Tag: philosophy

What the Alt Right is

In the interest of developing a core Alt Right philosophy upon which others can build.

  1. The Alt Right is of the political right in both the American and the European sense of the term. Socialists are not Alt Right. Progressives are not Alt Right. Liberals are not Alt Right. Communists, Marxists, Marxians, cultural Marxists, and neocons are not Alt Right.
  2. The Alt Right is an ALTERNATIVE to the mainstream conservative movement in the USA that is nominally encapsulated by Russel Kirk’s 10 Conservative Principles, but in reality has devolved towards progressivism. It is also an alternative to libertarianism.
  3. The Alt Right is not a defensive attitude and rejects the concept of noble and principled defeat. It is a forward-thinking philosophy of offense, in every sense of that term. The Alt Right believes in victory through persistence and remaining in harmony with science, reality, cultural tradition, and the lessons of history.
  4. The Alt Right believes Western civilization is the pinnacle of human achievement and supports its three foundational pillars: Christianity, the European nations, and the Graeco-Roman legacy.
  5. The Alt Right is openly and avowedly nationalist. It supports all nationalisms and the right of all nations to exist, homogeneous and unadulterated by foreign invasion and immigration.
  6. The Alt Right is anti-globalist. It opposes all groups who work for globalist ideals or globalist objectives.
  7. The Alt Right is anti-equalitarian. It rejects the idea of equality for the same reason it rejects the ideas of unicorns and leprechauns, noting that human equality does not exist in any observable scientific, legal, material, intellectual, sexual, or spiritual form.
  8. The Alt Right is scientodific. It presumptively accepts the current conclusions of the scientific method (scientody), while understanding a) these conclusions are liable to future revision, b) that scientistry is susceptible to corruption, and c) that the so-called scientific consensus is not based on scientody, but democracy, and is therefore intrinsically unscientific.
  9. The Alt Right believes identity > culture > politics.
  10. The Alt Right is opposed to the rule or domination of any native ethnic group by another, particularly in the sovereign homelands of the dominated peoples. The Alt Right is opposed to any non-native ethnic group obtaining excessive influence in any society through nepotism, tribalism, or any other means.
  11. The Alt Right understands that diversity + proximity = war.
  12. The Alt Right doesn’t care what you think of it.
  13. The Alt Right rejects international free trade and the free movement of peoples that free trade requires. The benefits of intranational free trade is not evidence for the benefits of international free trade.
  14. The Alt Right believes we must secure the existence of white people and a future for white children.
  15. The Alt Right does not believe in the general supremacy of any race, nation, people, or sub-species. Every race, nation, people, and human sub-species has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, and possesses the sovereign right to dwell unmolested in the native culture it prefers.
  16. The Alt Right is a philosophy that values peace among the various nations of the world and opposes wars to impose the values of one nation upon another as well as efforts to exterminate individual nations through war, genocide, immigration, or genetic assimilation.
TL;DR: The Alt Right is a Western ideology that believes in science, history, reality, and the right of a genetic nation to exist and govern itself in its own interests.

The patron saint of conservatives, Russell Kirk, wrote: “The great line of demarcation in modern politics, Eric Voegelin used to point out, is not a division between liberals on one side and totalitarians on the other. No, on one side of that line are all those men and women who fancy that the temporal order is the only order, and that material needs are their only needs, and that they may do as they like with the human patrimony. On the other side of that line are all those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal.”

This is no longer true, assuming it ever was. The great line of demarcation in modern politics is now a division between men and women who believe that they are ultimately defined by their momentary opinions and those who believe they are ultimately defined by their genetic heritage. The Alt Right understands that the former will always lose to the latter in the end, because the former is subject to change.

The 16 Points in other languages:

That’s not how it works

I frequently – by which I mean several times a week – get emails from people who have a great idea how I can do something. Let me put this as politely and patiently as I can.


Don’t talk to me about it. Do it yourself.

I already have far more ideas at hand than I can possibly address in a full lifetime. Moreover, I am considerably more interested in my ideas than in your ideas. I am extraordinarily busy and I usually work until 4 AM, seven days a week. If I did not exercise regularly and have Spacebunny keeping a careful eye on my diet and my general health, I’d probably be in worse physical condition than the average SJW.

Contacting people like me and Mike Cernovich about “a great idea” is really nothing more than laziness on your part. Do it yourself. If you don’t have the means, then find some allies and acquire them. I’m always happy to look for ways to help out those who are already doing something, but I have zero interest in wasting a single nanosecond listening to do-nothing, pie-in-the-sky idea-makers.

