8 Cultural Practices That Men Must Restore

With our society turning men into domesticated economic units, and with new technological gadgets turning us more and more into mere subjects who respond to machines rather than control them, we as men and people are becoming dull and cultureless. Against this materialist force, I think it’s imperative that we rediscover and restore some of our past cultural practices so that we can preserve our sophistication as human beings and as independent men.

1. Handwriting

With computers, smartphones, and other electronic communication devices becoming universal tools in our age, hand-written words have become the casualty to pave the way for utility and efficiency. Stringing words together is becoming less of an art and more of a task—a mere means to an end. You can tell just how sloppy writing has become today as the dependence on auto-correct allows the typer to never think about his use of words and letters. The use of language and the written words themselves are becoming uglier with each passing day as less and less people use a pen for anything more than filling out forms and signing documents.

To counter this trend, I propose writing as much as possible by hand whenever the opportunity allows for it. I’ve recently re-discovered the joy of writing longhand through my language studies, prompting me to buy my first fountain pen (yes, it really is worth it). You start to feel like you’re in a different world when you use a plain old pen and paper with nothing else to distract you. And unlike using a word processor on your computer, writing by hand makes you focus and be conscious of every word you write. With each and every letter requiring your patience and dedication, the process of writing itself becomes an art much like painting or sculpting.

2. Recitation

Long before movies, television, radio, and even books, epic tales were recited and passed down the generations through the word of mouth. And these weren’t just stories for entertainment, but were profound practices that instilled the cultural spirit of people along with their shared identity. Think of the epic poems of the past including the Iliad, Beowulf, Shahnameh, and more. If you ever listen to the Quran being recited, you can start to understand how profoundly its words affect the believers of Islam. Words become the soul of people.

You can start practicing now by choosing a work that speaks to your heart to memorize and make it yours. Recitation takes patience—especially with epic works—but it will challenge and develop your ability to concentrate, visualize, and use your passion to guide your words. In our world where everything is being dumbed down to be attention-grabbing, being able to memorize and recall long passages will make you stand out from the rest. You will have a superior ability to remember things in all other areas and it will transform you as a man of culture in a world where all forms of art are being swallowed up by consumerism.

3. Rhetoric

Rhetoric is also another lost art form that’s forgotten by our generation that prefers to send rapid text messages and memes while slouched over an electronic screen. The great men of ancient Rome valued this skill very much and so should we. Oratory is one of the more sophisticated arts that involve much more than just the spoken words themselves. Rhetoric is based on knowledge and logic, and it involves your body language as well as the passion of your voice. It’s a form of art where the way you speak the words matter just as much (if not more) than their actual meaning. And as a force of persuasion, it is the sword of man’s political power.

Any man serious about politics or wishing to improve his charisma for better social standing should prioritize this art above all else.

4. Handcrafting and other skills

It’s no secret that men love working with their hands. Like our propensity for hunting, it is an ingrained trait of all men necessary for our roles as creators. It’s quite something just watching a modern day blacksmith like Ric Furrer take his time to forge a sword as masterfully as the blacksmiths did centuries ago. The total focus and dedication to the work is something all men can admire. Unfortunately, with everything now made in third world factories, prisons, or 3D printers, handcrafting is becoming another lost art in our modern society.

It is my opinion that all men should possess a skill or a profession that involves the skillful use of hands, be it repairing machines, carving woods, constructing, playing the piano, being able to handle weapons, and so on. If you don’t have anything yet, find something and start practicing now, and keep at it. You will be rewarded handsomely in your journey.

5. Survival

Some may wonder why we should even bother with survival skills, but I believe it is an essential skill to have in our uncertain times. I think it’s quite appalling that we’ve been so conditioned by our society that most of us don’t even know the basic thing about purifying and storing water or making fire, let alone how to hunt animals. We’ve been domesticated like cattle in the farm we call cities to rely on wage slavery, grocery stores, and magical water taps to ensure our own survival.

Learning how to survive outside the comforts of modern society will also strengthen you as it tests your resolve and wits. It is not a surprise that this skill is one of the primary area of focus in training elite soldiers around the world. In the end, you can define your independence by how much money you have saved up or you can define it by your ability to survive in whatever conditions you may find yourself in without relying on the state. I think I know which will be more important in the future.

6. Duels

Why they decided to get rid of duels, I don’t know (actually, I do: the government doesn’t want us to be independent). But I think allowing men to duke it out in an honor based system (without facing consequences imposed by a third party) can solve lot of problems in this world. It doesn’t even have to be with swords and pistols, just let men sort out issues on their own using their fists as long as both parties agree to it. They already allow it in NHL, why not everywhere else?

7. Retreats

From the pious to the intellectual, retreats allowed greater men to seek wisdom and spiritual enlightenment away from the petty distractions of the material world. But today, in a world as busy as ours that is more connected than ever before in history, it is becoming progressively more difficult to find peace necessary to discover ourselves. Instead, we are perpetually distracted, constantly seeking the most superficial information to stimulate our shallow minds. Where is the deep level of thinking that our ancestors used to practice?

Although I don’t think seeking retreat should necessarily be a permanent way of life, I believe most men will benefit from a regular or a prolonged refuge into their own souls. Even if you don’t need anything but your own mind and the volition to seek enlightenment from within, I strongly suggest men take some time away from our so-called civilization at least once in their lifetime.

8. Male initiation rituals

Male initiation rituals existed almost universally in the past because of its symbolic significance in transforming boys into men. It was important for tribal societies to know that they could place their trust on these prospective men to protect and provide for their societies, which is why many of these rituals involve testing strength, skills, courage, and endurance to pain. This process created clear distinction between those who are men and those who are not, strengthening the foundation of the tribe.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many “men” today are weak and effeminate as there is no official standard from which to declare someone a “man” other than his age. This is also why many teenagers and those in their early 20’s are either hopelessly lost and helpless as they’ve been abandoned by the society, with others going the opposite route to engage in high-risk behaviours that are seemingly foolish as they try to prove their manhood before the modern world that does not care. No, our modern society is only interested in whether men today are capable of following the rules, obediently doing what they’re told, and whether they can fulfill their roles as drones. Without guidance, without a masculine purpose, and without a world that allows them to simply be themselves, men will continue to be lost and exploited.

To learn more about the nature of masculinity and how our modern world contradicts it, read ‘Man’s Fight for Existence.’ Also follow me on my new blog, primalexistence.com.

Read More: How To Restore Civilization By Following St. Benedict’s Example

382 thoughts on “8 Cultural Practices That Men Must Restore”

  1. Psalm 18:34
    “He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.”
    I bet you’ll never hear this preached today! Men have traded wisdom for weakness!

    1. agreed. While this has no bearing on the meaning of what you say, I have always found it passingly odd that it is a “bow of steel” There is no way that at the time of the psalms the Hebrews had knowledge of working iron into steel. I don’t know any Hebrew to make sense of the translation like I would in the NT with the koine greek. Anyone have any insight into this?

      1. Probably indicating strength immeasurable. Like saying that you have a cast iron stomach, an iron will, etc.

        1. possible, but I would want a better understanding of the translation. It would be odd for a people who don’t use steel weapons to use “steel” as the measure of strength. Presumably they would use something they found strong…bronze? copper? The timing just doesn’t work out. We are talking ~5th century BC Hebrews. Strong as steel doesn’t make sense as an idiom for them. Like I said, it is possible, but I feel there is the hand of the middle ages at work in this translation.

        2. Ah, I see what you’re saying. Never mind.

        3. Those fucking Middle-Agers. You see the same thing with their artistic depictions of First Testament stories. Everyone dressed the same way they were during the Middle-Ages. Very confusing until you consider that archeaology was not quite the science it is today.

        4. Yup. I guess it is like Xenophanes says…if horses had gods and hands to paint with they would depict the gods as horses.

      2. All you need is a concordance/lexicon (links below). “Steel” in that verse is the Hebrew word “nchuwshah” (there is a pronunciation tool in the Blue Letter Bible link if you’re interested). The word is used 10 times in the Old Testament, most often translated as “brass” (7 times) in the KJV, and it looks like it being translated as “steel” may have been something the KJV English translators did in error rather than having a historically accurate motivation. The “outline of Biblical usage” section of BLB only includes “brass” and “iron”, so looks like others have noticed the inaccuracy of “steel” as well.
        http://www.blbclassic.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5154&t=KJV
        http://www.eliyah.com/cgi-bin/strongs.cgi?file=hebrewlexicon&isindex=5154
        Most translations use “bronze” here, which is doubtless the most accurate translation:
        https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Psalm%2018%3A34

        1. hey thanks a lot WS. Brass would make a lot more sense and a KSV mistranslation to steel would also make sense. Really, thanks dude. Cool stuff.

      3. I have a hunch that the word steel didn’t originate from the alloy but the alloy was named steel based on how it was originally used. Steel also means a hardiness to stand firm. Whatever language steel originally came from may have used the word more than a verb like we used it like the word to brace ourselves or to steel ourselves. It may have been eventually the word of the alloy as well due to it’s hard property.

