Civilization Is An Illusion

One night after class I ran into a buddy of mine who I haven’t spoken to almost all semester and his friend who I’ve spoken to once briefly. Let’s call my buddy Justin and his friend Andrew. We were all done with classes and heading towards the train. We were shooting the shit on the walk to the train talking about classes, teachers, and plans after graduation.

Once we got inside the train station the conversation shifted to a mutual friend of ours. Let’s call him William. My friend told me that William was all of a sudden hitting the streets and bars solo to approach women. This caught my attention. William is a tall guy (6’6) of Eastern European decent, not a model but decent looking. They told me he got rejected by about 30 women last weekend and both laughed full-heartedly. They expected me to join along but I didn’t.

Our train came. They continued to make fun of William for being desperate and a loser for allowing himself to get rejected by that many women. I remembered the time I hit the bar with William. Back then he didn’t have the balls to talk to a single girl—he was the ultimate lurker. I was impressed by the change he made and pointed out that I thought it showed initiative not desperateness.

They both said, “Nah that’s desperateness” at the same time.

I posed the question, “Is it desperate to go after something you want?”

Andrew replied, “Well no, but not like that. You want to be the cool guy who walks into the room and girls are automatically attracted to.”

I took a moment to think of an appropriate answer. The only men I know that have women hitting on them are very good looking guys, celebrities, fictional characters in action movies, or guys who wear axe.

axe_effect2

I asked, “So if women aren’t throwing themselves at you then you should just stay home and jerk off?”

Both responded they would rather jerk off then get rejected by that many women.

Our train arrived at the platform where we needed to transfer onto another train. There was a break in the conversation.

As we walked upstairs to catch our second train, Justin asked me what my notch count was. Once I told him Andrew instantly interrupted saying, “Wow you count? That’s so sad.”  Mind you my notch count is only in the 20’s. It isn’t an astronomical number one could have easily lost count of.

Justin pointed out that he counts as well (his is 11) but his friend still deemed it a sad act.

I waited till we boarded the second train to ask Andrew how many women he had been with. The answer was three. Gee, I wonder how he didn’t lose count?

Count 3

Although Justin did not think counting was sad, he did believe my notch count was creeping up to the “gross” level. He proudly said, “I would never sleep with that many women because I want a wife and it looks bad on your life resume.”

The irony of his statement was that out of all three of us, the guy with the “gross” notch count could snag a girlfriend first. All I had to do was text one of my fuck buddies and ask them to be exclusive; without a doubt they would jump on the offer.

There was a second irony to his statement. Two years ago we were discussing our notch count and mine was significantly lower than his (I was at 1 and his was 5). He made fun of me for my lack of experience, and now when the tables are turned, experience is gross.

There was another break in the conversation as we got off our second train to wait for our last train. Yes, taking that many trains is common in New York.

As we waited, Andrew told us the advice he gave William. His words of wisdom were to ignore girls and pay them no mind—that they will come to you. Our player of the year with three notches was preaching hard. Maybe I can get him to submit a post on gaming for ROK.

Our third train came. The subject changed to a less controversial topic. Three stops later my stop came and I exited the train giving the two a pound, determined to put distance in our friendship.

I caution every man to be aware of people like this. Weed these disturbances out of your social circle and life. These are the types of people who will label you a steroid-using meathead the moment you begin to get serious in the gym and lift more than them. These are the type of people who will call you anti-social the moment you begin to do better than them at school. These are the people who will call you a desperate loser the moment you walk up to that hottie they’ve been eye-fucking for an hour.

As good as it may feel to keep them around with the intention of proving them wrong or for old friend’s sake, it’s not worth it. Every time you fall they will push you down further because it’s how they rationalize their immobility and how they feed their rationalization hamster. They’re too lazy or afraid to take life by the horns so they want to see everyone around them on the same sinking boat. Anything to the contrary is a threat that must be shut down with ridicule.

Find friends who will high five you for getting rejected by a hot girl because they understand how much balls it takes to walk up to a desirable woman. Associate with these people and you’re more likely to achieve success.

