2023-11-23 20:19
Do the gods exist? If so, do they intervene in worldly affairs? Do they care about humans at all? If so, why is there so much evil in the world and why do wicked men profit so often? These q… Read More
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The Masculine Epic Blog
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A place for the tools, lifestyle choices, and mindset you need to reach glory, often with observations from great figures of the past.
2023-09-23 12:19
We’ve all had times in our lives when we felt like losers. Nothing seemed to be going our way and hope was fading. There’s nothing unnatural or shameful about these feelings. The… Read More
2023-09-07 15:14
Have you missed me? If you did, read on. I’ll tell you what’s coming down the pike and what things will look like here from now on.
But first, a truth.
I was planning on closing… Read More
2023-04-29 22:33
You might have noticed I haven’t been posting much to this blog anymore. There are many reasons for that, but for now I’ll just say I’ve been busy. Aside from my usual work… Read More
2023-04-09 17:22
Long before there was One Ring to rule them all, adorable Hobbits, and the exiled heir to Gondor’s throne, there was Middle-Earth’s greatest love story. It faced even greater odd… Read More
2023-03-26 15:46
After his victory at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great’s worst tendencies – his vanity above all, came out in greater force. When he effectively ended Persian resistance to his conq… Read More
2023-03-19 16:24
When writing on the nature of virtue, Cicero said the following:
Wisdom embraces greatness of soul, justice, and an attitude that any misfortune befalling a man cannot adversely affect him;… Read More
2023-02-26 20:32
There can be no compromises with moral corruption. Cicero’s warning that those who are willing to compromise with corruption in favor of expediency are only chasing an illusion which w… Read More
2023-02-05 18:58
A new year brings new possibilities. New Years’ resolutions don’t work, but you should begin each year imagining where you want to be at the end of that year, and actively so. Do… Read More
2023-01-22 16:07
Aragorn is rightfully one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s most popular characters and might be one of the most well-known personalities in modern fiction. His fame comes for a good reason. Aragorn… Read More
2023-01-08 19:16
You don’t need to be a professional writer to use these, but they will make your writing better. If you’re in school, they’ll get you better grades and if you need to write… Read More
2022-12-17 19:31
2023 rapidly approaches and with it, you will see a change in the things I’m putting out (more on that at the end of this post). As a marker of that shift in direction, let’s tal… Read More
2022-12-04 16:37
We begin with an oddity: why would a stereotypical man with usually stereotypical male interests and tastes be writing about art geared to women? Good question. I didn’t even know this… Read More
2022-11-19 14:28
When fate serves you a humble pie, you must eat it, or risk an even worse fate in the future. My midterm picks wound up being the worst prediction I’ve ever made in politics. The only… Read More
2022-11-07 17:22
After two years and eight months of chaos, mayhem, and spitefulness, the day of reckoning has finally arrived for Democrats. And indeed, it will be a reckoning. For all the hype they got fou… Read More
2022-10-23 19:11
Every great nation experiences a peak of power, the exact moment where its political influence and cultural accomplishment reaches the zenith. For Egypt, that glorious moment came with the r… Read More
2022-10-16 14:26
Suppose you were part of an interstellar mission and finally discovered complex life on another world. Would you go down to examine it or stay safely in orbit? In Children of Ruin, a lead sc… Read More
2022-10-02 16:23
From the moment of her appearance on history’s stage, Joan of Arc has been a cultural icon. Artists and politicians of every species have aped her image for their use. However, Joan of… Read More
2022-09-17 15:58
On Thursday, September 15th, 2022, the sports world got news it had been expecting, but had hoped wouldn’t get for at least another year. Roger Federer was retiring from tennis after 2… Read More
2022-09-04 14:22
France was in a dire state at the start of 1429. The English controlled almost all the territory north of the Loire River. Their Burgundian allies, who opened a civil war against the French… Read More
2022-08-20 18:06
The “Godfather of Influence” and “Godzilla of Persuasion” has been a tried and true source on influencing others for close to 40 years, but persuasion is just as much… Read More
2022-08-07 13:16
Finished files are the result of years of scientific studies combined with years of experience.