        1. But it only applies to fighting evil.
          32 It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect. 33 He maketh my feet like hinds’ feet, and setteth me upon my high places. 34 He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. 35 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

    2. I think that ROK readers should read the writings of Neville Goddard and understand the second deeper meanings of the Bible. For example the Bible says that man should have control of woman. In this context ‘man’ stands for the conscious mind and ‘woman’ for the unconscious mind. If you are of a Christian mind then you’ll either find Goddard’s writing alarming or a delightful eye-opener.

      1. God is your awareness of being. Consciousness and your awareness of that is God,there is no other God. I recommend to RoK readers the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. If esoteric Christianity doesn’t appeal then perhaps the teachings of Vedanta will.

        1. If one is an actual born-again Christian, they will immediately know that you and Goddard are unregenerate fools. But nice try….

    3. 1 Kings 2:2 I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;
      and ill resent that statement about trading wisdom for weakness. what is counted as wisdom today is a sham.
      1 Timothy 6:20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
      21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
      science means wisdom… wisdom falsely so called.

  2. Hey Corey, I like your articles but wtf man? I’m not gonna sit write poems and recite verses. You are taking it way back to the 19th century.
    I am kind of buys talking to men about repealing the women’s right to vote, you know?

    1. You ought to write a poem and recite verse. Somehow men lost something here. And while I agree with you that the women’s right to vote was a colossal mistake it will never be repealed…ever. Why would you avoid a positive thing that could add value to your life and to you as a man and is readily obtainable in order to bang your head against the wall hoping that something absolutely impossible will happen?

      1. HA, Poetry fag ! Real men get blind drunk and key the outside of their car trying to unlock the door.

      2. “There’s that fag talk again”
        Dr. Lexus from the 2007 documentary Idiocracy.

      3. It will probably never happen. I was watching a two part series on amazon prime: The New Economic Reality. I found it interesting the academia agrees our Demographic Winter is largely due to the women’s rights movement. Of course, there is no mention of rolling that back, but the acknowledgement alone is worth taking notice of.
        You never know what the future brings because this has everything to do with a dying species. When you talk extinction, I believe things will start to change.

        1. All things that are alive are dying. I don’t think we are even early afternoon in the day of man.
          Either way, still no reason not to write a poem

        2. Roses are red
          Violets aren’t purple
          Sugar is sweet
          and so is maple syruple

        3. There once was a man from Nantucket
          Stories about him have been greatly exaggerated

    2. He’s taking it back 20 years tops. Y’all have become so short sighted due to technology that you can’t even grok that these things are actually necessary to the development of a healthy masculine attitude.

        1. If you read what he said, he was basically saying fist fights. And yes, men need to be left alone to duke it out with another guy from time to time, as long as it doesn’t go beyond your normal fist fight.

        2. Given as there is no such thing, fighting over it would seem a waste of time and energy.

        3. Dude, I haven’t commented on your mom in a *looooonnnngggg* time. Dang you West Virginian types are touchy!

        4. Ahhh.. that. You still are out in the BP world… She is not YOUR woman. It’s just your turn.
          I’m sure you’ll get very pissed about my statement and seek satisfaction, but think about it for a moment.

    3. How about you tell us exactly what you plan to do to repeal women’s right to vote besides just bitching about it online?

        1. Then you tell me your plan, deep shit. Reciting poems and duels? That sounds right for a tradcon like you. Fucking shit! hahahah! Now go and ban me loser. Come on kitty. You can do it.
          You coming into the comments section to defend your stupid post, only shows how insecure you are.

    4. You don’t have to do all eight !!! Don’t be so literal. Do those that would come naturally to you.
      You don’t have to be able to talk to a room full of people just because Corey said its a lost art that should be revived. Nobody ticks all the boxes on any list.
      And it doesn’t have to be the Iliyad you recite either could be a bob marley song, a paragraph from trey gowdy, a scene from your favorite film. Use your brain and add your own character.
      You don’t have to don a toga and regale people in a amphitheater. You could recite your favorite film scene with a few friends after a beer.

  3. Tremendous list. I especially like the duels one-there’s a couple of clowns I would love nothing more than beating into a pulp as they insulted my honour and did things to me that affected my capacity to earn a livelihood/jeopardised my earning capacity and by extension affected my family. I would give them a savage beating but the whole point being about how they besmirched my honour.

    1. Duels are to the death, and with weapons. No beatings.
      I’m confident of winning with a sword or a gun.
      Black powder pistols, no problem.

      1. I suppose-I like mano a mano and the visceral feeling of squeezing someone around the throat until their eyes bulge out of their head. Swords on the otherhand no problem but none of that fencing silliness-I’d want a xiphos as befitting my ancestors.

        1. How do I atone for such? Do I recite 1000 Hail Trumps or make a donation to Kek? I’m a pro-wall advocate so I’d hate for my linguistic slip to be treated as fodder to catapult me over into the hands of some cartel.

      2. Duels needn’t be to the death to be effective.
        The best use of duels would be in the settling of libel – people would learn to STFU a little better if it was understood there were real consequences to talking shit, bearing false witness, gossiping, etc….(all of which are most UN-masculine activities to begin with!)

        1. fencing was often to first blood between gentlemen.
          Duels to the death are insane. How do you even parse that in the civilized world?

        2. The French have baguette duels and those can get bloody.
          Death by baguette….hmmmm

        3. If I’m given the ability to choose the manner of my own death, well….here you go. NSFW btw. The use of slow motion was masterful bordering on true art here. Heh.

  4. Retreats, initiation, reciting and handwriting is just nutty stuff. It’s gone.
    Swords (handicrafts) and duels I like.
    But no need to learn how to make swords from scratch, you can do a lot with a leaf spring from any vehicle, and they will be around for 100s of years to come, no matter what.

      1. I car = 8 full size swords, after the zombie apocalypse.
        Leaf springs take about 100-200 years to rot away.

        1. First: zombies arent real.
          Second: salvage yards call the cops if you dont pay.

        2. Just strip a car someone dumped on the street.
          After the zombie apocalypse, there will be abandoned cars everywhere.

    1. WHy do you think retreats, initiation and handwriting is gone. Initiation yes on a global scale where men who don’t know each other can at least assume some shared kind of experience, but that doesn’t mean we can’t force ourselves through some personal initiation that requires growth and gives us a sense of self. Handwriting is here if we want it to be. I quite enjoy the process of writing. Retreats? Those aren’t gone. They have morphed a bit, but they are here. There are some luxury bath houses here in the city with pools of various temperatures and ice rooms/steam rooms and restaurants and juice bars where you can go, lock your phone up and spend a few hours. There are even sensory deprivation tanks. A place not to far from my office is pretty cool. But hell, you can always diy by getting in your car or on a train and going somewhere for the weekend and just leaving your phone at home.

    2. Strange, both of my kids know how to write in cursive and they’re GenZ.
      You “modernist” types are a myopic lot. 40,000 years of literacy that required some form of handwriting is now suddenly, in ten years, outdated and “old” because of “muh iFonez”.
      Schools around these parts are re-instituting handwriting as a taught school subject. There is legislation being passed right now in Ohio that mandates cursive script being taught and brought up to proficiency in schools.
      Retreats are everywhere, are you blind? Initiation still exists, but you have to seek it out, it isn’t standard fare any longer. And reciting, come on, that’s basically just public speaking, are you telling me that nobody does public speaking any longer?

      1. NYC just re-mandated by BOE policy cursive writing and penmanship too. I think people caught on to the fact that it was important. Like you say, a 10 year blip in the course of, well, all written history literally, is a spit in the ocean.

        1. what is the age of consent here? 16?
          I ask bc the state just changed the marriage age from 14 to 17.
          Not that anyone gets married that young anymore, but if they did, couldnt the boy be charged with statutoryrape?

        2. 16 is AOC in NY but if you are over 13 and under 16 it is legal if your partner is not more than 4 years older than you not that I have made some kind of metal note of it or anything.

  5. Corey, I have to say you really have outdone yourself. This might be my favorite one of all your articles. It is truly wonderful. If I may, point by point, because some of your list really hit me hard
    1) Handwriting. Holy guacamole I am so glad that this is both on the list and first on the list. I have always admired penmanship. Look at the declaration of independence. To me the thing that strikes me most is how beautifully it is written. Every man, imo, ought to own a good fountain pen and learn to write well with it.
    2-3) Rhetoric and Recitation….good god yes. Men simply have forgotten how to speak to an audience. Blog posts are a kind of modern rhetoric but the art of speaking to a room is largely lost. How does one use their voice as an instrument with rhythm pitch and timber, use their bodies, use their every motion to get a point across.
    4) Handcrafting. Oddly enough, this is making a huge come back with no little thanks being owed to the hipsters. Like a broken clock being right twice a day, you simply have to credit these mostly abhorrent little shits for bringing artisan back to foods….want pickles…make them….want beer? brew it. Food is just a start of course and learning other crafts is a natural and necessary extension. For me, I would like to learn some basic woodwork and will make a point of it this winter when the weather stops being so beautiful
    5) Survival……Survival can mean a great number of things I suppose. Surviving off the land in a post apocalyptic world is not for me, but being able to do it is laudable. I tried to start small and grow some hydroponic tomatoes in my apartment, but nothing doing. If anyone has some advice on how one can get more into self sustenance while living in an urban area I would love to know.
    6) Duels: Yes! Ok, I think it is barbaric to duel with a pistol…we don’t want people dead in the street or to sanction murder, and unfortunately fencing is not something that young men grow up knowing how to do…..that said, you are 100% right. There really should be allowances for, and strict rules governing, men dealing with their problems like men. I think it should also be civil. If we have a problem and get into a fight I should be able to trust you won’t brain me with a blackjack you have hidden and you should be sure that if I knock you on your ass it won’t be followed with me stomping your head in. I am not sure that this is actually feasible anymore, but it would be nice.
    7) Retreats!!!!! Fuck yeah. One goal I had at the start of this year was to do a weekend retreat somewhere without connection to the outside world….for me that would be a nice spa with bathhouse.
    8) male initiation rites…you couldn’t be more dead on. How long has it been since being able to drink legally was the only thing that separated “men” from “boys” And people wonder why the world is acting like children.
    I can’t say it enough Corey–you really nailed this one.

