Newton’s first law of of motion states that an object in motion will stay in motion, unless acted on by an outside force.
During childhood our imagination is at its peak, with time earned experience we gain passion and creativity. Angst and peer-approval defines our teens, while in our twenties disillusionment and apathy is becoming the norm. Underlying all of this is the same imagination, passion and creativity from our youth; it is just expressed in different ways. Teenagers stoke the fire with their self-perceived invincibility. Those in their twenties and onwards can fan the embers by defining their own life purpose or they can let the flames suffocate by following the expected life path.
We are all responsible for the rate at which we move through life. Smartphones, Facebook, Instagram, internet memes, forums — whatever your poison — all are outside forces that act on the forward motion our passions, imagination, and creativity create. We believe having pocket-sized technology that allows us access to the entire wealth of knowledge created by humanity is a benefit, when in reality it is a detriment. Technology overuse, instant gratification addiction, and the need to always have a smartphone as a safety blanket for uncomfortable situations are the biggest detriment to one’s progress.
Men find sites like these and realize they are wrong about everything they have ever known. They ravenously devour any information they can and once that initial enlightenment is through they seek a second enlightenment. They understand they are not necessarily getting better, but becoming less wrong so they search out more and more information. They want to know every tested method for every conceivable situation and as a result suffer from paralysis by analysis and never actually get anywhere.
How did man discover fire? How did he build the pyramids? How did he learn the pleasures of food, drink, and sex?
He either experimented out of necessity or curiosity, learned from someone more knowledgeable than him, or he instinctively knew.
Technology can only assist us in achieving what we want. We can use the internet as a tool to learn how to make love to beautiful women, learn a language, or any other practiced skill. However, people do not use it this way. They use technology and books as outward proof that they are working towards a certain ideal while not actually accomplishing anything towards that ideal. Take away access to placating technology and we are left stunted in our self-sufficiency.
All a man needs to improve is a push in the right direction and the avoidance of friction. He needs inspiration to experiment and an introductory manual. He does not need social media, how to articles, youtube videos, smartphone games, or even electricity.
Smash your smartphone, turn off your laptop, and blow your circuit breaker. Eventually you will learn to take pleasure in life as it happens.
Read Next: Man’s Most Valuable Possession
I’m slowly unplugging myself.
I got rid of my Androrid phone over a month ago. Strange enough the people who used to contact me have made no attempt to find another means to maintain contact.
Cool. Not even mad.
I have a land line phone with an answer machine. I actually like this because I have returned back to a time when I have to talk more in my social circle. And on the flip side, the women in my life have to deal with the inconvenience of calling me and having a conversation…..
Like adults are supposed to.
It’s actually been very good for me to get back to having more phone conversations. The context is there and it makes a woman invest the kind of time that makes it more difficult to simply shoot a dismissive text, then they can go back to being a whore. On the receiving end, they can shut off the phone and ignore calls, but to reach me they HAVE to call. I’m ok with that. I can turn off both caller ID and the answering machine on my phone if needed. No text messages, no trail. And I can always send email to a cell phone number if I have to.
Which automatically eliminates the socially repressed chicks that actually believe talking on the phone is “creepy”. That has to be the dumbest shit I ever heard.
Unfortunately, I need my computer almost more than anything I own. But I don’t engage women online because it’s mainly on their terms. I’m slowly pulling away from social media as well. I only have Facebook, and mainly for family, but even that is getting old.
Unless you work from your computer, you can get rid of it. I did and it felt great. Read books to fill the free time, went out more, approached more. I don’t regret getting rid of my laptop at all.
I think it would be better to get the microsoft tablet (whatever it is called) simply because it is small, cheap, and can provide mobile access. Get a phone line on it with answering machine. Throw it in your back pack. Then go on your merry way, you landline and answer machine are with you. Get a reader app, and external harddrive so you can keep all your books with you.
Reduce everything you have to the barest of essentials, buy property with lots of land and trees and build one of those small treehouses, say 500 square feet plus bathroom (toilet, sink, shower).
Work the work you want to do, take classes in trades, math, science, and basic writing. Make a blog your diary, share with the rest of us who can’t.
Travel much, and often.
Any girl who can’t hang, or starts wanting marriage, has become outside the bare essentials. Remove as necessary repeat.
If 30% of men did this this this whole thing would topple.