If you want to work with us, that’s great! We have a constant and growing need for volunteers, as our volunteers tend to eventually branch out and start doing things on their own, which is something we encourage. We need proofreaders. We need assistant editors. We need people who can layout PDFs and covers. We need someone with a great voice, an English accent, and a masochistic mindset to narrate the Selenoth ebooks. I could use a good co-author or three, as well as lead authors for two or three new Castalia series I have in mind. DevGame is always looking for more good game artists.

What we don’t need is ideas that serve someone else’s agenda, even if it happens to be in sync with ours. But don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not saying those ideas are bad, I’m saying that if you have the idea, then you have, within yourself, the seed of what is required to make it a reality. So, make it happen, don’t rely upon me or anyone else to make it happen.

Heat Street debate: marital rape

My latest debate with Louise Mensch of Heat Street is on the subject of marital rape, concerning which my view that it is an oxymoron has been declared controversial in certain circles:

Louise Mensch: Do you agree that there’s no such thing as rape within marriage?

Vox Day: Yeah, I think it’s quite obvious that it’s not even possible for there to be anything that we describe as rape within marriage. I find it remarkable that someone would try and claim that it is beyond debate when this new concept of marital rape is not only very, very new but is in fact not even applicable to most of the human race. It’s very clear, for example, in India it’s part of the written law that it’s not possible, for even if force is involved, there cannot be rape between a man and a woman. In China the law is the same.

LM: Mm-hmm (affirmative) but there’s a difference between saying what the law is and saying what is morally right. You would agree that just because somebody says something is a law doesn’t make it so. Let’s just start with that basic principle.

Vox: There’s huge difference between morality and legality. I’d be the first to agree with that. The fact of the matter is that the concept of marital rape hangs on consent and because marriage is and has always granted consent, the act of marriage is a granting of consent, therefore it’s not possible for the consent to be withdrawn and then for rape to happen. In fact, the concept of marital rape is created by the cultural Marxists in an attempt to destroy the family and to destroy the institution of marriage.

LM: I’m going to say that that’s patent nonsense. If you consent to something once it doesn’t mean that you’ve given a blanket consent to it forever. We agree on the definition of rape – that rape is when one party forces sex on the other without their consent?

Vox: Yes.

LM: Good. We go that far. Your argument then hinges on the statement that to get married is to give an all-time consent forever to sex with your spouse?

Vox: Exactly. It’s no different than when you join the army. You only have to join the army once. You don’t get the choice to consent to obey orders every single time an order is given. In certain arrangements, and marriage is one of them, the agreement is a lasting one, and that’s why it’s something that should not be entered into lightly.

I find it both amusing and mildly disconcerting that a view which is consistent with the entire legal and philosophical history of the human race is suddenly supposed to be unimaginable. I mean, precisely how ignorant, precisely how brainwashed, does one have to be in order to be completely unable to imagine that which is not only recent history, but is still the law for most of the human race?

This would be why

From Wikipedia Talk: Vox Day

In what sense is Vox Day a philosopher? The article only lists some half-baked (and eminently controversial) positions on race. It does not appear that he has been published in any academic journals or contributed anything to the philosophical discourse.
 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.232.78.130 (talk) 21:07, 12 March 2016 (UTC)

Concur; removed. The “philosophical views” section was a political views section, so I’ve also renamed that accordingly
– David Gerard (talk) 21:44, 12 March 2016 (UTC)

Meh. I think it could be included due to his publication of The Irrational Atheist, which is a philosophical work. Kelly hi! 11:20, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

I believe his work on Social Justice Warriors was the #1 seller in political philosophy for quite some time.
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:182:C902:479A:ED91:3D5B:56A6:2252 (talk) 02:01, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Per the section immediately below this one, you can get #1 in an Amazon section with literally three sales. It’s not evidence of any sort of notability
– David Gerard (talk) 18:38, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

It’s not evidence of notability, unless, of course, the category happens to be the one that contains every philosopher from Aristotle to Machiavelli and Rousseau. It’s been a year since SJWAL first became the #1 bestseller in Political Philosophy. And do you know what, it still is!