    1. Agreed on handicraft, although I think it was GenX who pioneered that. Beer Brewing really caught on when we were in our early 20’s (I was brewing back in 1988 where even then it was picking up steam, so to speak). Some other things though, yeah, Millenials and their “craft XYZ” thing has been a good thing. I’ve been doing leather working for years now and it is very fulfilling and makes me feel connected to reality in ways that other activities do not. It’s just a great feeling to cut out, hole punch, and do knifework on a piece of tanned leather and have it turn into something beautiful when you’re done. A real sense of achievement.

      1. I can see leather working but I have always had a draw to wood carving. Not that I have ever tried, it has just always seemed cool. I would love to make knives but I just don’t have the space for it at home. A goal for me would be to carve my own chess set but ya got to start somewhere (tooth picks). Gen X absolutely did start with some of the craft stuff, but credit where credit is due with the hipsters and millennials….as much as I can’t stand them they are really insistent on farm to table, locally sources products and artisan everything from charcuterie to paper. Even a broken generation is twice an idiom.

      2. About the only thing I’ll say in favor of millenial hipsters, is that they generally bring good alcohol and places to buy local farm grown, GMO free, organic food with them.
        How telling is it that their best competency is one of consumption?

  6. I don’t think that there are no ways to establish if a man is a “man” any more or less than in times past. Everyone in a feudal society wasn’t a Lord, there were shoemakers and farmers also. In that sense, I think that today’s male has a better chance of “being manly” in the sense that it’s talked about here, since we have greater freedom of social movement in our society than in many past cultures.

    1. Very true that movement up the social ladder is so much more possible for any man from the last few generations through today. Like with a grandfather of mine, he was born in a dirt floored cabin as all before him had been, and only had an 8th grade education, yet died a wealthy man, as he was able to keep and build upon the rewards of his labor, as never before. It was said that when he’d walk into a room, politicians and bankers would stand up (which whom he despised). It still holds true that for today, a man can go from a dirt floored cabin to penthouse by his own labor. So many more men can be men… even with the onslaught of young SJW idealists.

  7. We should bring back duels first blood for minor to moderate insults to honour and to the death for major insults of honour such as raping or molesting of a daughter, girlfriend, or wife(Rob Roy).Alot of problems with the modern American women would disappear since almost most of them seem to be caused by sexual abuse in her childhood by an uncle or father.

    1. problem is, what counts as a minor or moderate insult at this point? “I was triggered by your comment online” “He rejected my sexual advances and said it was because I was overweight”

      1. The more duels that happen the less SJWs and efeminate men their will be; pain and scarring are wonderful teachers.Then eventually a happy medium could be found of what is considered a minor to moderate insult.

        1. Or maybe you’ll get the jump on me for some perceived slight, hack my head off and deprive the world of my further brilliance….

        2. No need to go full death mode here man. All most Millenial waify-boys need to get their poop in a group is to take them behind the barn and beat the tar out of them when they start acting stupid. That usually exorcises the stupid right out of a fellow.

        3. Absolutely. The thing we really need to bring back, however, is shame or none of it works. There was a time not to long ago where being afraid to fight in the school yard was universally mocked. This is a good thing. And while you might not get mocked openly for losing a fair fight you would go home feeling pissed at yourself and somewhat ashamed. The thing with the waify boy hipster is that they will shit their pants and then brag about being non violent and society will back them up

        4. So does a proper scarring and to the death was reserved for major insults and crimes against family.

    2. Problem is that most people have zero knowledge of how to fight.
      See Exhibit A: Hugh Grant v Colin Firth. I don’t know who choreographed this “fight” but it makes me laugh because this is how most “duels” would end up.

  8. as a side note regarding dueling, in 1992 Iowa repealed its state ban on dueling. If you are in the military you are still subject to court martial but afaik it is not illegal to duel in Iowa.

    1. Can you still challenge someone to a duel with the customary white glove slap to the face?

      1. Only if you do not do the Looney Toons thing and put a brick in it first, then I guess so.

        1. A proper bar fight!
          SWINE!
          No Sir! A gentleman. Only a ruffian deals a blow with the back of the hand. A Gentleman uses the straight LEFT and I sir am a gentleman”

  9. Freaking awesome article Corey! All of these things help infuse a man’s character with truly masculine traits and provide a base that he can build upon with confidence as he moves forward in life.
    A to the freaking Plus on this article, mate. I can add literally nothing more to it by way of commentary.
    Slainte mhor!

  10. Many grammar schools no longer teach kids cursive. In the future, the rebels will communicate via handwritten letters in cursive, as the sjw crowd wont be able to read em

    1. Ohio has legislation pending (or maybe just passed, I haven’t heard about it this morning yet) which will mandate that cursive be re-instituted in all schools. Turns out the Millenial sneer of “muh technologiez” didn’t cut it and that they actually need to learn life skills that will help them in the future.
      It’s so mind numbingly stupid to discard cursive handwriting but you can’t even begin to argue it with a Millenial. How will they read cursive letters from their family? Important documents from the past? “Muh technologiez” falls flat on its face but they are blind to it.

      1. I’d be fine if cursive went away on the following condition:
        EVERYONE learn to print legibly, I mean old-time-drafting-level clarity, just as quickly as cursive.
        No?
        OK, then we keep good ol’ ‘script’.

        1. my friend is a dr, he said the first yr of med school they force you to relearn cursive with your off hand. its tradition

        2. Nope. I sir, do not think it wise to rely on a small elite of “intellectuals” to translate nearly all of our history for us because we can’t read the writing.

        3. I was always amazed the pharmacist could read the wiggly lines scratched by doctor.

        4. Doesn’t matter. If cursive goes away and everybody learns to print in a very legible way, they still won’t be able to read historical documents or even letters that grandpa sent grandma from the front lines in France during WW2. Cursive is actually way faster to write with than printing anyway. It’s utility *and* beauty.

        5. Somewhat related: Two years ago I impulsively bought a 1949 LC Smith and Corona burgundy typewriter. It’s really beautiful. Not a person sees it who doesn’t talk about it. And sometimes, for the ladies, I’ll type out a few sentences on a card for a personalized gift. It’s a pantydropper. You wouldn’t think so, but it is.
          The guy who sold it to me deals antique typewriters from his basement. I asked who buys most of them. He said it’s mostly teenagers. They haven’t seen any keypads without screens.
          Fun fact: There is no “1” key. Typewriter manfacturers didn’t use them until the sixties. You have to hit the “l” key.

        6. I met a guy that collects typewriters. He talked about the romance of the hammer embossing the impression and ink into a page, and about the fact that a perfectly typed page was an act of skill and artistic will. He uses them for all meaningful correspondence– including letters that he wrote for his kids to open as adults.
          Looking at it that way, it really does seem special.

        7. Ha. I once found sealing wax and a monogram seal in a little paper/writing shop in New Orleans. Same pantydropping results.

        8. I had one before. I believe it was made in the 1960s long before computers with screens was made in the 1970s. I lost it years ago….

      2. youve actually spoken to millz who say learning cursive is pointless?

        1. what else did they think is obsolete? Borders, common decency, etc?

        2. Actually, yes to both of those more times than not. Have you heard their snarling foul mouthed tatted up skanky women talk? And borders, man, that is so *beta shudder*….Trump! Ewwwww!

      3. Did Ohio chuck out common core yet? I noticed Kasich wants to centralize business taxes to be filed direclty to the state intead of allowing the community to collect.

        1. That, I don’t know. I do know that we dumped PARCC tests (common core), but not sure if that means common core goes away or it just gets a new form of test (I suspect the later). Kasich is a rube and a weenie. 1990 Kasich was a firebrand far right winger with balls, 2017 Kasich is this dweeby nearly leftist cuckservative who, while he gets a few things right, is becoming increasingly more wrong with every passing day.

        2. Every time a guy from the Ohio GOP gets to the top or goes to DC they sell out every single time. Saw it with Voinovich and DeWine, both who I have personally met, in the mid 90s.
          *Jim Jordan is the only exception I know of.

        3. I had an argument with Kasich on “Larry King Live” (radio show), back in the late 80s. I accused him of spouting the party line about the Panama invasion, and he said, “I’m not spouting any party line, fella.” (Fella?) The guy’s a total shape-shifting douchewad, always morphing to suit his higher-ups…

        4. Kasich got a big thumbs-down from me after he misinterpreted a Bible verse to serve his own purposes.

      4. Starting in Jr. High they insisted we print, after years of cursive training. My penmanship is actually better printing than cursive, however I had tons of fun doing calligraphy in art class!