How many “Fs” did you read in the sentence above you? Do NOT count with your finge… Read More
2022-07-31 15:39
Forget the 2022 midterm shelling. Democrats are racing to an even bigger disaster in 2024. You can recover from getting bombed, but what happens when you get sucked down a black hole? That&r&hell…Read More
2022-07-24 14:23
On Friday, July 22nd, 2022, something happened that I never thought I’d see in that person’s lifetime. Vince McMahon, the juggernaut Chairman and CEO of WWE for so many decades… Read More
2022-07-10 13:59
You can have all the talent in the world, but without virtue, your ship has no rudder and will crash. My second book, Lives of the Luminaries, showed this reality over the centuries. Times a… Read More
2022-07-04 13:11
Crossing a body of water at nighttime is one of the most difficult military maneuvers. Unfortunately for George Washington and the Continental Army, who were amateurs in the art of war, they… Read More
2022-06-26 17:08
Well, it actually happened. After 49 years, Roe v. Wade is gone. To be upfront, I don’t really care that much about abortion. It is not an issue that motivates me. Nevertheless, its do… Read More
2022-06-18 15:01
If you want to understand politics, don’t watch the news. You would be far better off watching combat sports. Watch how Vince McMahon, Floyd Mayweather, and Dana White sell their fight… Read More
2022-06-04 14:58
In the six months between Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, Imperial Japan looked unstoppable. It had humiliated the Republic of China, forced the weakened French to surrender Indochina… Read More
2022-05-28 16:51
Masculine energy long precedes civilization and exists with it in a delicate balance. Without it, civilization can’t function, reproduce, or defend itself. However, if it is not backed… Read More
2022-05-22 19:06
By the end of the first week of the war, Russia’s underperformance was clear. Vladimir Putin was less a strategic mastermind like Bismarck and more a cosplayer who had a string of good… Read More
2022-05-14 13:53
“It was midnight, and the clear moon was rising.” So said one of the surviving fragments of the Little Iliad. Here, the Greeks got the signal. The special operators inside the Tr… Read More
2022-05-07 16:37
A week ago, Democrats were headed to a terrible midterm defeat. They would be destroyed in November by a comet strike which would cripple their ability to conduct more offensives, leaving th… Read More
2022-04-30 13:17
Tomb robbing might just be the second oldest profession. Egyptians, ancient and modern, were and are some of the best at the trade. As soon as the earliest Egyptians buried their dead with g… Read More
2022-04-16 12:57
Many things influence your energy, and therefore your daily productivity. Some you can control. Some you cannot. Your location – the space you occupy – is one of the things you c… Read More
2022-04-09 14:24
After the death of Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus of Epirus emerged as the Hellenic world’s leading strongman. That he did so was remarkable, considering his weak position. Epirus was by… Read More
2022-04-02 20:27
What goes up must come down. It is a law of human power politics as much as it is a law of nature. Empires rise and decline, and sometimes even collapse. Great powers ascend and descend in t… Read More
2022-03-26 16:39
Has your New Years’ Resolution failed yet? Almost all of them fail by the end of March, which is right now. Why is this? Because New Years’ Resolutions usually rely on willpower… Read More
2022-03-19 17:41
In 1904, war broke out between Russia and Japan after long-simmering tensions. Western feeling was that the Russians would crush the little Japanese upstart. Then, like now in Ukraine, Russi… Read More
2022-03-12 17:51
Google used to be good for you. It may be a noxious monopoly, but it at least used to provide a good product which had democratic tendencies. That is not the case anymore. As long as Google… Read More
2022-03-05 17:25
For over 20 years, Russia’s leader has assumed a carefully-constructed persona: the Vladimir Putin myth. He was Russia’s latter-day Czar, a modern incarnation of Peter the Great… Read More
2022-02-26 18:51
Man’s folly has turned his home world into a toxic wasteland. The great spacefaring “Old Empire” is long dead. Thousands of years later, only a rump of humanity sets out in… Read More
2022-02-19 21:13
Can an eccentric financier on the cusp of middle age find the greatness he feels has eluded him by successfully confronting a beautiful enemy leader on the battlefield in a far-off war?
That… Read More
2022-02-12 16:42
Forging a sense of wonder and adventure is crucial to a masculine lifestyle. You become what you think about. If you aren’t thinking of the possibilities – the next mountain to c… Read More
2022-02-05 15:52
In 209 BC, the Second Punic War was at a precipice. Thanks to the efforts of leaders like the “Sword of Rome,” Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Rome had been spared from suffering any… Read More
2022-01-29 18:05
It goes without saying that the Biden (Brandon?) administration is an unmitigated catastrophe. A year in, the word “humiliation” indeed is the best descriptor, as I predicted it… Read More
2022-01-22 16:36
It is the first century AD. Han China and the Roman Empire are the two “superpowers” of east and west. They knew about each other – vaguely – but had never met direct… Read More
2022-01-15 19:35
You’ve been struck by a creative bolt of lightning and now a new project sits before you. What do you do? Are you the type of person that outlines first or do you dive right in? There… Read More
2022-01-08 16:44
Because he was such a force of nature, we tend to think that Alexander the Great’s accession to the throne of Macedon and leadership of Greece came smoothly. In fact, the assassination… Read More
2022-01-02 03:09
The year begins with me asking for your help. I have a proposal that I’d like your opinion on. With that in mind, I’ll just get right into my plans.