This usefully demonstrates, by the way, why you can never take anything an SJW says at face value. Even when he tells the absolute literal truth, he is often doing so in a deceptive manner to cloak an obvious falsehood. For example, it is absolutely true that one “can get #1 in an Amazon section with literally three sales”, at least as long as that category is Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Movements > Transpersonal, where a bestseller only needs to hit #70,000 on Amazon to reach #1.

On the other hand, to hit #1 in Romance, you need to hit #3 overall. So, Mr. Gerard’s statement is clearly false, as a #1 Amazon category bestseller may, or may not, be evidence of notability. It depends upon the category. So, does the Political Philosophy category suffice to establish notability? One would presume so, particularly if one is attempting to determine whether the author is a philosopher or not.

The SJW will not hesitate to substitute the general for the particular, or the particular for the general, depending upon what he is trying to prove or disprove. It’s a standard trick upon which they rely heavily. Don’t fall for it.

Mailvox: the philosophy of failure

HD would like to avoid wallowing in disappointment and failure:

Will Wheaton’s latest post at his blog illustrates why I read your blog way more than I read his. It seems that every one of his blog posts is about him and his “woe-is-me” life stories. Whereas, at Vox Populi there is no Vox Day crying about how he can’t do anything, get acting jobs, or anything about his “woe-is-me.” In short, Wheaton’s blog is really just solely about him and your blog is about what’s happening in the United States and the world and not about Vox Day.

In regards to Wheaton’s latest blog post about not getting acting jobs, I’m fairly confident it is because he is a prima Donna and is probably a very high maintenance person to work with.

I get the feeling if I hired Will Wheaton for a speaking engagement I would have to hold his hand throughout the entire process, acquiescing to his demands to placate him. Whereas, if I hired you, I wouldn’t have to worry about you much. I suspect it would consist of making the arrangements in a straightforward manner with you and having you show up to do your part with little worry on my part.

Personally, I’m trying to escape the category that Will Wheaton is in. In my younger days I was that person who was that prima Donna, high a maintenance person to be friends with and be around, and now don’t have too many friends to speak of now. But I’m putting myself on a course to change that.

I appreciate the blog posts you have done about failure and writing. They’ve helped to put some things in perspective and have gotten me to think more about the course of my life.

I had no idea what he was talking about; I didn’t even know Wil Wheaton had a blog. But I found the post to which HD was referring and here is a brief summary of Wheaton’s complaints:

  • We can’t seem to get our careers back where we want them. We’re both having the same frustrations and hitting the same closed doors 
  • I couldn’t even get an audition. It’s really frustrating, and if I’m being honest, it’s depressing as fuck.
  • I go back and forth between giving up entirely on having on-camera work, and focusing on writing and voice acting, and working as hard as I can to get back in front of the camera
  • Everything I’ve been doing the last several years just isn’t working.
It’s rather amusing to read this sort of whining, considering that I saw an episode of one of the most popular television shows in America, The Big Bang Theory, last night, and not only Wheaton, but even his podcast, was heavily featured. He can’t figure out how to take advantage of that?

Now, I don’t know if he actually has a podcast or not, but Wheaton gets far more free exposure from his modestly successful acting career than any other blogger, podcaster, or writer on the Internet. Due to that free exposure, his writing and ancillary activities get far more attention than anyone not named “Bill Simmons”. Can you even imagine Stefan Molyneux or Mike Cernovich crying about that sort of thing? I know there are still some people who are dubious about the socio-sexual hierarchy and all, but this sort of thing demonstrates how even very high levels of success and fame are not capable of filling the endless hunger for approval in some men.

Can you even imagine how Wheaton going to react once he figures out that he’s not being published because he’s got any literary talent, or has anything interesting to say, but because he’s a moderately famous actor? Does he really not realize that many people, like John Scalzi, are only “friends” with him because he happens to be of use to them at the moment?

He must, on some level, as that partially explains why he’s so desperate for more success and fame. Wheaton is afraid that if he can’t maintain his status, everyone is going to consider him to be a fraud and abandon him. But who cares if fair-weather friends abandon you? They were never worth anything from the start. Only those who stand by you in times of difficulty matter. And once you have accomplished something, no one can take that away from you.

Life is a challenge. It is a constant series of challenges. But what makes us feel successful is rising to meet those challenges and surmounting them. If life knocks you down and no one deigns to give you a hand up, then push yourself back to your own damn feet. If no one wants to take you by the hand and guide you along the easy path while telling you how wonderful you are, then carve out your own way, even if doing so is laborious and difficult. Trust me, it will be much more rewarding in the end.