Read More: Bronies: The Men Who Love “My Little Pony” Are Losers

57 thoughts on “Civilization Is An Illusion”

  1. Eh, not exactly. Civilization works better with some tribes than with others. The Japanese don’t descend into Mad Max-style lawlessness during natural disasters, for example, and they pull together to get civilization back in order. By contrast, blacks in some American cities experience Mad Max as pretty much their daily reality. Refer to Paul Kersey’s blog.

    1. The Japanese can pull together to get civilization back in order since they are a small, ethnically homogeneous country with limited landmass and multiple kinds of regularly occurring natural disasters. Their culture is group-oriented, so they are used to working together.
      Getting America to do something like that, with its multitude of different ethnic groups, is asking the impossible.

      1. I think if you surgically remove the big-big cities from the nation like the cancer they are, that the rest of us, and I mean the entire nation that’s left, would do quite well and get along and function just dandy, regardless of race or ethnic groups.

        1. I disagree. Non homogeneous nations will fair worse than homogeneous nations during the bad times merely because the immigrant population will be less willing to sacrifice their resources for the host nation than the national of the host nation.
          This, in fact, happened in Japan. The foreigners who fled Japan during the fukushima tsunami disaster where even given the name ”flyjin” which is a combination of ”fly” and ”gaijin” (foreigner).
          Second- or third-generation foreign
          immigrants may appear outwardly to be
          entirely assimilated, but they often constitute
          a weakness in two directions. First, their
          basic human nature often differs from that of
          the original imperial stock. If the earlier
          imperial race was stubborn and slow moving g, the immigrants might come from
          more emotional races, thereby introducing
          cracks and schisms into the national policies,
          even if all were equally loyal. Second, while the nation is still affluent, all
          the diverse races may appear equally loyal.
          But in an acute emergency, the immigrants
          will often be less willing to sacrifice their
          lives and their property than will be the
          original descendants of the founder race.
          Third, the immigrants are liable to form
          communities of their own, protecting
          primarily their own interests, and only in the
          second degree that of the nation as a whole.
          Fourth, many of the foreign immigrants
          will probably belong to races originally
          conquered by and absorbed into the empire.
          While the empire is enjoying its High Noon
          of prosperity, all these people are proud and
          glad to be imperial citizens. But when decline
          sets in, it is extraordinary how the memory
          of ancient wars, perhaps centuries before, is
          suddenly revived, and local or provincial
          movements appear demanding secession or
          independence. Some day this phenomenon
          will doubtless appear in the now apparently
          monolithic and authoritarian Soviet empire.
          It is amazing for how long such provincial
          sentiments can survive.
          The Fate Of Empires – Glubb Pasha

        2. Slow down a bit and think through what I said. Take away the big cities (what primary demographic is that again?) and you’re left with the suburbs and rural areas (what primary demographic is that again?). The minorities that make it to my stomping grounds did so through hard work and “acting white” to the point that they basically rejected their entire culture, I’m fine with those types. Crime would nearly disappear or reduce to a maximum of the same levels Switzerland has (look it up, rural/suburban areas here are at or close to Switzerland’s violent crime rate), social “services” would dry up from lack of a customer base, taxes would plummet since it wouldn’t have to support the “safety net” and we could finally, finally raise standards in education back to pre-1960’s levels with little difficulty.

        3. I definitely have to agree with this Jeff. As embarrassing as it is to admit, “Black Culture” in America is hardly worth defending. It is plain shit and worthy of extermination. Problem is, there are many educated blacks and mixed race people who have to by all intents and purposes “associate” with this class of people. The media focuses on popularizing, degenerate subhuman nigger culture. Chris Rock said it best about 2 decades ago, “There’s a Civil War in America between black people and niggers and niggers have got to go.” I am fair in the Classical Roman sense, so I criticize all moot points from white nationalists and black race baiters and I have to say this is the bitter truth. There’s no soft landing, and hopefully the educated blacks that do decide to remain and not associated with the leftists will find a way to take care of this epidemic “in house.” I think multiracial societies can exist, but multicultural societies can’t. There has to be a unified culture even if the people are different.

        4. Completely agree Lance. There are plenty of good black families out there… and they are taxed into oblivion in order to support the shitty blacks; i.e. crackheads and welfare mommas.
          And as Athlone has pointed out, the same dysgenic policies which have fucked over black America is coming to white America as well.

