Introduction
At the end of each year, around November and December, I intentionally spend a significant time alone. From the months of January to October, I typically spend a large amount of time around people due to being a business owner and running teams of employees. I find this very draining and almost soul depleting. I usually feel quite ragged by October, and I welcome a vacation of solitude.
During this time of introspection, I will listen to books on Audible at a torrent pace. One of my greatest loves in life is the acquisition of new knowledge. I am endlessly curious about many things. I’ve always felt a kinship with Leonardo Da Vinci since I learned about him at the age of 10. Leonardo was extremely curious about a great many topics, and this is shown by his mastery of several artistic and scientific disciplines. His biography by the great writer Walter Isaacson, who has also written excellent accounts of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein, which I have also read, makes it clear that Leonardo’s purpose in life was to acquire as much knowledge as possible.
My current interest has been the ancient Spartans, and in particular, what the Spartan version of masculinity was. I recently listened to two books and one lecture series on the Spartans:
- “The Spartans” by Paul Cartledge
- “Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield
- “A History of Ancient Sparta” by Professor Timothy B Shutt
I am going to relay the main points of Spartan masculinity to you here.
Spartan Military Strategy and Antifragility
One of the central concepts of my theory on why modern masculinity is lacking in strength is that humans are Antifragile. This means that humans only grow and become stronger through suffering, adversity, hardship, and even near-death experiences. Of course, the upbringing of boys in our modern society is noticeably lacking in all of these things.
The invention of the atom bomb has brought an extended peace time for first world countries that is unprecedented since the dawn of civilization. All out war between nations of comparable military strength can no longer be risked given the massive consequences of nuclear war. So, modern “hot” war is only waged between non-nuclear third world countries and nuclear first world countries in a David vs. Goliath scenario. Except in the real world, David never wins. The nuclear first world countries only wage “cold” war against each other.
This has resulted in there being no chance that modern boys and men will ever engage in anything resembling hand-to-hand deadly combat. In fact, intimately close combat has been extinct since the American Civil War, and probably even before that.
So it will be difficult for a modern man to even fathom the stress and intensity of how the Spartans preferred to fight.
Keep in mind that Sparta was relevant as a Greek city-state from the 6th century to the 4th century BCE. This was around 2,500 years ago. At the time of Sparta’s rise to dominance, there were no projectile weapons that were effective enough to supersede hand-to-hand combat. The bow and arrow existed, but it was not strong or accurate enough alone to win a battle or campaign. Sparta didn’t even have walls around their city, which is a testament to the primitive projectile technology of the time. In fact, part of Sparta’s demise in the 4th century BCE was the advancement of catapult and bow and arrow technology, which removed their ability to rely solely on their previously dominant Phalanx.
The Spartan Phalanx
The Spartan Phalanx was perhaps the most dominant, brutal, and famous military unit the world has ever known. The individual soldier in the Phalanx was known as a “Hoplite”. A Hoplite was a heavily armed infantry soldier that carried a large bronze shield, eight-foot spear, and a short dagger-like sword. The Phalanx was a row of Spartan Hoplites eight members deep. The width of the Phalanx depended on the amount of Spartans fighting, which usually numbered between a few hundred to five thousand. So the Phalanx could be up to 600 members or more.
Most Greeks at the time fought as Hoplites in a Phalanx, but what made the Spartan Phalanx superior was the group’s cohesiveness and teamwork during battle. Where the line of other Greek Phalanxes would break apart as they moved or attacked, the Spartan line would never break or waiver. In fact, the Spartans waged war constantly and did not lose a Phalanx battle for over 200 years!
The Spartan Hoplites used their shield for two purposes: To protect their fellow soldier to the left and to ram the enemy on the battlefield. The Spartans would approach their enemy on the battlefield slowly and deliberately so as to not break the line. The effectiveness of the Phalanx would fall apart if the line was broken at all. As they contacted the enemy, the Spartans would use their collective weight and strength, of eight men deep, to bludgeon the enemy with their shields. And then, in unison, they would slide their eight-foot spears over their shields into the bodies of the enemy.