You never know what challenge life will send at you next. Last night, I had the distinct pleasure of practicing with my eldest son’s new team; my veteran’s team doesn’t start until next week, and at this time of year, every team is happy to have an additional practice body. Despite my being twenty years older than everyone, it went pretty well, as I not only scored the first goal in the scrimmage but was even asked to play with them in their first team’s first friendly. Score one for the old guys!

But that’s not why I was so pleased about the practice. What made me happy, what was genuinely heart-warming, was seeing my son take the field for the first time in 21 months, run at the front of the pack during the warm-up laps, and participate in the drills and the scrimmage like the healthy young man that he is. Brainstormers know what I’m talking about. And here is the thing. During those hellish 21 months, he never once complained about the pain, whined about being unable to play with his team, or cried about how unfair it all was. He just soldiered on, did what he had to do to get better, and now, almost two years later, he’s back on the field again.

He’s never going to play professionally. Given the disruption in his development at a fairly critical stage, he may not even be able to play for our club’s first team like some of his former teammates are already doing. But he already feels like more of a success than Wil Wheaton ever will, because he has conquered a long and difficult challenge through faith, courage, and willpower. And I would not be more proud of him if he was signed by AC Milan tomorrow.

Do you want to stop being a prima donna? Do you want to stop being a self-pitying, high-maintenance person that no one likes to listen to or be around? Do you want to stop navel-gazing and start accomplishing something that will let you know what success feels like? Then stop thinking about what others can do for you and start thinking about what you can do for yourself and for others. The world existed before you. It will exist after you. Don’t waste whatever time you have by dwelling on your disappointments and feeling sorry for yourself.

And don’t ever worry about what other people think about you, because 99 times out of 100, they’re not thinking about you at all.

Fail faster. Then pick yourself up and move onto the next challenge. As every gamer knows, if no one is shooting at you, you’re not going in the right direction.

Conservatism in ruins

Andrew Klavan’s first thoughts on rebuilding conservatism:

The conservative movement has collapsed and is in ruins. Its vehicle for political expression, the Republican Party, is now in the hands of an authoritarian nationalist who has never read the Constitution and does not believe in free expression, free trade or the separation of powers. Its central vehicle for expression in the news media is in disarray as Fox News becomes embroiled in scandal. Even its defenders on talk radio and in the blogosphere are severely at odds as they are forced to choose whether to defend Trump as the lesser of two evils or to stand fast with the founding fathers against both terrible sides.

The conservative movement has collapsed and lies in ruins. And it has done so due to the deceit and dishonesty of conservative commentators like Andrew Klavan, who apparently feel the need to make provably false statements about everyone from Donald Trump to the Founding Fathers.

Let’s look at the three false statements in this one diagnostic paragraph alone:

  1. Donald Trump is not an authoritarian.
  2. Fox News has never been a central vehicle for expressing conservative views. It has, rather, pushed neoconnery as nominal conservatism while serving as a politically moderate alternative to the hard progressivism of the ABCNNBCBS cabal.
  3. The Founding Fathers believed in trade protectionism and a white America. Whether he gives a damn about the US Constitution or not, Donald Trump has as much or more in common with the Founding Fathers as the conservative movement does. The Constitution exists only to safeguard the unalienable rights of white Americans who are the posterity of the Founding Fathers, that is its sole purpose.
Now let’s look at Klavan’s proposal for rebuilding conservatism, which strangely enough, he provides without ever considering just why the movement is in ruins.

1. There is no substitute for victory. A political philosophy should be an outgrowth of moral values but it is not a moral value in itself. Its purpose is not to be good; its purpose is to be as good as it can be and still win power. A Christian may count it a victory when he is devoured by lions for his faith, but a conservative who is repeatedly devoured by the opposition in elections is just a self-satisfied schmuck. I am completely opposed to those — like Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam — who essentially argue  that conservatives must win by becoming watered-down liberals. But clearly, the methods by which we have been selling our philosophy to the voters have not just failed but failed utterly, and we should rethink them.

True enough, and yet Klavan observably knows so little about the history of conservatism in America that he doesn’t understand that conservatives have never had a philosophy proper. He obviously hasn’t read Russell Kirk, anyhow. That’s why they can’t sell conservatism to anyone anymore; it doesn’t even exist as a coherent self-contained philosophy. Conservatives have never been much more than philosophical parasites on the Left. Klavan should read Cuckservative; if nothing else it would bring him up to speed on the intellectual inadequacies of conservatism.