Jesse —
And you shall know them by the size of their baggage … I mean their suitcases. 🙂
Good point. I’ve been working diligently towards this goal for some time. If you can do it while traveling the world, even better. Of course, my ultimate goal is to literally “live in a van down by the river”, or ocean, or some body of water. Talk about ultimate zen minimalism! Think tynan.com. Go there for inspiration.
You’re right. Even with this living arrangement, I find just about anything beyond a couple days of fun with a girl an encroachment on my freedom. Their need for security will quickly diminish the cool-factor of your free lifestyle. They’ll want and expect more almost every time — both materialistically, and relationship wise. Even when I employ Johnny Soporno’s worthy playboy model and explain that she’s not going to be and never will be my only partner, despite women’s acceptance, it’s a struggle for them not to put a yoke of exclusivity on me. The bare essentials of a relationship with a woman are sex, sex, and more sex — make that great sex! Beyond that, it would *nice* if she could cook, clean, take care of her health and appearance, and not burden me with supporting her financially (besides, my lifestyle doesn’t require much cash at all).
Good luck doing this when it is freezing outside, and the “shower” water is cold (exactly how would you put a shower in this treehouse?) and the treehouse is falling apart, and you are hungry, and you no longer have the mental function or the will left in you to think about going out and socializing and “connecting” to secure a paid job…let alone to talk to women or even think about sex; because all your “barest essentials” and physical needs have fallen out from under you. This is what poverty is, a loss of hope and will. Why do you think poor people don’t just “go out and get a job”?..But if you can pull it off then I congratulate you immensely and would love to see!
-Advice from 18 yr old currently travelling the world
I work from my computer. Among other things.Hence “Unfortunately” I need it. I still read quite a few books in conjunction with what I read online when I need to be online. It’s really just a matter of allotting time for everything. Which is also why I believe that you should work at the very minimum as much as you need to to sustain the lifestyle you want to have.
Brilliant. The key is remembering, as this article points out that it’s the “excessive use” of technology that’s a problem; not any use. I don’t think it’s realistic or even a good idea to resign from smartphones, e-mails, social media, etc…. It’s critical to not going insane or insanely stupid, however, not becoming a slave to those devices.
My wife suffers from excessive use of social media. Its actually to the point where I don’t let her take her phone on dates/vacation. She used the emergency line, for which I pointed out that anybody that has an emergency worth disrupting our date/vacation over has my number. They just aren’t going to bother me with faux emergencies of which shoes to wear or whatever.
Its one of those things that cause other women to look at our relationship in disgust and claim I brainwashed her because how dare I tell her when she can’t have her phone.
The excessive use of tech is exactly what I’m talking about. Skills like ‘game’ and lifting weights require practice. Yes technology is necessary to get an introductory understanding and periodic checks/comparisons, but there is no point to browse all day and try to learn everything possible before taking action.
Browsing is one of the biggest problems. If you needed eggs would you go down every aisle of the supermarket looking at everything along the way?
Great analogy! Browsing down even one extra isle because you got distracted while searching for eggs would be absurd.
Just for shits and giggles, I googled eggs+. I got 471,000 results! What if I even considered looking at the first page of results as somehow relevant or important to my objective of picking up eggs at the store. It seems absurd, but we do the same thing when we surf aimlessly.
I need to unplug.
Unplugging is one of the best things I ever did.
The sewer pipe coming out of Hollywood and mainstream media into my TV set now repulses me. Realize that the vast majority of all media is simply a vehicle to get you accustomed to how those who control the masses want you to think, and how they want you to buy.
Many people also live vicariously through the film industry, through fake Hollywood actors and actresses pretending to do exciting things. I’ve found I’d rather live my own exciting life than watching a bunch of overpaid fake asses do things on film.
The Internet has become the greatest tool of the New Enlightenment. Let’s face it, how many of us would be talking about (or even know about) manosphere, MGTOW, MRA and many other related topics if not for the Internet? Which is precisely why the government wants to control it. (Look up the Utah Data Center.) They’ve lost control of the dialogue, because people are no longer listening to what their talking heads and puppets have to say.
I agree with the author of this article that once you unplug, real life begins. You’ll find that real life is not the pretty, neat little package that the media presents. It’s much more dynamic, much more raw, much more real, with many more possibilities than we’ve been led to believe. Instead of focusing my energy on consumption, I’ve now turned my energy to exploration and travel and living a life I never thought was possible.