As a side note, the movie “300” has some accurate depictions and some inaccurate depictions of the Spartans. One inaccurate depiction is how the Hoplites dropped and/or moved their shields aside when they thrusted with their spears. In reality, the Hoplites never moved their shields, as that would expose the soldier to their left and potentially break the line. They attacked by placing their spear on top of their shield for balance and support and then thrusting with their right arm. This also leads one to believe that there were no left-handed Spartans allowed to exist, as the spear-handling right arm needed to be stronger and more dexterous than the left arm which held the shield.
The Spartans would continue this combination of ramming and impaling the opposing force until the enemy began fleeing. Only when victory was assured would they break the formation of the Phalanx and chase down the enemy, killing them with their spears or swords.
The quality of teamwork and collective action of the Spartan Phalanx was the source of its superiority, and this defined all of Spartan culture. Sparta was, first and foremost, a military society of warriors that were born and raised to operate in the Phalanx. All Greeks had the same technology for spears, swords, and shields. What made the Spartans superior were the minds and bodies of the men operating in the Phalanx.
Lessons in Masculinity from the Spartans
Strong Men Are Forged By Their Upbringing
From the Spartans we can learn a valuable lesson in how to raise our sons. It didn’t dawn on me until my 40s that I had been raised by women, and that most boys in modern society are raised by women. The State requires all boys to attend school from the ages of 5 to 18. They spend seven to eight hours per day being indoctrinated by teachers that are predominantly women and feminized men. When they are home, their fathers generally work more than their mothers. Modernity has also resulted in an increasing number of children being completely fatherless, so they have no male role model at home. In my situation, both of my parents worked constantly, so I was raised by female nannies at home. When you put this all together over an 18 year period, you’ll see that most modern boys have very little male influence growing up. And the men they do interact with are often highly feminized with a compromised version of masculinity. It’s no wonder that so many boys and young men are confused about HOW TO BE A MEN!
It becomes extremely obvious when studying the Spartans that our modern boys grow up in the most soft and effeminate time in history. My entire notion of a harsh upbringing has been transformed by my research on the Spartans.
At the age of seven, Spartan boys were taken from their family to live permanently in a military style education system called the Agoge. There were no women or girls allowed in the male Agoge. And the Spartans intentionally separated boys from girls because they recognized how much of a harmful distraction the girls, and the male sex drive towards the girls, would be. The bond between brothers was considered far superior, and more valuable, than the relationship a boy or man could ever have with a woman. In addition, the boys did not have contact with their families after entering the Agoge. They were housed in barracks with other boys their age. From age seven to 20, the boys did one thing every day, and one thing only: They trained to be Hoplites in the Phalanx.
These boys were intentionally starved in order to simulate the lives of warriors on campaign. They were encouraged to steal food, but could be flogged to death if they were caught. Interestingly, they faced consequences not for the act of theft itself, but for their failure to remain undetected. Nearly everything they did involved the risk of death, including being forced to fight each other, being overworked during training, and receiving corporal punishment. These boys were raised in an educational system that was at least 1,000 times more brutal than our current system.
This all brings me back to the concept of Antifragility. Do you think the Spartan boys became stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually by this challenging upbringing, or did it produce weak men? Obviously they came out much stronger because of it. That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
The problem with modern men is that their upbringing is too easy and soft.
Live For Something More Than Women And Children
The siren song of self-proclaimed strong men today is placing their “duty” to their wife and children, and the feminine in general, above all else. This idea of self-sacrifice for women, and a man subsuming himself to women, is a modern notion that has been brainwashed into men. Ironically, many modern men see these notions of duty, which is actually submission to women, as the pinnacle of strong masculinity. You can clearly see brainwashing for what it is from the blatant irrationality of this position. Modern men have been taught to believe that submission to the feminine IS masculinity, and very few of them critically analyze these notions. Like all humans, men just blindly conform to the environment they are born into, and they only start questioning their paradigms upon the influence of severe disturbances and trauma.