2. Win what minority types we can with the truth. The opposition likes to point out that too many conservatives are white men. They’re right — but only because blacks and women have been successfully sold a destructive bill of goods in leftist racialism and feminism. The facts are: black people are not oppressed by the police, women are not underpaid for the same work, white privilege is a destructive and racist myth, and true freedom means people you don’t like are going to say things you disagree with in ways you find offensive. These are hard sayings but they need to be said, and they don’t need to be said by conservatives to other conservatives, they need to be said by conservatives to blacks, women and sexual off-beats of all stripes. The Democrats have co-opted these people with destructive lies that make their lives worse. We can’t win them back by jumping on that bandwagon. We need to proudly, unapologetically (and politely) tell it like it is — to them, in their neighborhoods and organizations. We won’t win a lot of them. Not at first. But facts have a way of getting through over time — if you speak them courageously without being a jackass about it.

This is remarkable. And it’s a tactic doomed to failure; conservatives like Klavan can’t win anyone with the truth for the obvious reason that they don’t know the truth. They religiously subscribe to the idiotic lie of the Proposition Nation and they attempt to win over minorities that will never, ever, be won over in significant percentages by the alien ideals of 18th century whites. Klavan can’t explain historical anomalies that puncture his precious Ellis Island myth like the 1790 Naturalization Act, which means he can’t tell it like it is because he doesn’t actually know what it is.

The alternative is that he does know what it is and he is knowingly deceiving his fellow conservatives. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he is merely ignorant.

3. Fight the culture wars in the culture. The culture wars are problematical because too often conservatives come across as anti-freedom or bigoted. That makes victory tough. I feel passionately about some cultural issues and indifferent to others, but I believe all of them should be fought on a cultural and informational level rather than a political one. For instance, I believe that abortion is the taking of a human life and that government therefore has a right to forbid it. But just speaking bluntly and honestly, I don’t think I can win that fight in the political arena right now. Happily, the truth may do what politics cannot. The truth is on my side and the more the truth gets out about what abortion looks like, how it’s done, and who the people who support it are, the more the public will know that it is unacceptable. Then we can win politically. As for sex issues, I confess I care not at all about other people’s sexuality (I’m so deeply immersed in my own), but I do care very deeply about religious liberty and the freedom not to participate in what you abhor. That’s a fight we can win and we should argue it everywhere as a freedom issue.

Correct concept, inept execution. Winning the culture war is NOT getting the truth out. It is rhetorically convincing others what the truth is. This is why the arts are the most vitally important battleground in the cultural war.

4. Some class occasionally would be nice. Conservatives have been all but banned from universities, the news media and show business. In response, we formed our own media in blogs, talk radio and Fox. Those are great venues for informing our own, but we could use some outreach to open-minded Democrats. I’ve wasted too much breath trying to convince conservatives that art is good and can change the world over time. They just won’t believe me. But could we maybe agree that screaming at people and calling them evil and talking like a belligerent loudmouth know-it-all is not always the best way to bring them over to your side? No, huh. Well, it was just a thought.

For fuck’s sake. He’s another hapless tone policeman. This is why the Alt Right is going to win; because we don’t give a quantum of a damn about “class”. Someone once told me the important thing was “to win with grace and style”. No, the important thing is to win, even if you have to get bloody and dirty in the process. Klavan, like a good conservative, is far more interested in going down to noble defeat and surrendering while wearing a nice clean uniform than he is with winning.

It very much looks to me right now as if Trump is going to lose this election on pure incompetence and mean spirit. That might actually make it easier for conservatives to regroup in the ruins of the Republican Party. If he wins, we may need a new party of our own. But whichever way things go, I think we need to open a discussion about how conservatives can not only remain conservative but also win elections in modern America.

Is he even watching the political conventions? This sort of wishful thinking is why no one should bother paying any attention to a cuckservative like Klavan now or in the future. Conservatism is dying. Its diseased remnants are flocking to the progressives, as we always knew they would. And we watch them go with dry eyes and a grim smile, because we don’t need a bunch of useless cucks and moderates who were always happier shooting at their own side than the enemy.

I have never been a conservative. I will never be a conservative. I am delighted to see the conservative movement crumbling into dust. Conservatives conserve nothing, accomplish nothing, and stand for nothing. They will not defend the Church, they will not defend America, and they will not defend the West.