    2. In the age of computer recognition software identifying faces and words, cursive is the new secret code hieroglyphics.

        1. you know the funny thing is, while not a Sammy, I am having pulled pork over summer squash for lunch today. You are a psychic.

      1. That is not a joke. I have had recent high school grads not be able to read my cursive which is very legible. Even if I used a mild form of calligraphic printing (which I try to do as a matter of course, because I find block printing to be crude) they would look at what I’d written and tell me “I can’t read cursive.” It’s truly pathetic. We don’t think in block letters. Our thoughts flow. Hence cursive is the best way to express our thoughts in writing. I believe one key reason the government schools have stopped teaching it, is that it forces you to think and acquire coordination and discipline. People with skills like that are much harder to herd around like livestock.

        1. Cursive is no longer taught in public schools. I’m teaching my daughter (7 yrs. old) to write and read cursive at home. She loves it. She thinks it’s a secret language.

        2. Once she masters that, then teach her to write in cursive backwards from right to left. I do that to my coworkers just to mess with them and usually have to tell them to hold it up to a mirror, lol! If it was good enough for Da Vinci it’s good enough for me. 😉

    3. Can’t have you reading the actual text of the second amendment (or any other) and questioning a bunch of Ivy Leaguers’ “interpretation” of the “plain meaning” of those words….

  11. Handicraft – yeah. Definite yeah. How many of today’s beta simps can install a dishwasher, or build a cabinet and plumb in a sink? How many can build a shed? Make a dining room table and chairs? Do basic electrical work? Change a control arm or ball joints on a car?
    There are some things a man should know how to do. My sister was married (note – WAS) to a betafied cuck who could barely change a freakin’ light bulb. When I was visiting sis and doing a lot of household repairs for her, one of her friends was visiting and was quite obviously getting turned on because she had never been around a man who could do those kinds of things. But regardless of that, men should know how to do these kinds of things (in my not-so-humble opinion).
    And a man should not be afraid to try new things. Never brewed beer? Try it. A) you might be good at it, and B) you’re automatically better than all the nay-sayers who are afraid to try.

    1. Taught my son to brew beer two years ago, now it’s becoming our autumn tradition. Well ok, two years, but he’s asking about the hops here recently a few days ago, so it looks like a new tradition in the making.

      1. MY family still makes homemade cider, both alcohol and non….its such a good seasonal thing. Since my grandfather died we don’t make the homemade grappa anymore. Maybe I should make a point of taking a look at the press and still on memorial day weekend when I am there.

        1. Contact GoJ privately and he’ll tell you how he makes his moonshine,and you can then ask older family members if they can remember how your grandfather made grappa specifically. I don’t see anything wrong with individuals making spirits for their own private consumption.

        2. Beer and mead are not moonshine. I don’t make moonshine.

        3. Oh I know how to make the grappa myself. My grandfather lived a long life and I sat with him making it well into my 30’s. No one has made it simply because I live in the city and my grandmother isn’t going to go into the basement to work the still and none of my other family members seem interested in doing so.

        4. I think that old traditions are worth maintaining and worth going to considerable lengths to master.

        5. agreed. If I had the time I would be pulling in the grapes, making the wine, moving the mash to the still and spitting out grappa. Maybe in the later years

        6. I like many schnapps and fruit spirits eg calvados and grappa.. assume it is a grape one

      2. Have you considered brewing cider, as beer is loaded with female hornomes/ phytoestrogens, genistein and daidzein, that kill brain cells and wreck testosterone levels? Cider is much cleaner for the male endochrine system than beer.

        1. First, I brew mead, so yes.
          Second, that whole “male endocrine” thing is way overblown. Saxons, Germans and Slavic men have been drinking beer since time immemorial and they were really husky masculine men.

        2. It is a medical fact that the numerous female hormones in beer disrupt the male hormonal system. Pretty sure the middle-ages’ men were not what you might think; life expectancy in the low 30s and almost 100% rate of degenerative bone disease (from eating so much wheat) are found in human remains from that period.

        3. Middle Ages?
          Dude, look at those Nazi rallies, Wermacht soldiers, English paratroopers, Finnish badasses and Russian brutes in WW2. I’d lay an easy wager that a good 95% of them drank beer with regularity.

        4. You are just assuming that though. Russians weren’t big beer drinkers, and Hitler tried to get the Weirmacht to stop drinking as effected their behaviour negatively. Read Benjamin Franklins autobiography and his accounts of drunk British soldiers, and drunk printing factory workers (when he worked in England). British soldiers were more aggressive as beers kills testosterone and causes over-aggression from excess estrogen (it is why women get angry so easily). Drink it all you like, but don’t pretend the medical literature on yeast, estrogen and phytoestrens in beer is not true.

        5. Hitler was an effete little omega pansy who also hated meat, so I’m not really caring what he wanted or not. Russians drink beer too though. And the English were and are notorious for it (and Germans too). Even the Irish and Scots, who love nothing more than punching a man when meeting him just to say “Hello” are huge beer drinkers.
          I think that your concern is really over exaggerated. It doesn’t pass the “look around with my own eyes” test. No doubt there may be some effects there that are less than optimal, but end of the day, doing most things in moderation usually prevents undesirable outcomes.

        6. My understanding is that the SS, at least the ones that ran the camps, drank heavily as a rule. Kinda figures.

        7. So, let me get this straight– cider is for dudes, and beer is for chicks?
          Guess I’m a chick, then.

        8. No, they’re your words. Drink all the beer you want. Im just pointing out facts; beer and its female hormones, are not good for males. You can go to an ale festival and see for yourself – ‘beer bellies’ are excess estrogen, as is the much much higher rates of baldness amongst beer drinkers. Higher rates of cancers, especially prostate cancer, from beer, is well studied. Cider doesn’t have this problem.

    2. The point is not beer. (well, the point is usually beer – and decent beer, not the commercial swill they sell here in the ‘States.). The point is manning up, reaching in your pocket to make sure you still have a pair, and then DOING something. Fuck everyone else and their nay-saying. Try something new.

  12. Taking risks should be another item on this list:
    Take risks in business
    Date a stripper ( if you can handle one of these you can handle any woman)
    Race cars – risk a ticket or minor fender benders

    1. Date a stripper ??What a ridiculous thing to seek out.
      And risking fender benders is beyond stupid and infantile. If you havent got all that stupid shit out of your system by now your mental growth is stunted and possibly retarded.
      Take risks,yes but adult risks. Nothing ventured nothing gained type of risk. Not a young adult testing the boundaries of society and getting off on the sheer tempting of fate to see will it fuck you over.

      1. Taking adult risks is great.
        For instance, I know a lot of guys who are looking for an MBA. Here is a tip. If you aren’t getting your MBA at Stanford, U Penn Wharton School, Harvard Business, London Business, Columbia Business, U Chicago Business or Yale School of Management just don’t bother. You are just handing over money for nothing worthwhile.
        On the other hand, if you aren’t going to one of those schools for your MBA you should realize that the average cost of starting a business is about 30k while the average cost of an MBA is 140k. Start a business. If it fails it fails. You will learn quite a bit and your resume will show that you have business experience if you frame it right….means a lot more than an MBA from some state school which is just looking to fill its coffers and really won’t do shit for you other than prove you can be separated from money with promises of magic beans.

        1. I got an MBA from none of the schools on your list and it only got me a $5000 raise at my current company, worthless

        2. IT isn’t that a Columbia or Wharton or Yale MBA will learn ya anything better….what it will do is help you form contacts with people who went to Columbia, Wharton or Yale etc. Aside from the in hiring which does happen, you are more likely to be in circles of people who can help advance your career. A lot is still up to you. Someone I admire very much once told me “people always say its who you know that matters but that’s not true. It’s who you know that LIKES you that matters”

        3. Yup The ivy league schools get you connections from what i hear . Mine was from Ohio state with an emphasis on manufacturing management. I should have spent that time getting a PE license .

        4. PE license would have been very useful as would have been starting a side business which may have succeeded and may have failed but either way given you a good run at trying to manage operations and logistics of your own small company. I am sure that OSU didn’t give you any less of an education than, say, Wharton or Columbia would have…but after leaving Wharton and Columbia, assuming you are an amiable person who has forged friendships and made a name for yourself as competent, you would have been 1 or 2 degrees of separation from the big people in the business world

        5. Thats exactly the type I’m on about !! can you lose ?? yes. But can you gain ?? HELL YES.
          Why would you risk a fender bender or other juvenile behavior.
          I’ve always been aware of the college scam but ive never thought of it as overtly as that. It makes serious sense when you compare the numbers like that. Works out cheaper and you gain practical life experience.

      2. Here me out on this before you dismiss it as silly. Most young men are not good with women. At the strip club the girls approach and game YOU, the man. You get free conversation with hot women and many time you don’t pay a dime. They will divulge all kinds of information. Some will even tell you that you’re attractive even if you deny them a paid dance . Playing the odds , you will eventually find one to date and handling them is tough to do and the sex is porn star quality. It’s a place to develop your social skills

        1. I gotta agree with this one. Strippers…if you learn to handle them, you can handle any female. A strip club is a phenomenal place to hone your game and learn insider secrets about women.