It’s amazing to make that transformation, unplugging from the media and Hollywood, then walking into a crowd of drones and hearing them talking about nothing but exactly those things the slavemasters put in front of them – the same vapid pop stars, drugged-up actors and sports stars, the same political talking points, the vacuous pursuit of the latest car that’s had it’s sheet metal rearranged somehow making it better than all the other previous iterations, the same empty fantasies about how the education system and government programs are going to deliver them to Utopia – and realize that you are no longer part of this paradigm. It’s immensely empowering, and I feel more alive than I have felt in my whole life, simply because I UNPLUGGED from the Matrix.
Unplugging is a one way thing. Once you fall through the barrier, our society has put up, you can never go back. Sure feel free to look back at the matrix and observe the world you left, but you are now in a pure reality; a plain of existence that is as white as the background of this comment section. It is also quite and peaceful, but it is also lonely. Almost no one else has passed through this barrier. I believe sites like ROK, Roosh V, Roosh V Forum, Puerarchy, etc. help the people that have passed through to communicate and map out this untouched reality (and create a Utopia).
I agree with you on the loneliness. But you can quickly make up for that by accepting that you are now outside the Matrix, and free to make your own reality. You’ll meet new and better friends, and be able to pursue your own interests rather than the ones foisted upon you by society and/or a spouse.
I equate it with breaking chains that have been placed on you. Just as Morpheus said, “You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.”
Once the full effect of the red pill has kicked in, we are no longer blind. That’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given.
I agree that the Matrix is from the economic paradigm. I am currently in an economics class learning about how the economy works. My teacher said word for word:
“In our society, we want the biggest, fastest, and best product we can find for the cheapest price we can find.”
I nearly puked when I heard this. So according to him the people in Capitalist society are merely product sponges that dispel the old and absorb the new. Being completely clueless on what is being poured on them from above. I stated this problem in class and all I got were blank looks.
For all the “good” that capitalism does, it also is the cause of a lot of evil. (Endless wars, social degradation, creating problems that don’t currently exist for the sole purpose of profiteering, etc.) An excellent explainer I’ve found on why the economic system is at the core of most of society’s problems: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpDUeHjTtQ
Great post and comments. Too bad rok works on all normal browsers and does not just exist in the onion world…makes it a bit blue pill for my taste
So alpha bro.
I don’t want to get in to a long drawn discussion of economics here but I’d like to point something out since you seem fairly new to these concepts. In a pre-capitalist society the only way to improve your life is essentially to take form someone else. Wealth is essentially static in the form of goods and precious metals – your gain is someone else’s loss. In a capitalist society trade – not violence is how people advance their lives…. you trade the products of your time and effort for the product of other people’s time and effort.
Wanting the biggest, fastest, and best product for the cheapest price is human nature and it is precisely how we moved from a society of horse carriages and fire places to iPods, automobiles, air conditioning, and a level of luxury never before seen in the whole history of the human race. Something to consider if you begin taking steps down an anti-capitalist ideological road.
Agree to your observations. Especially on how people live vicariously through Hollywood productions to the point where some folks start having difficulty making a distinction between what is real and what is TV and movie fiction. The movie “Cable Guy” is a dark comedy but one can see the character played by Jim Carrrey to a certain extent (some worse than others) in almost everyone in the USA.
I agree too that raw reality is ugly, but it’s honest, and the honest perspective will give you the edge over others that live with their head up their asses.
Yes, reality is very ugly, which is why most people will perform the most impressive mental gymnastics to avoid anything you tell them or show them.
It’s forced me to become duplicitious to survive, something that doesn’t come naturally to me. At work, I’m forced to play a role, much like an actor, to keep the ravenous Blue Pill Betas, White Knights, and femcunts off my back.
I fought against this for a long time. But as you know, acceptance gives a man much more power than trying to fight against reality. As Freud said, if one day you woke up and find out you only have one arm and one leg, you merely find a way to adapt and use your one good arm and one good leg rather than fighting agaist reality.
P.S. I will add, I do use Facebook, but only in pursuit of Law #6 of the 48 Laws of Power: Court Attention at All Cost. But I use it sparingly and strategically.
“…the need to always have a smartphone as a safety blanket for
uncomfortable situations are the biggest detriment to one’s progress.”