The Alt Right will. Join us, if you have the steel.

The importance of rhetoric

James Carville explains, in an email released by Wikileaks as part of the #DNCleaks in a note of unknown provenance:

Ideologies aren’t all that important. What’s important is psychology.

The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That’s why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd.

Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don’t have a clue as to political reality.

What amazes me is that you could take a group of people who are hard workers and convince them that they should support social programs that were the exact opposite of their own personal convictions.
– James Carville, Clinton strategist

What Carville is talking about is rhetoric. 80 percent of the people are limited to rhetoric; per Aristotle, they cannot be convinced by information. They can only be moved by an appeal to their emotions or appetites.

UPDATE: The Carville note appears to be a fake being passed around under cover of the DNCleaks; I thought it was a little strange that the wily Carville would come right out and say that. But whether he said it or not, it is true, moreover, it is true of Republicans as well. It is true of everyone and it has been true since Aristotle’s day. Most people simply don’t speak or think in terms of dialectic.

As for those who think Hillary Clinton is a shoe-in due to demographics, note that the DNC doesn’t believe so. And this is a genuine day one DNCleak.


“HRC will go into gen election as vulnerable candidate. Clinton Foundation quid-pro-quo worries are lingering, will be exploited in general.”

Translation: she sold out the USA while Secretary of State.

Mailvox: dealing with failure

CA writes about the challenge of responding to repeated failure:

I find your blogs very informative. Your books, TIA and Cuckservatives, were very enjoyable reads.

Some of your postings about failure are interesting but I am not sure that it is always possible to adopt a logical position and carry one’s emotions along.

I failed in three jobs in succession (one of which I was sacked from) in 2011-12. The night of my sacking, I immediately started looking for new work (I’d lacked this resolve after the second job ended badly). I had to claw my way back through unpaid internships. I would like to feel that this was character building. In reality, I’m stuck trying to impose a logical position (What could I have done better?, What did I learn?) onto an emotional one (this is so unfair, why did these things happen to me?)

I’m haunted by the fact that I have failed more than those around me. It is really painful.

Failure can be painful, but it doesn’t have to be. I not only have multiple failures, but I experience failure so regularly that most of you have no idea that they have even happened.

Within the last year alone, one of the three startups I supported went under, one nearly went under, and the third has had to radically change its business model because events haven’t gone according to plan.

Now, for some people, that amount of failure in quick succession would be very painful emotionally. And I’m not going to pretend that I was completely unperturbed, especially because as recently as one year ago, the failed business was doing very well and was even in the process of growing. But the reason I’m not upset about these things is that they were only three of the projects in which I was involved, and since I was not responsible for any of them there was next-to-nothing I could do about it.

I truly don’t even think about them much. Things are what they are, and trying to fix those projects would only harm the other ones that are going rather better. Never reinforce failure.

But rather than trying to impose logic on his emotions, which is always bound to fail sooner or later, I think the correct thing for CA to do is this:

  1. Accept the emotions. Go ahead and be upset. Go for drinks with one of your friends, bitch about the situation, and get it out of your system. Then stop thinking about it, stop dwelling on it, and above all, STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. Nobody cares, not really. It didn’t happen to them, after all, and they don’t want to think about it happening to them.
  2. Don’t waste time trying to analyze and learn from the situation now. It’s too close in time. It’s too raw. The time to analyze it is when you’re already starting to get back on your feet.
  3. Stop comparing yourself to others. Their situations are different. Their talents and abilities are different. Their connections are different. Their roll of the dice is different. This doesn’t denigrate their success, it merely puts it in perspective.

Never be haunted by the success of others. Instead, try to learn from them, try to be useful to them, and try to become the sort of connection for them that can be useful to both of you. You can learn from anyone; if I can usefully learn from someone I despise as much as John Scalzi, (and I have) then you can certainly learn from those for whom you merely feel envy.

Don’t be afraid of failure or weighed down by it. Develop cornerback’s memory. Just because you got burned once doesn’t mean you’re going to get burned the next time. It’s a new play. It’s a new game. And constantly replaying the previous one in your head is only going to reduce your chances of success next time.

I don’t care if you’ve been knocked down once, three times, or two hundred times. The answer is always the same. Get back up and get back in the fight.

UPDATE: Someone pointed out in the comments that having only one income stream makes risk-taking all but impossible and failure all the more devastating. That’s correct. And that is why you should always devote at least 10 percent of your productive time to secondary and tertiary potential income streams.