        2. I used to dismiss them as well . When you’re taught that strippers are trash then you think you are better than they are . I’ve met a few over the years that are now successful businesswomen owning hair salons etc

  13. This was a great piece. Thanks, Corey. Since America has virtually outlawed (not always explicitly, mind you) many of these things, it justifiably fell to Dads to teach most of these things to their sons.
    I think if I could add one thing to this, it would be that – Dads, when there is no institutionalized form or version of these things, teach it to your sons yourself.

  14. Handwriting has been replaced by LOL and LMAO and other mindless acronyms for the keyboard-thumb-fucking crowd…a sad state of affairs.

    1. LOL! Totes true! Amirite? LMAOLullllzlllzlzlzlzlooollzlzolz!

      1. GoJ, somehow I think that if you actually spoke aloud the words, “totes true,” you’d spontaneously combust.
        Amirite?!?

        1. If @ghostofjefferson:disqus ever spoke that way, IIIIIII would spontaneously combust…

    2. And emojis.
      They were popularized and continue to be for the sole purpose of dumbing down the people..
      They dont want you thinking on your own terms. They want to control the things you know and how you think..
      They continue to make progress.

  15. 6 years ago I rejected the office culture and retrained in a new career. During that time I reduced my daily computer usage and studied and practiced more survival and tactical skills. I even dropped some money to go to various classes and week long seminars with some highly noted teachers in survival and tracking.
    Deploying survival skills is something you can actually use when out camping, fishing or hunting. Tactical skills can be practiced but those wont be called up unless your local community goes to complete shit.
    Regardless if you use the skills daily or not, knowing them is an invisible blanket of confidence that cannot be taken from you. You will naturally want to practice what you have learned and you will recognize physical and mental weaknesses during that practice that you will want to eliminate.
    Knowing survival and tactical skills is good for the masculine soul. I cannot encourage it enough.

      1. Can’t Dox myself.
        Lets just say I am no longer pushing paper across a desk, and that my new career actually provides a service and skill set that is useful in a total collapse situation.
        If anyone is interested in a career change I suggest looking at a career that offers skill sets that are useful in all situations and offers something positive for society. When I looked at my life awhile ago I came to realize that nobody has use for a marketer in a “zombie” apocalypse.

    1. Good for you League! I grew up in a very rural area and learned wood craft and survival skills quite young. A family friend gave me a copy of the USAF survival manual when I was about 12 and I read it numerous times. I always carry a good knife, a Leatherman of some kind (the Wave on work days or outings, a Skeletool if I’m dressed up) and at least one means of making fire. My EDC fire starter is a blast match because you can operate it with one hand and you can’t count on a disposable lighter to work when you need it most (as you well know). Another thing a man should always carry is a handkerchief. It will serve you well as an impromptu dust mask, a bandage, something to let a boo-hooey lady wipe her eyes with and if you absolutely must, something to blow your nose on, lol!. I always have a couple of safety pins in my wallet as well; they can be used for all sorts of things in a pinch. A man should be able to walk into the woods with what he carries on his person (especially his knowledge) and, if not thrive, at least survive. I am afraid the mindset of preparedness has mostly been lost on recent generations and the day may come when their ignorance costs them dearly.

  16. You have to fight some strong headwinds to go in that direction. Our futurist intellectuals apparently hate teenage boys, because they envision a world of self-driving cars, sex robots, virtual reality, robotic unemployment, guaranteed minimum incomes and pervasive algorithms which tell us what to do. Yuval Harari promotes this last idea in his new book Homo Deus.
    If these nerds get their way, the world they want will produce a generation of adult male virgins who won’t know how to drive, who won’t know how to talk to and seduce girls, who won’t have held even an entry-level job, and who would become helpless if the algorithm system suddenly stopped working and it couldn’t tell them what to do.
    In other words, some so-called thought leaders want to deprive men of having the kinds of experiences which give them useful skills and a sense of agency. I don’t see how anyone could look at the diminished life that would result from this project and consider it desirable.

    1. whats not to like about a permanently impoverished class of males, economically, culturally, spiritually, etc? They will never be a problem for the ruling class again

      1. Yeah, well, we know which (((ruling class))) would like this outcome:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_von_Coudenhove-Kalergi#Views_on_race_and_religion

        Instead of destroying European Jewry, Europe, against its own will, refined and educated this people into a future leader-nation through this artificial selection process. No wonder that this people, that escaped Ghetto-Prison, developed into a spiritual nobility of Europe. Therefore a gracious Providence provided Europe with a new race of nobility by the Grace of Spirit. This happened at the moment when Europe’s feudal aristocracy became dilapidated, and thanks to Jewish emancipation.

        1. Very interesting! No wonder the Satanic New World Order is HQ in the fake State of Israel. And the “6 million Jews” fake Holocaust is promulgated as foundational truth across the world.

    2. Well, the white males anyway. The Muslims are the new seducers. Face it, there’s too few of us red pill’ers to overcome this issue. Let’s just be unwavering in our beliefs in the face of this. A shred of honor and dignity, if you(plural) will.

      1. One MOAB dropped over the Muslims’ Temple of Doom in Mecca would settle the score.

    3. It will come you want ot or not. It will affect girls big time too. It does not have to make everyone like that either. Kind of close minded thinking or you are an old generation.

  17. Revive the caste system. The one where qualities, not birth determine the person’s caste. It keeps the beta males and prostitutes at the lowest rung of society.

    1. Um…no. That’s the opposite of the message of self improvement espoused on this site. You can keep your caste system, Vanchu.

    2. Why should prostitutes be at the bottom?
      And for that matter beta males, every King needs his courtiers.

  18. whty return to dueling? why should justice be with the man who is bigger, and better at fighting? And, according to this logic of might makes right, why should the establishment, for example, be considered innocent? were not they only smarter, richer, and more cunning?

    1. Because a lot of you Millenial dweebs need a good punch in the face to exorcise the Leftism out of your souls. You were raised entirely by soft hands, to have soft hands, and not a one of you got a punch in the face during that crucial development period in your life where it would have benefited you immensely.
      It also, to get to your point, creates a culture where vapid little weaklings don’t get to strut around sneering and snarking and joining Antifa squads because “feelz”. An additional benefit is that it would make the smaller and weaker stop accepting being small and weak and maybe motivate y’all to get to the gym and get some fighting skills.

      1. Back in my day, our male teachers in Jr. High would encourage guys who had a beef with each other, to go to the gym at lunch hour and duke it out. If that happened now, they’d call SWAT, sue the teacher, sue the administrators, and put the whole joint on lockdown…

        1. I remember a gym teacher encouraging and refereeing a fair fight between some kid and I who had a beef over god knows what immature bullshit. No one got hurt, we got a little aggression out. Granted that was a gym teacher and not our math teacher, but still…not bad.

        2. Same. Actually even in elementary school where I went.

        3. My sixth-grade teacher would whale the tar out of any kids who acted up with a yardstick. He didn’t whack them lightly, he full-on blasted ’em with the thing. Everybody lived in fear of getting whupped with that yardstick. But the students were incredibly well-behaved in his class…

        4. I took a few decent rolled-newspaper beatings from teachers. Generally well-deserved and effective. I never repeated the specific misdeed.

        5. Today they would arrest the teacher for assault after the students recorded it with their phones and uploaded it to JewTube (I mean YouTube)…

        6. Yup, what happens now is instead of duking it out, ALL conflict is punished. If you are the little kid who is picked on for displaying “microaggressions” you will bottle it up until you kill yourself, or shoot people up.
          They seriously need to allow fighting, so long as certain rules are kept (no weapons, stop as soon as submission is achieved, one on one)

        7. Rolled newspaper beating from teachers? Did you go to K9 obedience school?

        8. Yes. Boys need to get that aggression out, and learn how to defend themselves in the process. Ironic that today, even the most minor conflict or evidence of aggression in a student or teacher, brings about a MASSIVE display of aggression by the authorities…I think they are trying to tell us something there, with those displays of power…heh.

        9. Some dillweed boy being raised by a single mother would come up and hit my son from time to time when out at recess (4th grade). My son at first “did the right thing” and told the teacher standing outside supervising and she didn’t do anything because poor little dillweed boy was seen as “having special disadvantages in his home life” or some such drivel. So basically, hey, it’s ok to hit my son was the message. One day when dillweed came over and started hitting my son, my son stood up and punched the living snot out of the little punk and put an end to it quick. So of course THAT motivated the teacher, same one, to get her Authority on.
          She called me directly while he was in the office. BIG MISTAKE. I asked about the circumstances, which she relayed to me almost word for word as I did above (omitting “dillweed” of course). I told her “Well, good, I’m glad my son fought back. You failed in your role many times, and he had no choice but to take it into his own hands.”
          “Students aren’t allowed to take this kind of thing into their own hands!”
          “But he did, because you failed. Tonight we’re going out to his favorite restaurant as a treat for him standing up for himself”
          I think she expected some pastel wearing beta dad to coo and agree with her. I also challenged her to take it further, since she admitted up front to failing to do her job. Nothing further came from it.

        10. Teachers at my schools had the “Board of Education” a thin hardwood paddle with holes drilled through and were not shy about using it as needed.
          The Snowflakes would benefit from it today.