This is another example of how modern notions of masculinity have become extremely distorted. A man living for his wife and children is a MODERN IDEA. Every historical account of strong men clearly shows that they placed themselves, their brothers, God, and/or the State above their wife and children. Living for a woman is the sure path to pacification, despondence, and the lack of virility. The hindbrain of a woman recognizes a man living for her as weak, unmasculine, and unnatural. This causes her to secretly, or not so secretly, despise and revile any man that submits to her.
Is it not true that the biblical patriarch Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac to God? And don’t Abraham and Lot both give up their wives when it is opportune to do so? A look at our close relatives the Chimpanzees shows that the Alpha Males are far more concerned with rival Chimp communities, keeping order, and maintaining their power than they are with the females. Yes, they mate with the females when they are in estrus, but they have little interaction with the females outside of that.
Modern men have been duped into being tools and pawns for women and children, and not surprisingly, these same modern men try to spin their slavery into being “strong masculinity”. It’s usually not until the divorce comes that these men realize their dedication to their families was never really reciprocated.
In Sparta, men married and had children for the purpose of procreation and strengthening of the State. Sparta was always under threat, and it needed more male warriors and women to produce male warriors. Men did not marry women for LOVE. A man’s primary duty was clearly to the Spartan State and his brothers-in-arms. Men would discard their newborn babies that showed signs of weakness or deformity so the Spartan population was not infected by these genes.
The purpose of the Agoge was to produce the best Hoplites, and in turn the best Phalanx, in all of Greece. And for over 200 years it produced that result.
While the Agoge had many purposes, one of the main ones was to minimize individualism and promote collectivism. Since the Phalanx depended not on individual effort, but the teamwork of many working together, this made a lot of sense. Boys were taught to value their brothers-in-arms and their country much more than themselves. In fact, the greatest honor of a Spartan warrior was to sacrifice himself in battle for his country.
“Never retreat, never surrender” was Spartan law. Instead of saving themselves for the sake of their wives and children, Spartan men were proud to die on the battlefield with their brothers in the name of the State. Nothing is more revealing about a Spartan man’s true priorities.
In modern times where millions of boys and men are lost without a purpose, one can only envy the higher calling which every Spartan man lived for. Self-help wisdom constantly repeats that self-obsession is misery and the route to happiness is living for something outside of yourself. But in modern times, men have no such exterior purpose to live for. There is no unbreakable brotherhood forged in the collective suffering of the Agoge. There is no country under the threat of attack from within and without.
The Spartan men lived for their country and for each other. The type of brotherhood and camaraderie they shared cannot be known by the modern man, except maybe members of the Special Forces. We often look to women for connection and closeness, but we are always left unfulfilled. Women and children can never provide the sense of purpose and meaning that a strong brotherhood and collective mission can. We are desperately grasping at these loose connections to our families in a society that teaches women and children to devalue men and fathers. Our lack of brotherhood and purpose makes us need our family more and modernity promotes brainwashing and societal change that makes women and children need us less.
The Spartan men felt a duty to marry and procreate in order to breed more Spartan warriors. Notions of romantic love between husband and wife almost certainly did not exist. The men were away for military training and on campaign nearly all of the time. This is the very reason why Spartan women have the reputation for being strong and more independent compared to other women in the ancient world. The men were completely dedicated to the military and were never home. So, the women had to raise the children, manage the slaves, and control the entire household. Spartan women’s strength and independence was driven by practical necessities, rather than aligning with the idealistic principles often associated with contemporary feminism.
A Necessity for Protection and Provision Creates Natural Gender Dynamics
Another of the central concepts of my theory on why modern masculinity is so lacking in strength is that the necessity for what men naturally provide has sharply decreased.
For the first time in human history, we live in an age where women and children do not absolutely need men for protection and provision of resources. Think about how extreme and unprecedented that is. Over the course of the last 300,000 years, the continuity and proliferation of humans have depended on men safeguarding women and children from physical threats and ensuring the provision of sustenance to women during pregnancy and lactation. In fact, this protection and provision has always been the very reason why male humans existed!
Natural selection has favored men that can protect and provide successfully, and these traits are what I call naturally masculine. Athleticism and physical strength along with keen and vigilant minds allows men to protect better. A natural desire for adventure and exploration, in addition to the desire to acquire and increase resources, led men to be better providers.