Always an excuse

John Scalzi ✔ @scalzi
Friends posting results of an online test to show they have a huge vocabulary. But it’s not how many words you know. It’s how you use them.

 John Scalzi ✔ @scalzi
Also, I suspect posting the results of an online test to show how smart/learned/nerdy you are is a test in itself, isn’t it.

 John Scalzi ✔ @scalzi
I mean, don’t get me wrong, have fun with online tests. Just maybe don’t use them to re-litigate your performance on the SAT.

Translation: he scored below the top one percent and is ashamed to admit it.

Which would be no surprise, considering that he’s not in the top two percent of IQ either. Neither, as it happens, is Wil Wheaton, which didn’t stop him from delivering a rather cringe-worthy speech to American Mensa:

I am now going to talk to you about something that I think is the geekiest thing of all, a thing that most of us have in common, regardless of which particular part of geek culture we hold closest to our hearts: anxiety.

I have this thing called Imposter Syndrome, and I guess it’s fairly common among creative people. The way it works is this part of my brain that’s supposed to be on my side but is really a dick about everything goes, “You know, you suck at everything and you don’t deserve to be here and nobody likes you because you suck. Boy do you suck. You are the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.”

This voice is relentless, even though I’m supposed to be successful enough to ignore it and show it physical evidence of its bullshit in the form of awards and a happy marriage and two awesome kids, it never, ever, ever shuts up. But while I was preparing for tonight, it overplayed its hand. It filled me with so much anxiety, it reminded me of an article I read about a study which indicated that highly intelligent people tend to have generalized anxiety and other mental health issues at a rate that is significantly greater than a control group.

And when I read that, I knew that I wanted to talk about it. because it doesn’t matter if I’m just a writer or just an actor or just a geek or just any of the things my stupid brain tells me I “just” am. All of us here, at one time or another in our lives, have had a hard time relating to people who just don’t get us. We are constantly surrounded by people who just see a loaf of bread, or don’t care how things work, as long as they work. They don’t stay up at night, unable to sleep, because they can’t stop thinking about how thin our atmosphere is, relative to the size of our planet, and how terrifying it is that we’re basically these tiny little things on a giant hunk of rock speeding through space at like 30 kilometers per second and what the hell is space, anyway? And if we really are in a computer simulation, what’s the computer running it in? And can I somehow break out of the program to find out? Wait. If I can think that, it’s just part of my programming so does that mean that free will is oh hey the sun is coming up and I haven’t slept at all.

And it’s not that we want to do this, right? It’s that we can’t help it. It doesn’t matter if you’re an engineer, an artist, an athlete, or a blacksmith. Look around you – everyone here has their own internal monologue. It’s what separates us from animals, that constant conversation going on in all our heads. And when we feel nervous about something – that voice is what helps us rise above the fight or flight instinct of animals – it can soothe us, talk us down, talk us up – or in some cases – blather on and make things worse. When you’re smart, and faced with a problem, this voice starts to break things down, so you can solve it. “Here is the problem. Here are its individual pieces. Now, how do we solve this rationally and logically.” It is not unreasonable to expect that by breaking down a problem into pieces, we should be able to make those pieces follow rules. And rules are comfortable and comforting and make us feel safe.

But anyone who has ever tried to reason with an unreasonable person knows that more frequently than we’d like, the pieces just will NOT follow the rules, even though they should follow the rules, because that’s the simplest and most efficient and most logical way to get things done. And here comes that voice again, only this time it’s telling us that everything is terrible and nothing will ever follow the rules and we’re all going to die and the frogurt is also cursed.

That voice speaks to me almost every day, and if I could just make it stop, I would, but I have mental illness. I have anxiety and depression, and I want you to know that if you do, too, you are not alone. If you’re like me, you get frustrated that the thing that makes you special, your big beautiful brain that is so smart and capable of so much more than some muggle’s brain is, actively fucks with you every day.

And it makes you wonder: If I’m so smart, why is my brain so dumb? Why can’t my brain just get with the program, and stop worrying about everything all the time? My life is great! I love my job. I love my family. I love my home and my pets. I love everything I get to do in this amazing world, and I haven’t even scratched the surface of what there is to explore on this planet! I make art that matters and I inspire people to do cool stuff … so why do I feel so terrible about myself all the time?