          How Black America Has Predicted Our Future

  2. I politely disagree with the article entirely. It smacks of 1960’s leftist “XYZ is a social construct” reasoning.
    Are or can humans beings be irrational? Clearly so, yes. Does this mean civilization is an illusion? No, not in any sense that I can see. In fact civilization is little more than an implicitly agreed to set of rules, social behaviors and to a lesser extent language and customs. It exists because we accept those things in common with the aggregate, and those who deviate from these things we ostracize or penalize to varying degrees.
    If civilization did not exist, nobody would stop for stop lights, yet we all have agreed to do so through teaching, habit and custom, and we penalize those who do not, such that on a general level stop lights evoke the same response from all but the few transgressors. We all generally agree not to walk down the street spraying machine gun fire for kicks and giggles, and we punish harshly those who do. Outside of the realm of legality, we all have come to understand that greeting each other in a mutual language and with common courtesies unique to our culture (a smile, or a nod, or a wave) provide a smoother life than walking around screaming at people in rage. Those who cross that boundary are shunned from their social groups. Civilization thus corrects (or attempts to correct) the issues of irrationality and provides us with a social feedback loop.
    That civilizations clash and erupt in war does not mean that civilizations do not exist either. There is no one over-arching universal standard for civilization, there are only many different civilizations based on the items I’ve already mentioned. Taken to an extremely pragmatic level one could even posit that wars to preserve one’s civilization and resources from outside invaders is highly rational e.g. – Putin putting the kibosh on the EU ginned up Ukrainian movements, which still could erupt into violence if everything doesn’t play out just right.
    I do agree that we form these alliances, civilizations, out of fear of the world (and each other), and for good reason, the universe is a hostile place and there are irrational people who cannot contain their impulses. That there is irrationality however doesn’t strike me as a strong enough reason to say that civilization simply doesn’t exist, and in fact rather disposes me to consider the irrationality as firm evidence that civilization does and *has* to exist if we are to get by in this world.

    1. Civilization allowed us to survive through the centuries and to create culture and value – be it monetary or spiritual. The problem isn’t civilization but the decay of public moral.

      1. That’s quite logical, I agree. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop that, it appears to happen to all cultures over time.

        1. It is but it means that the society has to become more conservative and embrace the family unit, religion and marriage.
          The problems began when the hippies started practicing free love without restraint. Now, all societies throughout history have been fucking with ONS but the hippies turned it into a cult and ruined the family unit.

        2. There is a way to solve it as I see: everybody stop being selfish. Public decay sets in when everybody becomes psychopathic and starts taking from others and from society, in their own interest, as opposed to SHARING with others. And it’s really easy to get away with taking all for yourself in modern civilization today. In our culture it’s actually kinda encouraged.
          People need to learn that taking won’t bring them happiness, whether it be taking/’getting’ sex from another, advancing oneself as far up the corporate ladder as possible, and all matters of enjoying oneself and firing off endorphins in your own brain. When people learn that sharing enjoyment and happiness is a much happier thing than being ‘happy all by yourself’, civilization will heal.

      2. the foundation of civilization is the basic contract of… “i won’t if you won’t.”
        murder is seen as bad, because it makes everyone unsafe, so we agree not to murder each other.
        ‘i won’t rape and kill your wife if you won’t rape and kill mine.’
        everything beyond these basic kinds of contacts are bullshit….
        civilisation decays because it becomes myopic and focuses on smaller and smaller more and more pathetic issues until there is no impetus for anyone to better themselves… then poverty and decay set in….
        for example…. Elton John is gay…. he’s also a fantastic piano player… gay rights has nothing to do with his success…. in fact in the 60s, when gay was still taboo to a large extent…. most likely the harder environment gave him something to push against … he needed to prove himself….
        there is nothing wrong with adversity of any kind… Eminem grew up in Detroit trailer parks for christ sakes…. anyone can achieve anything if they want to
        anyone can complain and set up rights groups and moan, but they are not achieving…

        1. Well, I’m sure that baseless killingsprees were shunned among our primal ancestors as much as they are among us, especially when considering how essential every member of the group was for the groups survival.
          Now, you don’t need to live in cities and have a civilization to develop and apply basic social rules – the only rules that almost every contemporary sane person would follow without question – most people I know break the law, if they know they can get away with it; that could be crossing the traffic lights when they’re red, smoking pot, smuggling food into movie theaters, steal ikea pencils(though they’re free, if I’m not mistaken)

      3. Humanity survived very well throughout the millions of years before civilization.
        Also you seem to consider ‘culture and value’ the ultimate goals of civilization, when clearly these things are merely instruments for the prupose of preserving civilization.
        I don’t see how without civilization we wouldn’t have survived the past ten millennia ?