        11. What an insane turn of events, eh. Was talking to a hotel security guard the other evening. He got called by his nephew’s teacher, and was told the cops were coming to the school to arrest his nephew. So he zoomed down to the school. The cops had just pulled up. What happened was, two larger, older boys had been picking on his nephew the entire semester. They had repeatedly stolen things from him while beating him up. On this occasion, they tried to steal some Star Wars collectible, and the nephew lost it and beat the fuck out of both of them. So what happened? The nephew got arrested, even though a video of the altercation proved he didn’t start it. This is what happens when men become manginas and let leftists with hidden agendas run roughshod over them…

        12. That was a critical step in your sons development. One cant emphasize how important it is for a kid to learn to do that…
          And now, surprise surprise, he’s a successful, confident grown-up, amirightght?

        13. It hasn’t gotten that bad around these parts yet. My son worked at a grocery store for a while and some random fucktard basically came up to him in the parking lot while he was bringing carts back in and shoved him in the back and then swung at him. Like literally out of nowhere, for nothing, my boy didn’t even know this guy. Son punched the snot out of the kid and the cops were called. They looked at the parking lot video and asked only one thing of me “Sir, do you wish to press charges against the assailant”. And that was the end of that.

        14. hahahaha
          The one I remember best was in response to my performance of the “hey you wanna screw (with drywall screw in hand)” bit.
          You ask me, I say it KILLED.
          Ms. 4th grade Teacher thought differently…

        15. You’re lucky it hasn’t gotten worse where you are. I think in the security guard’s case, it was totally based on school policy. Zero tolerance for fighting of any kind. The video showed the two older boys pushing the kid, pawing him, as they tried to take his collectible. I guess the kid did go pretty far – he broke one guy’s jaw and broke the other guy’s leg. But still…he was defending himself. If he’d been my kid, I’d have given him a couple hundred bucks and a gift certificate to a whore house, as a reward for being a man. Well done, son.

        16. You were the kind of kid who called hardware stores and asked for Caulk with a boston accent weren’t you!

        17. Heh, I wonder if you can get a Groupon for a cat house in Vegas?

        18. I think you just came up with a new business idea…and a damn good one, at that…

        19. I always have enjoyed a good bit.
          That one I didn’t learn until college. As you can no doubt sympathize, I learned that word as pronounced “cawwwwk” Couldn’t imagine it without the double-u.

        20. I just tried to say it as spelt…doesn’t work. It is cawwwk

        21. I also pronounce that as CAWWWWWWWKKKK” its one of them there homophones

        22. I could write pages of text from my experiences in NJ public schools during the 80s. My father was always away for his job and, unfortunately, my mother was extremely overbearing. Tell the authorities and don’t retaliate while giving me the Jesus lecture of how he was spit on. My dad, in contrast, said ‘beat the shit out of them’ and ‘deck them’.
          I still love my mother, but I’ve had to set her straight in my young adult years. She taught me a valuable lesson of not taking shit from a woman.

        23. But if YOU had to correctively discipline your own child, the socialist services goons then want to get into an authority pissing contest with you. This is why you always have to be pre emptive with them. Teach your children to despise the enemy. School figures, ‘authorities’, neighbors keep them in the spot where they are on one foot and you have your hand on the rug. Have the whole arsenal from polite to nuclear and be like a Kim Jung face and mean it. Use polite face first of course.
          Look what N Korean kids are taught:
          http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/7152370-3×2-940×627.jpg
          http://chine.blogs.rfi.fr/sites/blogs.rfi.fr/files/storyblogimgs/user3636/North_Korea_International_Childrens_Day-08039%20OBAMA.jpg
          Why can’t our homegrown kids do targets of Soros, commie educators and other swamp creatures in preschool?

        24. A+ parenting. Schools are universally content for bullies to be bullies and victims to be victims, but they will crack down on any kid that flips the script.

        25. I had similar experiences. I’d come home with 2 black eyes, the school didn’t care, and my mom would say, “Be nicer. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
          My dad told me to fight back as hard as I could. And I did. And the teachers punished me ruthlessly for it. My resistance was not convenient for them.
          That commitment to injustice by the adult teachers is maybe the single most formative lesson of my life.

        26. offer that “fly” some honey, then he whips out a screwdriver and try to get all stab-y on you. no thanks

        27. I experienced the same thing from teachers and school admin. I would never send a child of mine to public school and neither would my sister.

        28. Reminds me of my kid in pre-school day care. Another kid was habitually biting my son. After the third incident report, I told the director, “I knew that someday I was going to take my son out behind the garage and teach him to defend himself like a man. I didn’t think it would be when he was 4. But since you aren’t doing your job, I’ll do mine a little early. If the other kid attacks my son, he will fight back from now on, and with one goal – to win.”
          They didn’t believe me. They did after he kicked the holy living crap out of the other kid. The other parents were aghast, until they were confronted with all the incident reports.
          Needless to say, my son was BMOP (big man on playground) for a LONG time after that.

      2. “Because a lot of you Millenial dweebs need a good punch in the face”
        Classic.

    2. You’re minimizing the social concept of dueling.
      there were social norms built around the institution and a strict code of conduct was to be maintained as written in the Code Duello.
      Dueling allowed limited formal warfare to ensure a persons honor or rights are upheld as well as justice being served. It reminds people to mind their manners and not go outside of respectable behavior as a deadly encounter might occur. Additionally once a duel occurred the matter is closed.
      Violence was to be avoided by attempts to reconcile the parties both publicly and privately by the seconds after a challenge was issued.
      Prior to a duel the combatants were expected to at least regret that they had come to this pass and hold that they were there solely on a matter of honor.
      The Code Duello allowed for participants to face each other and draw first blood with swords or shoot into to air at each other and the matter could be ended.
      I hope that adds nuance to the discussion and I’m not advocating for or against a return to dueling in society here.

    3. Dueling is not a question of “might makes right,” at all. It is about setting standards and boundaries for your dignity and that of those you care for. It is about accepting personal responsibility for those things, regardless of how much smaller or ill-matched you may be against your aggressor.
      Our society would be far, far more civilized with a move toward more fistfights and fewer lawsuits/prosecutions.

    4. I might point out that Antifa and BLM are engaged in open warfare for their interpretation of justice and are happy to engage in political violence to that end.

    1. Im flipping the double bird at the screen right now. thanks for this

        1. gay guy seeking brownie points from straight women.
          the indmay ogglesbay

    2. And some dude below asked why we need a return to physical fighting. This little faggot right here, is why. One punch back when he was 12 and starting to pick up a Barbie and he may have turned out an entirely different man.

      1. I strongly recommend martial arts just so that we can beat the shit out of these guys. Sometimes I feel that schoolyard bullies are actually beneficial.

        1. They sure are. Lots and lots of men learned how to stand up to a bully and put him in his place, and that’s a huge valuable life lesson. I have nothing against bullies in their proper context.

        2. I went into a brick and mortar barnes and nobles last month to pick up a book for some vacation beach reading and saw a bunch of kids…like 12ish…over weight little sissies. I had such an inner desire to play keep away with their hats or pull their pants down infront of the girls or just wind up and give one of them a redneck

        3. What benefit would gifting a guy named Cletus be to a 12 year old be?

        4. No I mean the big open hand smack to the back of the neck that leaves him walking around with a red neck all day.

        5. It is pretty straight forward bullying where you just slap someones neck. Extra points are given for doing it while running and yelling “Redneck” on point of contact

        6. The Brothers loved this ‘game’….
          My hair was always too long for it to work for them effectively.

        7. I am aware of how Spartans raised children. I don’t think something like that is a good idea. After all we are in a civilized world. However, school yard bullying does help I think.

        8. I think the parlance of the time and place labeled us “dirtbags” or “headbangers”.
          The hippies had all died off or gotten jobs by the time I was a latter yute.

        9. I have theorized that the origin of the mullet was as a defense against this particular form of bullying.

        10. Extremes are inadvisable. We don’t have to follow the Spartans, but it is probably worse to coddle boys and shield them from the rigors of life.

        11. a solid regiment of school yard socialization, dodge ball and being called “fag” every time you do something that is even remotely effeminate usually works well.

        12. “being called fag”
          That alone should be enough. I was never called a fag, but even the thought of it burns.

        13. Hahaha I think every single person I knew before the age of 14 was called some synonym of homosexual at a minimum 3 times a day.
          New shirt? Fag
          Mom packed you lunch? Queer
          Struck out? Homo

        14. You know, in India, being called a fag is such a huge insult you’re almost guaranteed to have a fight on your hands.

        15. yeah, and with any luck the guy will kill you and then you will no longer have to suffer the gastroenterological distress

        16. Ha. I’m sure we could come up with a very long thread here. I was always a big fan of the simple “Mary”

        17. Who knew a country where 48% of the population craps in the street/fields could get so offended by what is largely a scatological insult.

    3. Hahah!!! What a Bitch!! Hopefully he gets the gender reassignment he so desperately wants.

  19. Not too sure about duelling (with what given that pistols are banned? foils?) but the rest of the suggestions are solid. Handwriting in particular would be a good skill to re-cultivate in a world of immanent surveillance. Organising one’s thoughts on paper requires far great discipline than on a PC and think, at the end of it, there is a manuscript rather than a mere printed off document

    1. i second you on the duelling.
      Now it is too easy to loose one’s life, even for such a ridiculous thing like a bad stance or not giving a cigarette, anybody can kill anybody.
      if anybody who had been offensed on the internet would have provoked a real duel, it would be an fucking hecatomb, even here at ROK, between ROK members, because pride is ridiculously high among some ego-fragile commenters.
      Of course, some people here would treat me as a coward for defending such a position, i would tell them that even they are soooo strong and masculine and shit, they could one day, be killed just for their pride. And it is just ridiculous.

