Nothing Matters

I'm a workaholic. I can't sit still, I have to be doing something productive, I get bored easily, the whole bent of my entire life is to be working.

 

Than can change in a moment.

 

My teenage daughter came home late. Two hours late. At 10pm I was frantically trying to find ways of finding her. At 11pm she knocked on the door and blamed me for 'overreacting'.

 

You can never know that feeling of panic until your child doesn't get home when expected.

 

But in that moment, all my work, my goals, passions, dreams and aspirations were resigned to the dustbin of life.

 

For that one moment, in the belief that some bad person had done a bad thing to my child, I went through grief, thoughts of vengeance and abject despair and depression.

 

I was wondering how to break the news to her younger brother, how to comfort my wife and keep myself sane and strong to guide our family through the worst.

 

Thankfully my daughter did turn up, I did put her to bed safely and we as a family can feel safe again.

 

But this highlighted to me how fragile a mind can be, how one little nudge can send even the strongest to nihilism.

 

And why we should create moments with those closest to us, our partners, our children, whomever we are close to.

 

Life is too short to worry about our work, when we could be spending our time creating moments.

 



4 reasons you should study the Classics



Why study the classics?

 

1. It's thought to be a fit background for anyone contemplating a high-flying career in any profession.
2. It gives you a well trained mind.
3. If you're a Classical Scholar, you can pretty well do anything; you've even got the wherewithal to be the Captain of a Nuclear Submarine.
4. The study of the Classics, is not stuff that has no value.



Training is your best friend



I certainly prefer training over spending time with people, any day!

 

My exercises have done more for me than any of my 'friends'. In my life, I've met hundreds, thousands of people who wanted to attack me, steal from me, bully me, humiliate me, or even kill me.

 

But my training has given nothing but benefits. It gives far more than it takes. I've wasted great chunks of my time on human beings who I now wish I'd never even met. But training? I don't regret a single second of the time I spent working out.

 

Every moment of effort, every drop of sweat, was worthwhile.

Be a Man of Respect

 



To be anything in life demands respect. You cannot force people to respect you. That is simply instilled fear which leads to resentment and hatred.

 

Start with self-respect, stand up to bullies, stand up to people who would bully others, have a strong moral code, adhere to your values and let others spread the word you are a man to be respected and not to be crossed.

 

Let it be known you are a man of honour who fights for the underdog.

 

Let your actions speak volumes, people will respect you and your status in society will increase.

On the Virtues of Selflessness



During my time working as a bouncer, on some pretty rough doors, my role was to protect people. In fact as far back as I can remember, even as a kid, I felt the overwhelming need to protect those unable to protect themselves.

 

Whether as a kid, or a bouncer, my virtue of selflessness kicked in. I didn't protect the weak and innocent for some sort of payback or even gratitude. I did it because it was a virtue instilled in me, by my upbringing.

 

Selflessness produces courage, a manly virtue in and of itself. When you put the group first, courage comes flooding in to your body like releasing the dam.

 

If you seek to be a man of worth, you need courage, you need to put the needs of the group before your own and you need to protect the weak and the innocent.

 

Selflessness is a sure fire route to finding the courage to be a man.

Pursue Virtue - Not Money

How many times do we see in the news, Billionaires that treat their workers no better than slaves. Paying at or below the legal minimum wage, and making them suffer degrading and dehumanising practices such as no toilet breaks and working long unsociable hours for little if any benefit.

 

Then we have Billionaires that pay less in taxes than their cleaners!

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with wealth creation, but wouldn't humanity on a global scale benefit if we all started to pursue Virtue over the pursuit of money?

 

After all, were all on the same journey. Were all going to the same destination, some sooner than others.

 

Do we want to be remembered as a virtuous person, or a person that pursued wealth at the cost of their own humanity.

Freedom to speak

 

This year has seen universities banning speakers, just in case it may offend a student! The insanity of paying the equivalent of a deposit on your first mortgage, for little to no real education, while those at the top of the educational food-chain are on rather substantial remuneration packages, for delivering less and less, eroding the true value of education under the guise of political correctness and protection of imagined civilities of some of it's student body, is surely the road to an Authoritarian, dystopian state, not unlike the imagining's of Equilibrium.

 

To which I place this quote from Salman Rushdie, no stranger to free speech himself:

 

"Now look, I'm in favour of good manners... But to equate good manners... with the liberty to say what one thinks, even if people don't like it, is to make a false comparison... Ideas are not people.

 

Being rude about an idea, is not the same as being rude about your Aunt... so if you don't like the book, close the book. If you don't like the movie, don't go to see the movie. You are as free as the makers.

 

They have the right to speak and you have the right not to listen, if you fear it will upset you... But what you don't have, is the right to use your alleged offended-ness as a reason to stop other people from speaking."

 

Students should be actively encouraged to attend speeches from characters that may be seen as offensive by some and used as a testing ground. Questioning or the orator, the Socratic method applied fully and openly, is the only way to advance thought. Banning a speaker on grounds of offended-ness and political correctness is one way to ensure the further dumbing down of a nation.