Short Stories
I want to focus… Read More
2021-12-26 00:51
The year of the Empire of Lies is nearly over. It was the humiliating, degrading experience we expected. Appropriately, the year ended with the return of the dancing nurses, who mysteriously… Read More
2021-12-18 17:31
Nathan Handwerker had spunk, but not much else. Having arrived to the United States from one of the poorest parts of the geriatric Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1912 (part of modern Poland), he… Read More
2021-12-12 18:22
It is late 216 BC. The Romans have just suffered a catastrophic defeat at Cannae. 40,000 Romans were packed in like sardines and massacred. The dreaded mastermind behind that massacre, Hanni… Read More
2021-12-04 18:29
Most communication involves storytelling. According to the “Godzilla of Persuasion” himself, Robert Cialdini, communication itself evolved more to persuade than inform. It makes… Read More
2021-11-27 17:36
Most communication rests on storytelling. Even a mundane task, like explaining that there’s a traffic delay, or telling your audience tomorrow’s weather, is a kind of story. If y… Read More
2021-11-20 16:51
Let’s say that there’s been a steady influx of off-world officers onto your planet and into your town. You don’t know them, but they act authoritative and entitled. Now one… Read More
2021-11-13 16:49
The Return of the King. The Return of the Jedi. MacArthur steps foot on Philippine soil, fulfilling a promise to return. Nixon’s stunning return in 1968. Grover Cleveland’s retur… Read More
2021-11-06 17:11
A political earthquake shook the United States this week. Its epicenter was in Virginia. I didn’t think it could be done, but it happened. Republicans won their first statewide races t… Read More
2021-10-30 17:37
The darkest days of Egypt tested the country’s women as much as its men. Seqenenre, Kamose, and Ahmose are all well-known for their struggles against the Hyksos invaders, and we have d… Read More
2021-10-23 17:59
If ever there were a time when things seemed hopeless for men who loved their country, Ancient Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period was such a time. It was truly a time that tried men&rs&hell…Read More
2021-10-16 17:33
Darkness clouds the land of Egypt. The two lands are divided once again, as Horus and Set renewed their eternal war. Out of this chaos, this disturbance to Ma’at, came a man appropriat… Read More
2021-10-08 17:00
Since the days of Imhotep, the kings of Egypt built their own Step Pyramids. These imitations have not lasted the test of time. The next major step in Egyptian culture came with the ascensio… Read More
2021-09-28 02:28
For ages, man has wondered how he might live the best and happiest life. The world’s collapse into a feverish, Chinese-sponsored mass hysteria over their coronavirus gave this question… Read More
2021-09-18 17:04
The world is noisier now than it has ever been. Much of that noise is of the hysterical variety. In a world where the powers that be want you to be angry and afraid, how can you possibly fin… Read More
2021-09-11 16:33
When the guns of August blared in 1914, they broke a century of belief in progress. The hopes and dreams of mankind shattered beneath their shells. They have not yet returned. For a brief mo… Read More
2021-09-05 02:12
476 is typically regarded as a pivotal year in history, as it saw the “fall of Rome” – the final dissolution of the Roman Empire with the abdication of its last emperor, Ro… Read More
2021-08-28 23:45
Let’s assume you want to start a website or blog from nothing. You’re not a big name. You’re trying to build an audience from nothing. This describes most of us. That is ex… Read More
2021-08-21 17:26
In the world of mythology, African stories are some of the most entertaining and insightful. The myth of the young man and the skull, illustrated in this collection of myths and legends, is… Read More
2021-08-14 19:02
It’s official. After 17 months of self-congratulatory books, an Emmy, and all those “Cuomosexual” shirts, Andrew Cuomo is out. You will witness few such rapid, thorough rev… Read More
2021-08-07 17:11
Who doesn’t want to be a more captivating public speaker? No one will turn down such an offer. Yet, it’s hard to practice, because fear of public speaking is one of the most comm… Read More
2021-08-01 16:12
War, freedom, and citizenship have always been intertwined. In the Roman Republic, the concept of citizenship itself was tied to military service, as were the political offices. The Romans e… Read More
2021-07-24 13:45
The Tyrant of Universe 7 stands in one corner. A genetically modified organism stands in the other, the terror of heroes old and new – complete with the tyrant’s genes. Ever sinc… Read More
2021-07-17 16:11
Industrial espionage is nothing new. The Chinese communists are among the masters of this craft. Ironically, the industry China is still most widely known for, silk, stood at the center of a… Read More
2021-07-11 13:12
Because of its desire to preserve traditional social structures, there is a strong tendency toward nostalgia among the right. This tendency is particularly strong in the Boomer generation. N… Read More
2021-07-03 13:05
Power is as much about timing as it is personality and messaging. The life of Theodore Roosevelt is a great example. In 1908, he could have walked into a third term. Yet, he decided to stick… Read More