      1. I could imagine there might be something like online duelling where the loser loses their online identity life. South park did a (somewhat unfunny) take on something similar. That aside I agree that most reasons for duelling would almost certainly be for ridiculous things – just imagine duelling with some stupid kid who felt ‘disrespected’ because you spilt his beer or something

        1. I dunno, this whole duel thing got me thinking. If say, it started to become mainstream, people would straighten up immediately after the initial spike in deaths. You either get placed in the pussy pile, the proud pile or the pile of bodies. None of these things would people want and so people should, in all sound mind, want to avoid like the plague. People consistently on their best behaviours in public because death could come knocking at the slightest of slights.

        2. “after the initial spike in deaths”
          you know, you’re really selling this idea to me. I’m trying to suppress my inner woody allen right now

  20. In regards to logical thinking, I recommend people learn chess. It forces you to think ahead, anticipate your opponent’s moves, analyze the position from multiple perspectives and stand firmly by your decisions. All of these qualities will eventually carry forward in life.

    1. yes, chess and perhaps poker too, for learning something less “mathematical” and learning how to use chance, fluff and bluff to turn tables quickly (something that is not very practical albeit not impossible in chess, of course).
      Chess give strong foundations to reasoning and planification, poker gives more the “sense” of grasping subtle cues and to adapt to a new situation imo

    1. Progressive utopians want to remove good literature from education because these writers use unfamiliar words and often difficult syntax to express thoughts that the coarse and animalistic minds of many of today’s replacement Americans lack the ability to understand.

      1. Fahrenheit 451 should also be required reading. Just because an idea makes the snowflakes uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

  21. As for recitation and rhetoric in Roman times, I bet that the average slave had more intellect and reasoning skills that the average “-studies” major millennial.

  22. Fuck YEAH. Great article.
    I especially appreciate handwriting being at number 1 on this list….Even if it’s not THE most important thing in the world. Practicing your penmanship on good paper, with a decent fountain pen, filled with good ink, is a really chill way to spend a half hour 2 or 3 times a week. Glad to see it finally mentioned here.
    All the rest are crucial too, especially learning to handcraft something beautiful….But don’t sleep on handwriting, gentlemen. It’s a lost art that can earn you a ton of respect.

    1. Anything that promotes discipline and self-control is good and profitable for the mind body and soul.

  23. I really dig this article. I used to write in long hand with fountain pens. I at least outline now with paper and pen, and a fountain pen is worth it.

    1. I’ve been using one exclusively for the past year and half. I just upgraded and got a green and red pen and matching bottles of ink for editing and doodling in different colors.

    2. I am considered a dinosaur at work because I do my engineering sketches and flow charts and such on a piece of paper with a pencil, while the younger crowd use Visio and other software tools. In the time they get their computer fired up and the program loaded, I’m on my second or third set of revisions to clean up my design. Wanna guess who’s more productive? And lord help them if their computer goes all tango uniform. They are helpless while I smile and continue to work.

  24. OT: As you are all aware no doubt, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. A fine day too since we’re never taught about the Holocaust and we never really hear about it at all anywhere, it’s like it’s been totally erased from history.
    So I’m going to take this time to urge all of my fellow men on ROK to spend a moment in silence for all of the Armenian Christians killed during the Armenian Holocaust, and also to give thought to a prayer for all of the victims of the Holodmor genocide. Never forget.

      1. Yeah, that’s what got me on this kick now. I’m trolling over at BreitBart with it. Fucking Netanyahooty and the Blowfish is sneering at the people who cast millions of men into the breach to save his people. Fuck him.
        #allgenocidesmatter

        1. “Muslim meet Christian. Now kill each other.”
          Explains the mass immigration of potential terrorists, warlords and scum of the earth type folk by creating a new enemy. Not only would I not be surprised if this was allowed to happen but actually facilitated and accelerated. Why do the dirty work yourself when you have your enemies’ doing the job for you? On both fronts nonetheless. It was just a matter of maneuvering a hostile herd deftly into another’s pen… I can hear laughter coming from the Bank…

        2. Muslims and Christians killing each other is great for kosher Business. War is the Jews harvest as the saying go’s.

    1. But the Jewish culture-producers in the U.S. also want us to become nihilists by mocking and discrediting our beliefs and traditions. If nothing in life matters, then the Holocaust doesn’t matter, either.

      1. Indeed. The Glorious Revolution. And then of course Stalin’s Purges.
        Lots o’ Holocausts it turns out.

        1. And if you don’t toe the line, you are, without question, without even an inkling of doubt, an anti-semite. Which is just like me being called a racist KKK member when I’d criticize Obama’s policies.

    1. Very good. Every time you encounter a girl with an unshaved cootch it is incumbent on you to shame her.
      Oh, wait, you said “public”, my bad…

      1. Yes, I drag every unshaven whore I tinder across out into the street for everyone to see, and loudly proclaim, “Wax thy unruly snatch, ye thickly bushed wench, for thoust tangle-haired nether region is an affront to both God and lolknee!”
        And then we stone her with very, very small rocks.

        1. The APA Style Manual says when listing deities and omnipotent beings from divergent pantheons, you should always put them in alphabetical order.

    2. I think I beat you to that with my post on slut-shaming. But yeah, we need to restore a shaming culture in general to deal with all the people cluttering up our world who do stupid or harmful things without suffering the consequences.

      1. Oh you think so? You think you have beaten me? I throw down the gauntlet to you, sir. Let us duel!

        1. Bare fists at dawn. Punches only, no hits below the waist. First to fall on his ass loses.

      2. How about these cunts on welfare that won’t work? These fuckers and the industry that supports them are bleeding us dry.

    3. 1 Timothy 5:20
      “Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.”

    1. Nothing fancy, just a Lamy Safari. I wanted something to test the waters before I invest in something more costly.

      1. I’ve also got one of those, can recommend Kaweco if you’re still in the market for one (good ink-filling mechanism don’t use the cartridges). Have promised myself a Pelikan and green ink when some personal milestone is reached.. Read in an article that up to $100 you see improvement but beyond that you’re just paying for the label or exotic materials, only spent about half that so far on one.

        1. Kaweco Sport was actually my first choice, but they aren’t available anywhere where I live. But having read all the negative reviews about the inconsistent quality of their nibs, I’m second having second thoughts.

  25. You know what, instead of dueling, let’s just bring back basic, bare knuckles fighting. Just throw up your hands and trade punches. One on one, no weapons, no hits beneath the belt, no flying dragon circle kicks, no other bullshit.
    Just two guys who have a beef, stepping outside and trading punches until one of them is done.
    And then, when it is done, it is done. The loser accepts his ass-whipping and goes home a better man for it.
    No hunting the other guy down with a punch of your buddies and jumping him. No going to your car and getting a gun. No calling a plaintiff attorney and suing him for damages and tampons.
    Just punch it out and get over it. Maybe we say the winner is required to at least offer to buy the loser a beer, but that’s it.

  26. Yeah, I’d like to see the restoration of traditional ways in a technologically advanced society. Frank Herbert’s vision looks more prescient all the time; he understood that man’s nature doesn’t change even when his tools do.

  27. Dueling ? Give us a break! It died out at WW1. It was a leading cause of death for men and thugs had a field day killing the less adept. Honorable in idealized theory, vicious in practice. “War is sweet to those who have no experience of it,
    but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach.”
    Fragment 110; page 377.- Pindar
    Variant translations: This phrase is the origin of the Latin proverb “Dulce bellum inexpertis” which is sometimes misattributed to Desiderius Erasmus‎.

    1. If you read closely, he mentions it’s more along the line of “fist fights”.

  28. Mostly good points. No real need for handwriting when you have several devices that will do it much more quickly and be more easily read. And I would think forcing every man to go through (real, not the current mockery) boot camp would teach you more about individual skill and leadership than dueling while also building team skills
    Great point on rhetoric though – the number of mealy-mouthed pussies that come to me to substantiate their work is infuriating. If you don’t have enough confidence in your work to explain it to me like your balls aren’t still floating around inside you, get the fuck away from my desk.

  29. “If you ever listen to the Quran being recited, you can start to understand how profoundly its words affect the believers of Islam. Words become the soul of people”
    You mean like when one hears “Allahu Akbar” followed by a non-muslim’s severed head being kicked around in the street — yeah I guess you’re right about those words becoming the soul of the lower primates.
    But I’m guessing (hoping as well) that what you really are referring to, and encouraging, is the revitalizing cultural traditions of civilized human beings.

  30. Not sure about the handwriting but I like the idea of duels. I can think of a few people I would like to handle this way.
    The trouble with much of this is that it is impossible for one man to get good at all of these skills. My focus is on combat skills, to which I owe the Russians a debt of gratitude. But between that and work, I simply do not have time to work on hunting or craft skills. But this is where cooperation comes in. You provide my meat and I’ll provide security.

  31. Number 8 was the one that resonated most with me; I’ve been talking about this in my social circles for a while now. Male initiation rituals are what allows “average” men to compete with natural alphas.