This line really stuck out for me. I was at the mall the other day, and I saw so many people sitting on the chairs mindlessly surfing their smartphones. I go to bars, and I see people mindlessly surfing their smartphones. Smartphones are definitely a way for people to avoid discomfort. They can pretend to be “busy”, giving them an out from having to socialize with others.
I deactivated my FB 3 months ago, mainly because I was job searching and I had a lot of controversial stuff on my page. I missed it for maybe a week. Now I don’t really care to go back at all. This was a really good read.
When I first saw the video in the post I told myself it was just an exaggeration, but its just reality. A few months ago I was at a bar. I got there early with my friends and these three girls sat at the table across from our booth. A server came and got their drink orders then the girls sat back and started scrolling through their phones. When their drinks arrived they smiled, posed and all took pictures then went right back to their phones until their drinks were done…
My phone got robbed in an alcohol/drug fueled night when I had a run in with some thugs.
The following phone-less month was one of the most free and stress-free periods of my life.
I highly recommend going phoneless for a while to anyone who can afford it, just to see the difference it makes. When I was out at bars and clubs, not having a phone made a big difference as I would push for the close as there was no other way to meet up again with the girls I met. They realized they couldn’t give me a number and I was gonna be out of their lives if nothing happened. It made quite a difference in my results.
There’s a paradox at work here with technology. On the one hand, yes, you do have to unplug to get anywhere — to live a life not dictated by the media, pop culture, political correctness, etc. You can drop out, switch off, and tune in to the world around you. You can go back when you were a child and looking at the world in wonder, as much as possible, given the experiences you’ve built up and the scars you carry from constant stress and battle.
On the other hand, technology today has produced the Manosphere and many means of learning and connecting that we could have only dreamed about ten or more years ago. (Hell, even five years ago.) The Net has produced a shorter and more efficient learning curve for we men, and a more efficient means to connect with each other to compare notes and experience.
Yes, there’s the danger of analysis paralysis. As an intellectual type, I know this all too well. I got stuck in a rut when younger because I was listening to my own voice and believing my own conclusions. Travel overseas helped correct some of that, but only on a larger scale. What i didn’t have was access to information about the US, my home country and the cultural cesspool that it’s become.
I wouldn’t have had my advanced Red Pill therapy without the Net and the ‘sphere. In the beginning, you have to read and read and read to let things seep into your consciousness. Then, struggle with it. Then, grieve for the losses you’ve experienced. Then, make baby steps. A new chapter has begun . . .
Something about moderation. Skype and the like lets my mom “be there” for my kids birthday because spending $500 on a plane ticket is uneconomical.
Smartphones let me keep tabs on clients and field emergencies if I am off-site, which I have to be regularly.
Not every show on TV is bad, and there are just as many guilty pleasures when you are unplugged. I have spent way too many solo hours on pool tables, for example
I wrote a Spearhead essay about an anecdote to this scourge aimed at aspiring writers. I suppose aspiring rappers could use it too. Audience response was lukewarm as they expected the usual maniacal anti-feminist rant. Imagine a lightweight writing device with no internet or “operating system” that runs a year on 3 AA batteries. Shown are examples of world-travelers who truly have unplugged while writing the next installment of their best-selling travelogue :
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2013/03/30/price-drop-on-alphasmart-neo
Go live in a cave, you mean
It’s about programming or being programmed. Plutarch wrote good advice 2000 years ago; I keep this on my to-do list but seldom put it into practice :
“Make trial in small things to build up one’s resistance to the vice of curiosity by refraining from reading graffiti and other writing on walls. Taking notice of such things may seem harmless, but the more the mind is allowed to exercise its curiosity on things that are not pertinent the more it will tend to curiosity about unworthy subjects in general. It is better to train oneself to mind noble and useful things.”
I currently live in a suburb surrounded by wall-marts and Applebees. I would love to get out and see the world which I am currently enlisting in the Army. I don’t think im technology addicted, just as a means of passing time. I for one hate cell-phones. I use to go to college, and talking to a girl on her cell-phone is rather annoying. I’m currently watching ninja scroll and loving every minute of it.
Before you enlist, read the ROK article (and the many comments) on the drawbacks of going into the military — and how the hype doesn’t match the reality:
There are many other ways of traveling the world, and making enough money along the way to continue the trip. Just ask around at the rooshvforums.
You won’t regret it in the long run. Be sure you put either Texas or Illinois as your home of record. Absolutely critical as that essentially gives you a second gi bill after you get out.