One aspect of Spartan society that was extremely unique is that the only male profession was being a warrior. And the only female profession was producing children and running the household. All other jobs were performed by slaves called Helots. Slaves were common in Greece, but what made the Helots unique were that they were Greeks from neighboring territories that Sparta had conquered. All Greeks instituted slavery, but the slaves outside of Sparta were typically non-Greek prisoners of war. The other Greek city-states harshly criticized Sparta for enslaving fellow Greeks, and this increased the threat of war with Sparta’s neighbors.
Surprisingly, the number of Spartan citizens was always very small, with 25,000 being the largest they ever had. Historians disagree on the numbers, but there may have been up to 10 or 20 times the amount of Helots in Spartan society!
The Spartans were under a constant threat of Helot revolt from the inside, and constant threat of external armies attacking. This created an environment that produced the harshness of the Agoge and the dominance of Spartan warriors. They had to create a warrior, and a fighting system, where numbers of the enemy did not matter. And this is exactly what the Spartans are best known for, repelling hundreds of thousands of Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae with only 300 Spartans.
The Spartan women and children absolutely needed the Spartan men for protection. Through the harsh control exerted over the Helots by Spartan males, the women and children of Sparta also received the fruits of Helot labor, which included all their food.
In Sparta, an environment was created between men and women that I contend represents what is natural and morally right for gender relations. The Spartan society lies in stark contrast to the modern American society for the following reasons:
- Women and children had the utmost respect and reverence for the men. It’s clear the Spartan women were outspoken, but all evidence shows they honored and remained submissive to their husbands nonetheless.
- Men were placed in the dominant position in society and their household. When the survival and continuation of the species depends on things that only men can provide, discussions of equality and gender fairness simply will not exist. Women never want to do the fighting, and in any event, it’s clear that men are naturally far superior in combat. The idea of “equality” does not exist in an environment where survival depends upon the inherent inequality between the genders. It’s only in modernity, where the threat of war and physical assault is virtually extinct, that idealistic notions like “equality” can thrive and proliferate.
- Natural, stoic, hard, non-feminine Masculinity was appreciated and revered because it was absolutely needed by everyone in society.
- Men had a built-in, clear, and unequivocal purpose for their lives. No man could be “lost” because his very existence was needed by all other members of his society.
- Men had strong brotherhoods and male mentors that provided all of the connection and fulfillment they needed. Men were not forced to seek connection by unnaturally feminizing themselves in order to relate with women.
- Feminism, and the modern phenomenon of women treating men as unnecessary commodities, did not, and could not, exist. Spartan women never claimed they were “strong independent women” that “don’t need a man” because that would have been laughable. Without the elite male Spartan warriors standing in their way, the hordes of Helots, and exterior enemies like the Persians, would have raped, killed, and/or enslaved the women in quick order.
As you can see, most of the problems modern men experience stem from their necessity being removed from our society. In fact, the Elite have intentionally removed the need for men by creating a Police State and pushing women into being full-time equal workers. Even though the vast majority of the State police force protecting women is composed of men, women interact with them so irregularly that they don’t perceive any need for men. Further, women being in the workforce, and earning equal pay, allows them to operate under the illusion of providing everything for themselves. Thus, it becomes clear why modern women have no respect for masculinity, fatherhood, and men. Men become more obsolete to women with every year that passes by.
Women call this “freedom” and “independence”, but in fact they are more enslaved than ever.
More Lessons In Masculinity From The Spartans
I am going to conclude this post, but I will write more about the Spartans in the future, as this is not all that the Spartans have to teach us about Masculinity. Specifically, I will address these points in the future:
- Always maintain your physical fitness and a healthy diet. Being overweight is not allowed.
- Always remain disciplined and composed, especially in times of crisis.
- Avoid a lavish or opulent lifestyle and do not flaunt your wealth.
- Do not indulge in intoxication, as this is the behavior of lower humans.
- Always maintain your independence and do not submit to exterior forces (no matter their relative size)