The Tactical Virtues of Strength, Courage, Mastery, and Honor : The Jack Donovan Interview

I was pleased to see that more men are withdrawing their consent and abandoning hope in the system.

Withdrawing consent is something I wrote about in The Way of Men. It’s a way to “start the world.”

Their future—the one world nanny state from cradle to grave, the global civilization of managers and clerks, the thin consumer identities, the bonobo masturbation society—is already showing signs of stress. Their future is based on unsustainable illusions and lies about human nature. Their future requires too many men to deny their own immediate interests to serve an abstract “greater good” that is far beyond human scale. All over the world, the Star Trek future that was once considered “inevitable” is starting to look improbable. The European Union is struggling, the global economy is faltering, and every day more people are starting to acknowledge that America is in a decline from which it will not recover. Their future is already falling. It just needs a push.

Their future is already falling. It just needs a push. If you want to push things toward The Way of Men and

start the Interphase, create disappointment. Throughout 2011, “Occupy Wall Street” protesters camped out in public parks across the country. They were angry about something. They weren’t sure what. Their messages were incoherent. They were desperate. They wanted the government to come to their rescue. They wanted the government to fix things. They wanted the government to stop “corporate greed” as if it is possible to demand that global corporations stop acting to maximize profit. The “occupants” still just barely believed the dream that the State is beholden to the will of the people. They still wanted to believe that the State cares what they want. They wanted to believe that the state wants them to be happy. They were emotionally attached to the idea that the government cares, but they already suspected that it doesn’t. It doesn’t, because it can’t. Like global corporations, States have escaped human scale. There is no “man” to fight. States are institutions whose ultimate goals are survival, perpetuation, and expansion. When the protesters went home, they achieved nothing. Nothing changed, though a few talking heads offered reassurances that the protesters had been heard.

People need to stop looking to the State for help and direction. They must become disillusioned and disappointed. To push things in a direction that is ultimately—though not immediately—better for men, the emotional connection between the people and the state must be severed completely. When the body of the people is released from the head of the sovereign, chaos will ensue. In that chaos, men will find themselves. They will stop looking to the State for help, and start looking to each other. Together, men can create smaller, tighter, more localized systems.

People say they want a world that’s more rational, but a world that’s out of step with human nature isn’t more rational at all.

Men aren’t getting more rational.

They’re getting weaker.

They’re getting more fearful.

They’re giving up more and more control.

There is no high road.

The only way out for men is The Way of the Gang.

Donovan, Jack (2012-03-22). The Way of Men (Kindle Location 2388). DISSONANT HUM. Kindle Edition.

As I wrote for In Mala Fide, I’m not advocating apathy. My game is to capitalize on disappointing to weaken the state and allow new gangs–new groups of allied men–to rise out of the chaos created by lack of confidence in the existing order.

Below are some links to essays by others who “mock the vote.” Many are pulled from an archive on non-voting over at LewRockwell.com.

But first, here’s George Carlin.

Essays on non-voting (from a variety of political positions).

How Can Anyone Think Voting Matters?

“Voting illustrates both support and consent. Withdraw them, please.” - Wilton D. Alston

Non-voting

“Not voting in government elections is one way of refusing to participate; of refusing to consent to government rule over your life. Non-voting may be seen as an act of personal secession, of exposing the myth behind ‘government by consent.’” - Carl Watner

Rock the Non-Vote

“Since we aren’t being offered any really meaningful choice, let’s not lend credence to the pretense that we are. If you weren’t planning to vote, then, instead of mumbling apologetically when asked about it, proudly tell others why you aren’t. If you were intending to cast a ballot, perhaps in order to protest our current foreign policy, then consider the notion that you might do so more effectively by staying home and reading a good book. If we spread the word, then maybe in a few years we will see tables at rock concerts where the attendees can sign up to get themselves removed from the list of eligible voters.” - Gene Callahan

Be Patriotic: Don’t Vote

“Voting only allows these traitors to the Constitution to proclaim that “the people have spoken” and “I am your president,” or congressman, senator, governor, or whatever. Their legitimacy rests solely on their ability to make this claim.” - Thomas J. DiLorenzo

The Con Game Called Democracy

“Or should you do what you believe to be right, decline to be herded like cattle, and live decently in the interstices of things? These at least are choices not as humiliating as voting. Those who wash regularly should not stoop to democracy.” – Fred Reed

I Won’t Vote! Casting a Vote Is Not the Only Way to Express Your Voice Politically

“Casting a vote is not the only way to get your voice heard politically, and, more importantly, politics is not the only venue in which our voices should be heard. Denizens of a free society ought never be fooled into thinking that the only relevant way to be heard in that society is by yanking levers every few years in voting booths.” - Donald J. Boudreaux

Why I Don’t Vote – an Indigenous Perspective

“…my time is better spent laying the groundwork for destroying the Empire that is intent on destroying my people. ” - Vincent Rinehart

“Hey man, I still think we can turn this thing around.”

That’s what your vote says.