    2. If civilization is just a mental construct, that doesn’t make it’s effects less real.

      1. Quite so.
        I prefer the simpler term of an “abstract”. We’re beings whose entire existence depends on our ability to abstract like no other creature on God’s green earth can.
        But being abstract doesn’t mean something doesn’t exist. Math is an abstraction, but sure as the sun rises in the morning, 1 + 1 = 2 and we prove it every time we pick up two physical objects and declare that we hold two rocks.

        1. Until we break those rocks in half and declare that 1+1=4
          BTW, what IS the highest number? 0 perhaps, incidentally the lowest number? I don’t think we “prove” anything. We believe whatever removes the anxiety of the unfathomable. I’m of the mindset that those who profess the most faith in God, actually flee from God the most. When people say they fear God, perhaps it should not be taken as a metaphor.

    3. Except we don’t HAVE to exist. We WANT to. Therefore we adopt fake identities just to get by. Worse yet, people think that adopting the fake identities is somehow an obligation or that the fake identities are more authentic! Something can exist and be fake. That would be an “illusion”

    4. Sir, respectfully, you are wrong on nearly every count. Like most urbanites ignorant of anthropology, archeology and ethnography you have been indoctrinated with the illusive glue that binds the civilized social structure together. All civilized cultures use violence or the threat of violence to maintain the rights and privilege of the ruling class. If you do not believe that is so, stop paying your property taxes (a forced tribute) and watch what happens.

  3. Be careful about ascribing evil qualities or potentials to your neighbors. Pervasive suspicion helped make the police state possible. Most men are good. Most men want to go to work, earn a living, get home safely, hug their kids and bang their wives. Most men are simple and uncomplicated. There are few conspiracies lurking within.

    1. Exactly. It is in fact our civilization which created these attitudes in most men, from cultural instruction, religions or philosophical memes being taught, family behavior, growing up observing customs then participating in them, general education, reading culture (books, etc) as we formed, etc. Without civilization we’d have no tools to control our irrationality and would thus truly, ever so truly, be fucked.

    2. Most men are anything but simple.Just because two parties can want the same thing, doesn’t mean they agree about the best way to go about obtaining it. That difference in method can mean the difference between one’s neighbor being seen as good or evil.

  4. Quite on point. Every society has their own structure and definition of civilization and it’s largely held together by one thin, falsely constructed veneer. While most people wouldn’t immediately descend into post-modernist barbarians if the power went out, just look at prime examples in this country like hurricane Katrina. New Orleans became an African-style war zone in a relatively short time. And being from Philadelphia myself, I sure I can relate to the stark differences in “civility” between city-dwellers and suburbanites. Just crossing Red Lion road from northeast Philly into the suburbs, and one can’t help but wonder if they’re in a different country.

    1. Yet when Amish communities suffer tragedy, they simply band together and start putting up their neighbor’s new barn without the neighbor even asking. It’s all a matter of the culture one grows up in, for certain.

      1. Chicks’ fascination with the Amish, progressives’ admiration for Scandinavian social democracies and the hipsters’ faux-nostalgia for late Victorian America all have one thing in common: Highly functional white people run things in those societies or eras.

        1. I don’t have a fascination with them, I’m simply located close to the heart of their Vaterland (central Ohio). Half hour drive north of my house and you literally have to slow down and watch for buggies with your head on a swivel.
          I agree with your statement, btw. It’s not racist, it’s a simple fact. Katrina taught us everything we need to know about the differences between cultures.

        2. That may or may not be true, but the PC Media in this country doesn’t like it when you talk badly about their protected classes. They like to character-assassinate anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

        3. Why do conservatives abuse this word “PC”? In the same breath that you say that x group is non-conforming to the expectation of social propriety, you say that they are politically correct. No, that would make THEM politically INcorrect and YOU politically correct, logically speaking that is.

