Weakness Winners

Over the past few years – and I think over the past few decades if one were to observe carefully – there has been a rather pernicious movement towards the glorification of weakness, humility and submission. There is a trend, scaling from small cases within social spheres up into the upper echelons of geopolitics that being submissive, humble, and “kind” are the ways to go.

Acceptance of flaws, of failures and settling for mediocrity, so have you. Sacrificing the competence of others in order to appease masses of incompetence and settling for a sense of “good enough” and “comfortable”.

I think this tends to stem from altruistic thinking, which I believe is the root cause of much of the problems we have in the world. When I refer to altruism, I refer to sacrificing ones values for something of lesser value – ie. I give my life to x because it’s more valuable than my life.

Ayn Rand exposed why this is terrible thinking and a bad idea to commit to if one truly commits to it to its logical end. It’s a negation of your own life and needs, which is a vicious attack on your true worth as an individual. You can read more about that by reading her work on it, which I think is the pinnacle of argumentation against it.

But I digress. People, society and many of our civilizations that we have worked very hard to build up over hundreds of years have become very weak, submissive and incompetent. One need only look at the modern world now, with obesity now being “normal”, a fractured mental health being something to be “proud” of, and a political system that favors shaking hands with despicable tyrants to understand what I mean.

Here’s the thing: I don’t care if someone has mental health issues. I don’t care if someone is obese. I don’t care about any of these things. I care about my work, my art, and my pen. Mental health in particular is something I have no judgement towards – if it is a metaphysically given fact (ie. it is simply in the nature of one to have schizophrenia), then it matters not to me. It’s of no moral consequence because it is what it is. Take responsibility for it, and live your life. You can count on me to protect your rights of freedom to live as you please. Just leave me and everyone else alone. That’s all I’ve ever asked really.

But this glorification of laziness, evasion of fact and heroic cheering of incompetence has now begun to invade the lives of people who only ever asked to be left alone. It has now become a duty to care for people’s well being regardless of your own, to be careful what you say in case one “offends” somebody, and with the COVID pandemic raging, there is now support from many people to legally enforce vaccination – with the absurd notion that it somehow “protects the vulnerable”. And if you choose not to do so? In some countries, you have that choice – but at the cost of not being allowed to go to shops anymore. In other words, it’s called coercion.

And it’s all nonsense. Vaccinations for COVID are safe, effective and prevent severe illness for the individual, but do not slow the spread of a respiratory illness. I took the damn thing, I wouldn’t if I thought it was dangerous. There are countless sources showing its safety. And yet, the glorification of “protecting the vulnerable” takes precedence over your right to choose, even going so far as lying about what the vaccination does. It isn’t a force field, that’s not how it works.

But people lap it up in droves. They see it as a heroic thing to do for “the community” and “greater good”, and at what cost? At the sacrifice of your fellow neighbors who have never done wrong by you?

I sincerely believe all of this stems from a lack of might – a settling for being weak. It’s a fear of one’s mortal state that is so astute, so painfully sharp that one cannot bear knowing that others may be at risk of dying and choose to reduce their risks how they please within any context. It’s a prevailing anxiety of the cost of freedom. Perhaps witnessing people who take such risks and responsibility within their own lives is a reflection into what they lack – courage.

Courage takes strength. It takes a mind that is tempered in steel and hardened by powerful principles. It sometimes takes a powerful physique, too, but the mind is where the action starts to take place. It’s where one can train themselves to become resilient to the often unbearable storms of pain and torment that rattles their world over the course of their lives.

But the people with courage are the ones who create. Their resolve is what creates the technology we have now that makes our world so much better. It’s why we have vaccines, computers, smart phones, healthy food, sanitary systems, etc. The very reason your life is so good in the developed world is thanks to the men of the mind.

The one’s with the will to act, to resist, to defy and to build are what created the world we have now. The freedoms we have. It took strength. Might.

But so, so many don’t identify this fact. They live their cushy lives, afraid of even going outside at this point, thinking that anything could kill them. And now they are sanctioning weak leaders who are working to erode many of the freedoms we as a species spent hundreds of years building. And that is why so many are defying them. People are saying no, because they aren’t being left alone.

The pandemic is not a good thing. COVID is quite nasty. But what alarms me the most is the pitiful response and fear-driven narrative that so many have latched onto like a sinking ship in the Atlantic.

Stop being so weak, pick yourself up, and get strong. Incompetence, mediocrity and stagnation are not, and never will be virtues. They are vices. And by sanctioning the imbeciles in power in so many countries now, you are forcing those vices on others, which will potentially spiral what precious freedoms we all have left into oblivion.

There is a saying that “Might makes right”, and I believe it does now. It’s not a physical kind of might though – it is the mighty capability of the human mind and spirit.

The might to say no more.

Get strong in the way you can – physical, mental, etc. Defiance is the response to overbearing authority and incompetence, and strength is a necessity. If I believe in you, you should too.

“But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”

Albert Camus