That’s what you’re telling people when you argue in favor of a candidate, or against one.  You’re saying that a change in management could, at least potentially, create a better future. It’s not the system that’s broken; it’s those head-niggas-in-charge who are ruinin’ everything. The bright idea is that if we get their guy out and put our guy in—our nigga—he could really turn things around.

Where, exactly, is your nigga gonna turn it to?

How far is he going to turn back the clock? How much cleaning up are they going to let him do?  How many agencies is he going to close? How many amendments is he going to repeal? How many policies is he going to change, and why is he going to do these things for you? What’s in it for him?

Let’s say there’s an honest man in the race. Let’s just say there is—for the sake of argument.

Let’s say it for the laughs.

Let’s just say there is an honest man in the race who believes in the things that you believe in, a guy who is on your side.  Let’s imagine a candidate—because there isn’t one, not one—who is willing to take a stand against global business conglomerates that wield more power than most nations. Let’s imagine a nationalist candidate—an anti-globalist who isn’t going to make things easier for companies to export jobs, import cheap goods, and price Americans out of their own market. Let’s imagine there’s a guy who is actually willing to draw a line where our borders are supposed to be and say “no more.”

Conjure in your mind, if you will, a fella who is going to side with men when women want something—who won’t beta down and give in every time women nag him a little. I’m trying to keep this fantasy realistic, so let’s not get crazy. Let’s not get into divorce laws or domestic violence polices or sexual discrimination lawsuits or women in the military. Just try to imagine a guy who can stand up and say that men ought to feel free to exclude women from a private golf club if they want to. Imagine that guy—because he’s about the best you can hope for.

This guy, your best hope, is going to get up every morning and tell companies wielding the wealth of nations and 51% of the voting population to go fuck themselves, because he’s on your side.

You see how unrealistic that is, right?

Funny stuff.

What’s your best-case-scenario for America? I think the best that most men can reasonably hope for is for this thing to keep limping along and not get too much worse—that we’ll still be able to find a way to make it, to play the system and win sometimes.

(Some men will inevitably prosper no matter how bad things get for most men. Maybe you want to be that guy. Good on ‘ya. The point here is about changes in your odds.)

The likelihood of feminist laws being rolled back, even as far as the 1980s, is slim. The best you can hope for from elected officials—who also depend on the votes of women—is to fend off deep, hen-pecked “Swedish” feminism.

Whites are going to become minorities in a lot of areas, and hopefully being a minority white man who isn’t wealthy won’t suck too much. We can hope that all of the “youths” and “vibrants” who have been taught that we are their natural oppressors—and that we are naturally to blame for everything bad that happens to them—will be kind and benevolent to us. We can hope that they won’t hold a grudge or take advantage of us or attack us in an angry mob whenever the media winds them up.

We can hope that we’ll still have the right to bear arms and defend ourselves, and that we’ll be treated fairly by a legal system run by and for others.  The average guy can hope that judges and legislators will at least be reminded of the Constitution when they give decisions and write laws.

We can hope that freedom of speech will outlast us. We know that writing or saying the wrong thing may get us fired, but we can hope that they won’t put us in prison for it, like they do in more “evolved” nations like France, Germany, or England.

Basically, we can take a conservative position.  We can try to hold on to what remains from the past and what is good in the present. We can vote to keep things from changing too much, too fast. Maybe, if we’re really lucky, we’ll be able to regain some ground every once in a while—to right some wrongs, to correct some errors. Voting for the guy who is going to fuck things up the least is a conservative position.

Progressives—feminists, multiculturalists, socialists, and others—are more enraptured by their leaders and more excited about the future because they have an end goal in mind. They aren’t voting to keep things from getting too much worse, they are voting to achieve a State of Kumbaya. In the State of Kumbaya, every person of every sex and race is equal in every which way. Everyone shares and shares alike, and no one has a bad word to say about anyone else. In Kumbaya, there is no one to kill or die for (and no religion, too). This is not a radical position, because it is more or less the official position, but people who vote toward Kumbaya are still voting forward.

Conservatives vote to block them, or to go backward. They vote to restore, reclaim, and prevent. Conservatives believe that they can still turn this thing around.

I’m not a conservative.

I don’t believe we can turn this thing around by voting to put a new head-nigga-in-charge.

I’m not going to argue with you about why this nigga is better than that nigga.

I’ll be sitting it out entirely.

From now on, I’m voting with my ass.

I’m not advocating apathy. I don’t want you to stop caring. I want you to stop believing.

Voting implies consent. It implies that you still believe in the system and that you are satisfied with your options.

I want you to withdraw your consent.

In 2008, voter turnout was around 57%. That’s actually high for elections in recent years, and for a variety of reasons I doubt we’ll see that kind of enthusiasm again soon. However, the fact that we are being governed with the active consent of less than 60% of the population is worth consideration. In 1924, less than 49% of the voting age population turned out to elect an established incumbent challenged by a lackluster candidate who was actually a compromise between two other deadlocked candidates.  2012 looks like a great year to aim for under 50% again.