  5. A very necessary Illusion. With out it everyone will starting acting like wild animals.

    1. Blacks in many American cities have lived ferally for generations, despite the trillions of dollars wasted on their “uplift.” If you replaced the black population of Detroit with a comparable number of white Southerners who agreed to live there (admittedly not the sharpest white people, but they have it together better than blacks), Detroit would become a functional city again, perhaps like a scaled up version of Tulsa. No great shakes by American standards, in other words, but the new inhabitants could generate enough wealth to provide a tax base for a modern level of civilization.

      1. Great, another southron with their take on “race relations”. Thanks, “civilized savage”.

  6. the awful writing style of this article made think i was having a stroke after the 2nd paragraph. how did any of you read through the end?

    1. Poorly written indeed. And then content is absolute liberal, nihilistic drivel. Relativism (i.e. there is no absolute truth) is impossible to prove or disprove and is only self-defeating. Take some Prozac and get on with your damn life.

  7. Take a walk through wilderness without trails sometime, and after a few days you might suspect civilization is a fabrication. But the truth isn’t that Civilization is unnatural; the truth is that OUR civilization is unnatural. Blossoming societies have customs and traditions that are in accordance with nature (ie reality) rather than contrary to it. Sick civilizations attempt to defy reality as they decline.
    I think you are unconsciously biased by modern notions of individuality. It’s not that 21st Century America is an illusion, as much as that it doesn’t even meet the definition of being a civilization.

  8. If there hadn’t been women we’d still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends.

  9. I wouldn’t say civilization is an illusion. I think that too many people improperly conflate the notions of civilization and culture, however. I once corrected a college instructor who spoke of “civilizations colliding” when Columbus landed on Hispanola. He got a little peeved when he asked me to elaborate. “Columbus did come from a civilization,” I replied, “but he didn’t collide with one in Hispanola. Hispanola wasn’t civilized.” That sparked a nasty convo in class, with people accusing me of all sorts of isms, until I beat them in the head with facts.
    Civilization, you see, means no more and no less than “The Art Of Living In Cities”. Rural agrarian cultures are not “civilized”, per se. Establishing 5000 people in one place for a lengthy period of time, usually more than 50 years, might qualify you as a civilization, but even that would be a bare-bones minimum standard. To be civilized you need sustainable, multigenerational longevity.
    Why is this important? Because urban living, for all of its fans, isn’t the only way human beings can practice high culture. Or low culture. Nor are cities any guarantee of a high cultural level . . . they’re just a guarantee of municipal taxes, cops, and parking issues. When people fear for their “civilization”, the fact is we could live quite well for quite some time if most of our cities disappeared, as long as our culture remained intact.
    So conserve culture, and eschew civilization for anything less pressing than a major league sports game or a shopping trip – cities excel at those. But the wise man will stay healthier and happier in the countryside, practicing and promoting culture without the substantial lifestyle penalties urban living invokes.

  10. The Second World War is perhaps the best example of ‘civilised’ societies quickly dissolving. Despite what some people are saying colour has nothing to do with it.

  11. Civilization is not an illusion.
    One way of thinking about civilization is reading Joseph Tainter’s “Collapse of Complex Societies”. This was written in 1988 an is selling more copies each year.
    The big idea, is that tribes, societies start small and exist SOLELY to hoover up materials and energy from the environment and distribute the goodies to members of the society.
    This usually results in increases in safety, food, etc. and the civilization expands. Then, a challenge arises – maybe it is bad weather, game migration patterns, competing societies that want to invade, etc. etc. A successful society rises to the challenge by innovating and increasing in complexity. Complexity means more rules, more sophisticated technology, more bureaucracy , more complicated social hierarchies etc Eventually, the low hanging fruit is exhausted and more sophisticated and complex responses are required for ongoing challenges. Eventually, more and more time, money and energy is required to mount responses to more sophisticated challenges and the law of diminishing returns prevails.
    The endgame is that the society eventually collapses (decomplexifies) since it is exhausted.
    What the author of this article is bummed out about is that humans erect “personas” that hide their true natures from their fellows. Every thing he is railling against occurs in the most primitive societies around the world and throughout history. It is hard wired into the human psyche and few members will get beyond it (unless you are a fully realized zen master).