Even if you don’t get to go all Rambo on somebody is still a great experience because you will make closer, lifelong friends than just about any non vet on the site has. Try to get something that will either definitely enhance your future career or go infantry and try to get into the Ranger regiment on your second set of orders. If you are going to be a soldier with all the bs that can bring, resolve to be the baddest mother you can be.
Source- 10 year vet
(Nods in agreement into glowing, unblinking eye of his laptop.)
Joking sort of. I did write this:
http://theuniversalmale.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/put-the-device-down/
Even with my own blog, I’m writing a lot of shopworn stuff, and I’m kind of sick and tired of ideas and theories. Been on a post-divorce break but am about to get back out there- have internalized enough info.
On a completely unrelated note, bravo Jason Statham. Damn.
No need to smash your electronics,
Just get into the habit of asking yourself “do I agree with this?” “Do I like this?” Etc.
Be a free-thinker and live life on your own terms, not on someone elses.
If you comment, you’re still plugged in and you can’t say you’ve learned anything from this article…
/hey, my logic is sound.
Sorta. Not all technology is bad. If someone where really unplugged they would go live in a cave in the arctic somewhere and cover themselves in the pelts of game they killed.
I was across the country at a baseball game and I recognized someone I knew. We went to the same elementary school and college and were FB friends. I called his name from a few rows away and he acted socially retarded and snubbed me. I wondered why he would do this, as the odds of us running into each other were slim and he had always been a social butterfly online. We aren’t even good friends and I didn’t demand a conversation. A nod would’ve sufficed, honestly. I’m sure if I was to message him about it, he ‘d say, “Oh hey, man! Classic mix-up! We should hang out sometime…” The cunt…
But I can’t disparage him; that’s the norm. Facebook is the projection of what you want to be, not who you really are. The vacations, the laughter. How many women are getting married to devote themselves to their husbands and how many are really getting married to chronicle the updates for the masses on social media? The engagement ring, the wedding ceremony album, the first sonogram picture? What do you think these women will do when the novelty wears off? I’ll pass.
It’s a nice way to keep in touch with family and a few people, but if your life is more interesting on social media than it really is, you’ve got work to do.
I’m in Warsaw for a month and I’m using a little brick Nokia for a phone. My iPhone comes in handy for photos, notes and a calendar, but I find I don’t ever need the internet while I’m out. If I need directions I’ll plan in advance or I’ll ask someone. The vast majority of internet/smartphone use is for inane communication, pointless trivia and entertainment. Paying per GB for web access also limits surfing the net. As the author and other commenters have noted, a glut of information is a handicap to action. Short of unplugging completely, traveling to put yourself in a situation where you’re forced to reassess your relationship to technology and society is worth the trip.
So true. I’m so over this whole computer thing.
So true. I’m so over this whole computer thing.
Ironically, the people who could best use this technology are the ones who are going to ‘smash it’ for freedom, losing a very useful tool in the process. The people who truly need to get off of facebook are never going to do so.
I say keep your smartphone, keep it free of social media apps and let the liars drown in their own lies. That’s all facebookers and instagrammers do anyway: present an idealized or exaggerated version of themselves to stave off the inevitable depression that comes when the realization creeps in that their lives aren’t as awesome as their friends pretend theirs are.
When you’re meeting up with your friends, family and colleagues outside of Facebook, you start seeing people for who they are rather than who they wish they were as presented on the Internet. There may not even be a need to smash your technology or unplug it. Just don’t use it as a surrogate for human contact. If you’re tempted to use it for those purposes, then evaluate what you need to change.
Paradox: So man “does not need…how to articles”. How to explain the manosphere is full of How to articles? A recent example from ROK: “How To Convince A Girl To Get An Abortion”
Unplugging from the matrix apparently comes with a paradox.
No cellphone here. Those things are pure evil and more insidious than anything George Orwell could have dreamed up when he wrote 1984. Wifi is even worse. Computers on the other hand are a marvelous tool. Oh and even if you dont own one your still screwed cause all those cell towers are frying everyone. Don’t beleive me check out the work of Dr. Robert Becker and the documentary Resonance: Beings of Frequency(http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/resonance-beings-frequency/).
We need to mobilize and end this madness before it causes serious problems. DDT was banned after its deleterious effects were discovered. But alas bitching about it on the internet continues as usual.