    1. Be careful when advocating male initiation as these initiations often involve great pain or danger. You might have to kill a fully grown male lion with only a short spear or you may have to wear a ‘glove’ of ants with excruciatingly painful stings and do this without showing the slightest sign of discomfort. Some initiates don’t survive the experience you could easily be one of these.

  32. Once Peak Oil and climate change have done their numbers, all this will come back with a vengeance.

  33. “retreats allowed greater men to seek wisdom and spiritual enlightenment away from the petty distractions of the material world”
    A modern man packing his bags to go travelling by himself even for two weeks can be just as rewarding as any historical retreat

  34. What a wonderful article Corey! All Excellent Points that demand attention from men.
    #4 (Handcrafting) resonates with me, as I’m an avid car enthusiast. I’ve been restoring cars as a hobby for over 25 years and it never gets old. There is tremendous satisfaction from taking something that was discarded and breathing new life into it with your bare hands.

  35. Duels—wouldn’t it be cool if people settled their differences this way and not by lawsuits and lawyers…

  36. I like idea of rhetoric. Otherwise it will be better if we think about the future. AI the new men made god, cosmos expansion, forget about all religions. I noticed a fucked up tendency in humanity recently which is some kind of nostalgia through pink tinted glasses about the past. Fuck it. We do not need god to live well. I do not say that bible or all religions are bad, they bring some good values etc. But just take it out, learn and forget about other non sense. True deeper red pill that is. We could not as humanity reach those ideals and never will for centuries. Time to change. http://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html

  37. When so called “men” today even have feminine behaviors like flaking, snitching, gossiping and bitching then it’s hard to relate and bond in any cultural practices.
    I would add wrestling, judo or other combat sports (MEN ONLY section of course)

  38. A mentor of mine always stressed the importance of handwriting, in that by training one’s handwriting he is also training certain desirable character traits.

  39. I would add we need to bring back the classical Liberal Arts. These were defined as seven arts that were essential for every free man to know, as he conducted himself and transacted business in society. Of the seven, the 3 “core” liberal arts were Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric… basically the ability to understand and articulate language, to see thru bullshit, and to persuade others to your point of view. The 3rd was already covered in this article, but all three are pillars of the one whole.
    As we know, the “liberal arts” today, consisting of feminism, socialism, and cultural marxism, are a pathetic mockery the classical liberal arts. As opposed to freeing the minds of men, these liberal arts make us prisoners. They must be stamped out.

  40. #5 / Survival:
    At this stage in the modern age, the exceedingly rare act of genuinely getting lost in the wilderness or being forced to scrap for survival (in the absence of organized civilization) wouldn’t descend us into some deplorable atavism as much as it would serve as a demonstration against the artificiality of our daily lives. I’ve thought about the depth of such an irony — that we may have gotten to the point where being forced to survive might do us some good. 100 years ago, people would say that was a crazy thought. Now it has meaning and truth. It’s what drives guys like Bear Grylls to seek the most hidden, fucked up corners of the world to get into trouble with — in a way this guy is desperate for contact with the roots of a primal chord and it’s something a lot of men live vicariously through. He has to chase it. Grylls is never actually thrust into a survival scenario — he has to go seek them out theatrically, as orchestrated, which is what most of us do when we want to push those boundaries. Modern society’s not making us do it, and we’ve gone soft. This brings me to a crucial larger point about what we have collectively become without our “wild skills”:
    We live in a vastly complex society which has been able to provide us with a multitude of material things, and this is good. But since at least the 1950s, Americans have been suspecting that we’ve paid a high spiritual price for our plenty. Each person would like to feel that they are an entity, a separate individual capable of independent existence, and this is hard to believe when everything we eat, wear, live in, drive, use or handle has required the cooperative effort of millions of people to produce, process, transport and, eventually, distribute to our hands. Man simply must feel he is more than a mere mechanical part in this intrinsically interdependent industrial system. We enjoy the comforts of highly organized production and technology, but don’t we sometimes feel that we are living a secondhand sort of existence, in danger of losing contact with the origins of life and the nature which nourishes it?
    Fortunately, there is a saving streak of the primitive in all of us who learn survival skills or seek to escape the increasing complications of modern life by running off to some remote desert, forsaken pine barren, or windswept South Sea isle to eat coconuts, fish and breadfruit. In retracing ancient instincts, I realize how very few of us will ever be faced with the necessity of living off the wild open country for any extended period of time. The venerated outdoor skills, crucial to the survival of our ancestors, are now utilized in the service of recreation.

  41. So instead of learning the word of god the author wants us to learn the traditions of men, of the world. I’ll pass thanks.

  42. Good day to all readers out there !
    I agree with this article but especially agree with numbers 6, 7, 9.
    Besides being close to God which one can obtain only by Christian Study and Mediational Prayer, men really need to start observing each-other.
    We need to fight again.
    We need to teach-each-other.
    We need to return to virtue.
    ,,Thou shall love thy neighbours as I have loved you.
    What can be greater than to give one’s life for his brothers.” – Jesus Christ
    If you love your kin or neighbour or family or friends, or fellow ROK readers, or whatever they may be…you need to start exposing them with the truth.
    If they are weak, start to educate them, train them, sting them, light their fires.
    Cheers !

    1. I am sorry to tell you but the Christian religion at least here in Europe is circling the drain. Pretending to believe in Christianity when you don’t is shamefully hypocritical.

      1. ,, Christian religion at least here in Europe is circling the drain.”
        Maybe your religion is the one you talk about.
        Christianity is not some hippie – share the love – let’s some weed religion.
        In order to experience what it means, you need to :
        1. Study the bible.
        2. Practice the teachings.
        And then, you start to see the evil around you.
        But you say is circling down the drain.
        I think you have no idea what Christianity is and have no idea what the world is about.
        You think you’ll be safe ?
        Wake up friend.

        1. If Christianity gives you comfort then please continue to follow it. They say that Christianity was fatally undermined here in GB by the horrors of the trenches and the industrial slaughter of WW1.

        2. Christianity does not give comfort.
          Being a Christian in today’s world means being a rebel.
          You have to call the truth. That’s it.
          In a world of lies, you have to call out the truth.
          Guess how many enemies you make and how many friends ?
          But in the end, it’s worth it.
          Try it out, see for yourself.
          Try to life 30 days by living under the 10 laws / commandments and see for yourself.

  43. I cannot stress enough how important (and unusual) excellent penmanship is in this day and age. Being able to write with a beautiful hand impresses virtually everyone and especially the ladies. I also taught myself calligraphy (which is no mean feat when you’re left handed) and hand engraving which not only impresses people, but they are willing to pay you to do it. If you really want to impress friends and family, buy some parchment, matching envelopes and close your handwritten letters (or cards) with sealing wax. I use a simple seal with the initial of my last name and dark blue wax. I assure you this will put you well apart from the crowd.

    1. I would love to have great handwriting but I don’t. The Post Office here in GB advises against using wax seals as they’ll get broken in handling.

      1. Hi Stephanie – Excellent penmanship cometh from practice, practice and more practice! I had a school teacher in 3rd grade who’s penmanship was a sight to behold. When I complimented her on it she told me I would never have nice penmanship because I was left handed. For many years I thought that was a terrible thing to say. I set out to prove her wrong and did! Then it dawned on me years later, based on many other things she’d done, that she was one of the best child psychologists I’d ever encountered. She knew that telling me I couldn’t do a thing would inspire me to go “Oh yeah! Watch this!” As far as sealing wax goes, there are modern French waxes that are more flexible than traditional hard waxes. I’ve used these quite successfully here in the U.S. The secret is to use the wax sparingly so that it is fairly thin once it has been impressed with the seal. The other option is to use a fancy envelope with the addressee’s name in calligraphy, sealed with wax, but mailed inside of a cover envelope with the full address. A bit more expensive to post this way, but it ensures the article arrives in good shape and impresses the recipient.

        1. You’ve inspired me to really try and improve my handwriting. I have a fountain pen and when I bought it I did notice my handwriting improved a little. 😀

        2. Awesome! My EDC (Every Day Carry) pen is a Uniball Signo RT (0.38 mm tip). Very nice black ink that cuts a precision line. It’s a lot easier and less messy than my fountain pen for all around use. But when I’m writing out cards or letters I use either my Cross with a gold nib (given to me as a gift when I left my job in nuclear power) or my calligraphy pens. I recommend you start out working on the classic cursive letter styles, then as your hand improves develop your own style. I am so pleased for you!!! Keep up the good work!!!

  44. Men should have:
    Passed a male initiation – formerly standard in every society.
    Survival skills
    Cultivate memory – I used to tell dozens of campfire stories and that was how many things were passed down to generations
    Self defense
    Some form of Art
    Be able to work with their hands
    Writing and rhetoric
    Read the classics
    Know history
    Stolen from glp.

  45. Join a combat arms unit in the US Army. You’ll get 5 out of 8 of those. I recommend a Cavalry unit as they have what’s called “elan”. The infantry, while capable, was lacking this energy. I’ve served in both types of units.

  46. Duels were banned because the Irish got involved. They viewed it as a sport instead of a private dispute resolution system. Read the Code Duello and you will see that is was probably one of the greatest systems ever contrived by man that would settle disputes without involving the sovereign (courts in our era of government).

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