Let the head-nigga-in-charge claim he has a mandate from the people, when half of the voting age population couldn’t be bothered to vote either for or against him. And this isn’t even about him. It’s not about any one candidate. It’s about a system that can only produce globalists to act in our national interests. It’s about a system that makes it easier for men to pander to women than it is for them to stand up for men.

America is losing faith in its public institutions. In a 2011 Gallup poll, only 12% expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress. 35% had faith in the presidency, 37% in the Supreme Court. As few had confidence in newspapers (28%) as they did in television news (27%).  Less than 30% trusted the criminal justice system, the banks, the unions or big business.

Withdrawing your support for America’s political system is a more powerful statement than your vote.

Not voting is a vote of “no confidence.”

Your vote isn’t going to turn this thing around. The best thing you can do for your country—for the men around you, for the future—is to let the system tear itself apart. The way to increase personal sovereignty for men is to decrease the sovereignty of the state by withdrawing the consent of the governed.  Sure, this could and probably will result in naked power grabs by “elected” officials. These actions will only decrease confidence further. That’s short-term. I’m thinking about the long game. If American men stop thinking of the government as “us” and start thinking of it as “them”—if we stop thinking of ourselves as Americans and start acting in our own interests, things could get really interesting.

So this year, don’t argue about politics.

Don’t vote.

Vote with your ass.

Or, if you really want to vote, don’t vote for any of the official candidates. Have fun with it. Vote for a write-in.

Vote for Zod. Vote for Cthulu. Vote for Crom. Vote for fucking Cobra Commander for all I care.

Just don’t vote for any of the assholes on the ballot.

“The Origins of Manliness,” by Roger F. Devlin for Alternative Right

Other recent reviews include this recommendation from Masculine Style:

This is a book that I recommend all men take the time to read. While Donovan focuses on our current cultural problems in regards to men he does so in a way that doesn’t come across as either whining or martyred. In fact, of all the “red pill” writings I’ve ever read, The Way of Men is the most realistically optimistic about how men can regain their footing. He doesn’t believe in an easy path, but he believes in a path.

In 50 years this may very well become part of the canon that helped men become men again in the 21^st century.

“Review of the Way of Men,” by Tanner at Masculine Style

See also this review from Jonathan Frost, author of The 2012 End Of The World Tour and The Freedom Twenty Five Lifestyle Guide:

a very interesting and informative journey through the history of masculinity, and how it has been defined in classical civilizations and beyond. I finished the book with over twenty Kindle highlights, most of which are references to books and articles for later reading. If you’re thinking of starting your own bottom-up analysis of masculinity via the writings of dead white men, The Way Of Men’s bibliography is a great starting point. If you’re not, The Way of Men will make you want to.

“Review of Jack Donovan’s The Way Of Men,” by Jonathan Frost at jonathan-frost.com

The Physical Challenge

The Stark Truth: Jack Donovan on the Way of Men

Read the essay at InMalaFide:

Men in Uncomfortable Shoes

“Generation Zero is the generation of Sesame Street and Ritalin, a generation raised without any memory or first-hand knowledge of a world in which masculinity was encouraged and celebrated rather than punished. The Way of Men is the first complete  roadmap to masculinity ever published, the truth your fathers never told you. For the men of my generation, this book is beyond invaluable.”

Read the rest of the In Mala Fide review here.

Sam Sheridan, author of A Fighter’s Heart and A Fighter’s Mind, honored me with some words of praise for The Way of Men.

“Jack Donovan has written a thought-provoking treatise on the essential struggle of men, taking on timeless concepts, in an honest examination of what manhood means to him. The book is carefully reasoned with his own impressive, self-made intellect. He’s done his research, and pondered deep, and while I didn’t always agree with everything he said—I am a better man for reading it.”

Max weighed in on The Way of Men from his “long backpacking excursion” in Afghanistan:

“The Way of Men is not a manifesto.  It’s not a How-To.  It doesn’t waste a word on how to pick up women, or how to travel the world on $10 dollars a day.  It’s not a self-help handbook.

It is a precursor to first principles.  It isn’t about what manliness should be, it’s about what manliness is.  It’s about the conflict in your emotions when you are chastised for punching a bully, when you know he damned well deserved it.  It’s about why you root for the bad guy.

Think of it as A Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Manliness.”

Read the rest of the FKIN review here.

I also appeared on The Stark Truth (again) and 9Sense podcasts to promote the book recently, and I’m working on a few more interviews that should come out soon.

My project for the weekend is finishing the paperback design and getting it to the printer for those of you who are waiting for the print edition. It’s coming. 

Read the interview here:

Make It Happen: Interview with Powerlifter Chris Duffin by Jack Donovan

Conducting interviews is always a fun change of pace for me as a writer.

Here are some other interviews I’ve done in the past.

• with Welmer (W.F. Price), Publisher: TheSpearhead.com.“The War on Oblivion”- Alternative Right.com (February 2010)
• with Robert Taylor, from the band, Changes. “Waiting For the Fall : An Interview with Robert Taylor of Changes”

The essay, titled “Yellow Panties,” turned out to be pretty popular.

(Nasty photo, ain’t?)