or they have deep divisions with their siblings. Once they moved out of the house for college they put the family life behind them. Maybe they still keep in touch through facebook and get together on grandma’s birthday, but for them most part they live separate lives.
It’s so ingrained in our culture that we should separate from the family that failure to do so is seen as a failure to mature. Socializing primarily with family members is seen as anti-social. College kids will regularly rebuild the family unit with tight-knit friend groups while scorning their actual relations.
Even Redpill men fall into this trap. It’s probably our families that first introduced us to the feminine imperative. Our sisters and mothers condemn us for rejecting feminism and our brothers and fathers fail to see value in masculinity. It’s easy to decide that these people cannot play a central role in our lives.
But it is a fundamentally feminine thing to disband the family because they do not embrace you without question. Individualism is what’s rotting out the core of our society. We as men must stand against the trend to break up and disperse every time there is interpersonal conflict.
Our power comes from our bonds to our tribe, and our tribe begins with family.