Ukrainian troops after a swim; The New York Times
Jennifer Roberts has called my attention to the manosphere. In her intellectual history of Greece forthcoming from Princeton University Press she describes the manosphere as “ . . a loose collection of malcontents from all over the world who communicate mostly on the internet. United by a conviction that the liberation of women has resulted in a degenerate society, members of this community believe that the world around them is salvageable only if men cultivate a hyper-masculinity that will restore traditional sex roles. Ignoring the Stoics’ unisex approach to philosophy, citizens of the manosphere have been drawn rather to their advocacy of cultivating a self that is proof against adversity and rejects the prevailing value system of the world around them.
“In countless websites the movement appeals to Stoicism in proclaiming the superiority of men, who operate on the basis of reason, over women, who are governed by emotion. Action plans are provided to counter purported efforts to cripple society by feminizing young men.
“One of the most remarkable books in the manosphere is the anonymous Bronze Age Mindset, a mixture of impressive learning and misogynistic ravings that was highly regarded and much read in the Trump White House. ‘With the liberation of women in the 19th [sic] century,’ the anonymous author complains, “the West has given itself an infection and can be saved from complete collapse only if a few exceptional men dare to emulate the Greeks and recover the unbridled ambition of the Bronze Age heroes; The author’s use of the term Bronze Age is not completely consistent; at times he distinguishes it from the Classical Period, but at others it seems to refer more loosely to ancient Greek civilization as a whole. He identifies the Greek state as the product of “free men accepting the rigors of training together so they can preserve their freedom by force against hostile outsiders and against racial subordinates at home.” These men, he explains, could never have subscribed to any abstraction like “equality“ or “the people,” which they would have rightly seen as deferring “to the opinion of slaves, aliens, fat childless women, and others who have no share in the [sic] actual physical power” . In Greece, “The real man was a man filled by courage and daring that all came from an excess of being,” an idea “shared by other Aryan cultures.”
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Enough of you, Manosphere and especially of you “Bronze Age Pervert,” self-styled author of Bronze Age Mindset! You garble the Stoics, as badly as you garble the Bronze Age. Isn’t it time for ALL of us to work to embody the Stoic virtues of Courage, Wisdom, Justice and Restraint?
Jennifer Roberts has called my attention to the manosphere. In her intellectual history of Greece forthcoming from Princeton University Press she describes the manosphere as “ . . a loose collection of malcontents from all over the world who communicate mostly on the internet. United by a conviction that the liberation of women has resulted in a degenerate society, members of this community believe that the world around them is salvageable only if men cultivate a hyper-masculinity that will restore traditional sex roles. Ignoring the Stoics’ unisex approach to philosophy, citizens of the manosphere have been drawn rather to their advocacy of cultivating a self that is proof against adversity and rejects the prevailing value system of the world around them.
“In countless websites the movement appeals to Stoicism in proclaiming the superiority of men, who operate on the basis of reason, over women, who are governed by emotion. Action plans are provided to counter purported efforts to cripple society by feminizing young men.
“One of the most remarkable books in the manosphere is the anonymous Bronze Age Mindset, a mixture of impressive learning and misogynistic ravings that was highly regarded and much read in the Trump White House. ‘With the liberation of women in the 19th [sic] century,’ the anonymous author complains, “the West has given itself an infection and can be saved from complete collapse only if a few exceptional men dare to emulate the Greeks and recover the unbridled ambition of the Bronze Age heroes; The author’s use of the term Bronze Age is not completely consistent; at times he distinguishes it from the Classical Period, but at others it seems to refer more loosely to ancient Greek civilization as a whole. He identifies the Greek state as the product of “free men accepting the rigors of training together so they can preserve their freedom by force against hostile outsiders and against racial subordinates at home.” These men, he explains, could never have subscribed to any abstraction like “equality“ or “the people,” which they would have rightly seen as deferring “to the opinion of slaves, aliens, fat childless women, and others who have no share in the [sic] actual physical power” . In Greece, “The real man was a man filled by courage and daring that all came from an excess of being,” an idea “shared by other Aryan cultures.”
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Enough of you, Manosphere and especially of you “Bronze Age Pervert,” self-styled author of Bronze Age Mindset! You garble the Stoics, as badly as you garble the Bronze Age. Isn’t it time for ALL of us to work to embody the Stoic virtues of Courage, Wisdom, Justice and Restraint?