Oh, right. Because my brain is broken. There’s all sorts of interesting medical and neurochemical reasons for it, and I’ve learned everything I can about them, but knowing all of that isn’t enough to make my brain magically start processing serotonin and norepinephrine and dopamine in a balanced way, so that I won’t feel like my career is over when I’m not cast in The Dark Tower or Ready Player One,and feel like nothing is worth doing for days at a time, even though I know how irrational that is.

This is where being really smart is kind of the worst. All the skills that we’ve learned over the course of our lives, the things that set us apart from average people, they really don’t help. In fact, the frustration that we feel when those skills don’t work can actually make it all worse, because it’s not only unfair, it’s irrational! It isn’t following the rules, and this isn’t Vietnam, Dude.

And it makes you feel really, really alone. Like, you are the only person who has ever felt this way, and the only person who ever will feel this way, and if you just tried a little harder, you wouldn’t feel this way. But you do feel this way, because you’re alone. Yep, you’re alone and nobody can help you. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprised if you’re the only one with this infernal internal monologue. Look around you – nobody else seems to have this problem. It’s just you.

So anxiety is what makes the geek? No wonder I’ve never fit in with their weird little culture. What Wheaton is describing has nothing to do with being smart; I’m considerably smarter than him and I don’t suffer from anxiety or Imposter Syndrome, much less depression. Moreover, I know many highly intelligent people who don’t suffer from any of those things, but are very happy and well-adjusted individuals.

While there are probably some purely physical or developmental factors involved, the main reason people like Wheaton and Scalzi are unhappy and mentally broken is spiritual in nature. They are addicted to lies, a philosophical addiction that can be every bit as debilitating as a physical addiction. This addiction is a result of pride, as can be seen in Wheaton’s references to “average people” and “muggles”, and the fact that this pride is unjustified is the reason that Wheaton feels like an imposter. He feels like an imposter because he is an imposter.

Higher-than-average intelligence doesn’t make you any better than anyone else, any more than being taller, or faster, or stronger does. What it often does, however, is allow others to convince you that you should be something different than you are, or than you want to be. Even worse, it gives you the ability to successfully rationalize away your failures, to both yourself and others. Thus are created the Secret Kings who never, ever lose to anyone at anything, and yet feel like failures and imposters all the same.

One thing I’ve noticed about all these people with broken minds is that none of them ever seem to have played sports. None of them seems to know what it is like to try your hardest, play your very best, and still fall short. None of them seems to have known the security of winning the respect and approval of an opponent. Thus, they are always attempting to fill the hole of insecurity in their souls through various means that can never do so.

They also tend to be vehemently irreligious, which again tends to go back to pride.

So, if you have a broken mind, if you feel anxious and insecure, if you feel like an imposter, I have two pieces of advice.

1. Humble yourself before God.
2. Give Man the opportunity to humble you.

I’m not self-confident because I’m smart, or because I’m athletic, or because pretty girls like me, I’m self-confident because I have allowed myself to be tested, repeatedly, and I have passed the tests. The test is not winning. The test is getting up after you are knocked down, being a good sport when you are beaten, meeting rejection with grace, meeting failure with good humor, and accepting your assigned place in the social hierarchy without demur or complaint.

You can’t change the past or the present. All you can change is how you approach the vicissitudes of the future.

Winning feels great. I like to win as anyone else. I’ve won everything from grade school competitions to NCAA Division One conference championships. But even better than winning, in terms of developing self-respect, is having the rival who has beaten you despite your best efforts treat you with respect, as an equal, and above all, as a worthy opponent.

And I’m not proud of my intelligence because I know what it is worth in comparison to the glory of the Creator and the magnificence of His Creation, which is precisely nothing. It means nothing more than the color of a spot on a dog’s coat or the pattern on a snake’s skin.

Wil Wheaton, on the other hand, has a different solution:

Here’s what I need you guys to do. I need this entire room of people to make a pact. It’s just us, so what happens here in beautiful downtown San Diego, stays in beautiful downtown San Diego. So here it goes. You are the superheroes we need. But the world doesn’t know it yet. But they will. And something cataclysmic will occur, and the world will cry out, “who will save us?” And I need you to be ready to burst out of the crowd, rip open your shirt to expose your true identity and say proudly, “I’m ready! I am the SUPERHERO YOU NEED!”

Fantastic. Now they’re not just Secret Kings, they’re Secret fucking Superheroes and only these very special snowflakes can save the world.

No wonder they feel like imposters. They never stop posturing.