2021-06-23 15:49
The results aren’t official yet, because mail-in ballots and ranked choice voting will guarantee confusion, but Eric Adams will likely be the next Mayor of New York City. The frontrunn… Read More
2021-06-14 14:27
As the military races toward woke obsolescence, we would be wise to remember the lessons that show us what war really is. We recently went over Homer’s example. Now we should look at a… Read More
2021-06-05 14:28
Theodore Roosevelt is on safari in Africa, hunting big game for the Smithsonian. Where the presidency tires out most men, TR only wanted to go more adventures. He needed to, because if he di… Read More
2021-05-25 18:06
Future historians will characterize the early 21st century in America as a period of humiliation. Unfortunately, the humiliation did not come via fortune or external events. Rather, America… Read More
2021-05-16 13:59
If the last year has taught us anything, it is that we are not living in a utopia where history is at an end. The COVID-19 outbreak, was, if nothing else, a biological and psychological atta… Read More
2021-05-09 13:06
Fortune rules the fates of men far more than we, in our arrogance, would care to admit. Herodotus reminds us of this when he describes the fate of Polycrates, the ruler of Samos in the later… Read More
2021-04-29 14:54
The Battle of Chaeronea in 338 B.C. was a decisive moment in Greek history. For the first time since the fabled Trojan expedition, the city-states of Greece would unite in common purpose. No… Read More
2021-04-18 17:42
It is 2021 and the world grows more dangerous every day. Free nations convulse themselves with hysterical, unreal ideologies on a daily basis. Meanwhile, a different group of nations, led by… Read More
2021-04-12 13:40
That damn cowboy is President of the United States!
Indeed, an assassin’s bullet made Theodore Roosevelt President at age 42, much to Mark Hanna’s chagrin. In an act of macabre i… Read More
2021-04-03 18:26
The early 20th century saw increasing great power competition. The rise of the United States, Japan, and especially Germany disrupted the old Congress of Vienna system and the Pax Britannica… Read More
2021-03-28 17:30
The Roman cavalryman sees the host of Maxentius just up ahead, near the bridge over the Tiber. The Eternal City lies just beyond, gleaming in the distance. The enemy army is huge, and though… Read More
2021-03-16 14:09
In the world of power, a year is an eternity. A year ago today, Andrew Cuomo was doing his Emmy Award-winning press conferences, mostly talking about “ventilators, ventilators, ventila… Read More
2021-03-07 15:22
“OK, Boomer!”
This meme began circulating in 2019. Mostly driven by Generation Z, it pokes fun at the mores and worldview of the Baby Boomer generation (and older people in gener… Read More
2021-02-28 18:12
At long last, the grey-clad rebels have invaded the North. This Union soldier, hailing from Pennsylvania, had no great love for the Abolitionists and had serious doubts about this war he fel… Read More
2021-02-21 23:23
“I feel sorry for McKinley,” noted a contemporary observer. “He has a man of destiny behind him.” This phrase gave itself to the name of the penultimate chapter &ndas&hell…Read More
2021-02-14 15:24
By the time he became President of the United States at the age of 42, Theodore Roosevelt had already been a celebrity for decades. How did someone so young maintain such fame (which waxed a… Read More
2021-02-07 14:59
August 26th, 1071.
Night had come. The Byzantines had fallen back with the dusk. At that moment, Alp Arslan felt a sudden boldness and impetuosity swelling through him as he heard the confus… Read More
2021-01-31 01:40
Valentine’s Day, 1884 was supposed to be a triumph for Theodore Roosevelt. Only in his 20’s, he had already been the Republican Party leader in the New York State Assembly and ha… Read More
2021-01-20 20:58
And just like that, he was gone. He left in the worst way possible, too. That will surely mar his legacy, thanks to the recency effect on memory. Since we’re on the subject, let’… Read More
2021-01-10 16:48
Men are struggling today. Pound-for-pound, they’re worse off than their female counterparts (who have their own problems, too). These struggles come from many hardships that intertwine… Read More
2021-01-03 21:22
2020 is now blissfully over, but don’t think that 2021 will magically be “a better year” simply because the calendar changed from December to January. Years don’t hav… Read More
2020-12-27 21:19
At the end of 2019, I was cautiously optimistic that woke culture was coming to an end. America was experiencing a period of peace and prosperity, despite, and indeed partially because, of a… Read More
2020-12-20 21:13
2020, definitively, was the year that history began again. If you had any more doubts that the “End of History” era was at an end, this was the year that erased them. As I made n… Read More
2020-12-14 00:25
Once upon a time, Roman Reigns was a struggling hero. Clearly inhibited, he was condemned to play a character he wasn’t, and the incongruity made for a white elephant. For years, Vince… Read More
2020-12-05 16:34
North Korea’s gamble had backfired. MacArthur’s had succeeded. The landings at Inchon took the North Koreans completely by surprise. Seoul was stormed. The North Koreans fled pel… Read More
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