    1. It’s a much an illusion as the illusion of “having” money that you acquired via a loan. Some change may occur, but in the end it will be undone because it was redundant.

  12. “This balance too between the natural and the cultural, this metron, as the Greeks knew, holds enormous wisdom for the cultivator. It confirms that within us all, beneath the veneer of libraries, heart bypasses, laundered clothing, and eyeglasses is the wild. The wild will tear and chew within us without the bridles of the polis. Man, like his trees and vines, is not at birth a kind, benevolent, or humane creature. He is not by nature a pretty nice guy. Take away custom, religion, and law–take away his graft–and he is just as liable to eat, torture, or rape his brethren. He will use his teeth and employ his nails, and his muscles will not serve his intellect. So, the spiny wild-root stock of the plum, the exuberant underbrush of the peach, the useless myriad of tiny second-growth grape bunches are like the passions and appetites of man himself, which must at all cost be pruned, suckered, and thinned if he is to remain civilized man–and not become Hamlet’s “un-weeded garden,/ That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature/ possess it merely.” -Victor Davis Hanson, “The Land was Everything.” p. 93

  13. Civilisation is indeed a social construct. But it is also a social contract. “Subscribe to the values and rules of this construct (as do many many other individuals) and you will be afforded the luxuries of this construct: a sense of community in addition to safety within that community”.
    It’s how humanity has been able to grow and evolve despite the real dangers of the surrounding forest. Dangers that aren’t so real anymore.

    1. But like any contract or relationship, there is no such thing as balance or equality. Someone always has the upper hand or is trying to obtain it. So in fact, the illusion depends exclusively on oppression. So those luxuries are ill gotten gains..

  14. Since the beginning of agriculture a lot of human beings sacrificed their sovereignty, health, personal safety for the sake of the village. Be grateful for what our forbearer’s accomplished for us. Civilization is not perfect, it never will be, nor is a nomadic hunter gatherer lifeway. Both lifeways have their pros and cons. You pick and choose which ones you like. I’m appreciative of living in 21st century with advanced technology, a nice warm comfy bed, good organic food. I don’t have to worry about poisonous insects, wild predatory animals gnawing my face off while im sleeping in a shelter made from sticks. It’s a decent tradeoff. Things I hate about civilization are wars, social hierarchies, traffic, industrial farming, industrial pollution, crime, politicians,segregation, slavery(still exists) less space on the earth. Less freedoms and rights, more stupid laws, borders that divide us humans from one another. Culture that limits people from realizing their innate human potential. You have to work for a living. You don’t work, you don’t eat. Lotta shit I hate, lotts shit I love.

  15. Ahahahahah articles like these really show what can be accomplished when you get rid of the ol’ ball and chain. Now that the bitch is gone, I have more time to devote to philosophy 101.
    You guys need women. The reality is you’re not interesting, or good at anything. That’s why you need websites like these to pump up your own self-worth by hitting the gym or whatever else substitutes for actually being good at stuff.
    Pathetic.

  16. More than an illusion i’d say that it’s a SHAM. We were better off living a natural lifestyle than we are now, in many ways. And there is some startling new emprical science to prove it. For example human brain size peaked around 7400 years ago and has been SHRINKING ever since, probably due to us leaving hunting for agriculture… also in general “civilization” denies us our basic needs, the need for the RIGHT kinds of food, the need for sex (and not just sex with our politically-correct life-partners), and the need for PROPER COMPETITION with our environment AND with each other.

  17. It’s an illusion sustainable only by forcibly medicating the so called mentally ill. They are the scapegoats, the bargaining chips

  18. Civilization, meaning, urban-dwelling masses of people – is a by-product of year-round, sedentary agriculture. The culture that evolved – not progressed – within civilization created a hierarchical social structure based on accumulated wealth, influence and privilege best symbolized as a pyramid … a pyramid of power. The higher one exists on said power pyramid, the more just and right the civilized social system appears to be. To maintain the illusions of a civilized social structure those atop the pyramid use violence against those below constantly. This is the history of history.

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