Who were we 200 years ago? Do we really know? How much of our classic literature is written by men who were magnitudes weaker than the average man? I remember watching the History Channel’s docuseries called The Men Who Built America. It chronicled the lives and businesses of four men, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Carnegie, And Rockefeller. In this, it begins with Vanderbilt as a young man fist-fighting other men on the docks. This brought a question to my mind, “Could you imagine any of our current billionaires fist-fighting someone?” I mean you have Elon and Zuckerberg doing jujitsu because of Joe Rogan but could you actually picture them fighting on some dock somewhere surrounded by other men cheering them on? No cameras no publicity just them squared-up blood leaking from a cut on their eye? It is not understood how much harder life was 200 years ago. We live in a time that if one of our siblings died when we were young or if our father or mother passed when we were children, we would be in therapy or a drug addict for the rest of our lives. Our ancestors in recent history would consider it a normal part of life to see 3 or 4 of their siblings die from some disease or sickness as children. It would be normal for our mother to pass, giving birth to one of our younger siblings. It would be assumed that you would have to pull extra weight in the household at 10 or 11 years old. You would have a job outside the home at 12 as a runner or a shopkeeper. You would bale hay or clean manure at 10, this would be normal. You would be a man and live under the code of men at a young age.
The Code of Men
Men used to live by a code. Today the closest thing we have is the law. A code is something different. Google defines Code as a set of conventions governing behavior or activity in a particular sphere. I think that’s close but I think we need another qualifier. A code comes into play once you choose to become part of a culture or group.
A code comes to be naturally as a way to keep basic interactions between men fair and honest. We have codes on the internet no doxing no pedo shit no fed posting. These are basic codes that allow all of us to interact as humans without a need for a central authority.
We were talking about this last night. As men, we used to have these rights of passage to become a man. It was expected of you in order to gain access to the rights of being a man, you had to show that you were capable of being a man. There would be a challenge, you had to complete, (a bar to entry as it were). You had to complete this challenge though upon your own volition.
This isn’t to say that as a child you wouldn’t be held to the codes standards. You would be punished or corrected if you violated these codes as a younger man.
Now if I were to define a code. I would say it is an expectation that can result in violence from other men if not met. I will give you an example. Let’s say you are caught in the bed of another man with his wife. There is an expectation that violence can result from this at any time in our history as humans. Now, this man expects that other men will not fuck his wife. Once another man fucks his wife and he catches that man we all in some way understand that man’s rage and accept that he will commit violence. This is a simple way to understand code vs law. With a law, there are no exceptions men will not assault other men. When it comes to code if a man assaults another man for no reason then he should be punished. If a man assaults a man who is caught fucking his wife, we all as men go, “Dude you got what you deserved.” Some laws are written to replace code that doesn’t work. Today for instance there is alimony. The idea behind alimony is the code that if you take a wife you should be sure you can provide for that wife. Just like the code don’t get a dog if you can’t afford a dog. It is some basic parts of the code of man. The laws behind alimony come from the code. The code is in place to get a man to do his best to provide for his family. It is positive for the whole community and larger society in general if his family flourishes. The community and larger family, have a vested interest in him and his wife succeeding because his failure will result in his children becoming burdens or even thieves. So, when things get hard and stress builds up they are supported by the community and counseled. This code as it were is a good code as all natural codes are. Once you put this into law, it is enforced legally with force and becomes a deterrent to men marrying and forming families and ultimately destroys communities.
There is a reason we all get extremely angry when someone blocks our path or gets in the way. This is a code violation that is hard to enforce with the law. These codes come from our culture and are not universal across all cultures. Hence why it is often immigrants who violate this code. The codes of men evolve from our interactions with each other and our surroundings. In places where it is warmer during the year the culture will dictate that the code is more lax against simple violations. If the land has been valuable (for instance Sicily) as a port for launching invasions, the code will be much more strict, due to the need for males to be in control of their communities. This is the reason why Sicilians are known for being violent forming mafias and having honor killings.
Honor
Google defines honor as adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct.
Honor is a man adhering to the code when he doesn’t have to. A good example of this is a man who has the opportunity to let another man take the fall for his actions but stands up and owns up to them. Honor used to be seen as the greatest virtue a man could have. We would aspire to be men of honor. This also meant that we as men would have to defend our honor to the death. We would have to commit violence to those who dishonored us and our families. Our teachers for 100 years now have told us the line “Violence never solves anything.” These might be the dumbest words ever spoken. More problems have been solved through violence in human history than through every other method combined.
The reason this idea came to prominence in our society is actually because of firearms. When duels went from men having a sword or fist-fights to men pacing it out and shooting each other we stopped having the ability to make someone yield. When we used to have a sword fight a man could yield and say he had enough go home lick his wounds and admit defeat. There is no opportunity to do so when you get shot in the goddamn face.
This issue is the subject of a movie called Friday. At the end of the movie, it’s protagonist Craig is about to go shoot the antagonist Deebo. His father catches him with his gun and gives him a speech about using his hands and how it is dishonorable to shoot a man and there is no going back from that. He fights him and hits him with an alley biscuit eventually winning the fight against the giant. RIP Deebo. He died a few years back in real life.
The hard times as children that our ancestors experienced gave them the wherewithal to withstand the punishments needed to have honor. Honor is not often an easy thing to do it means finishing tasks that are difficult because it’s the right thing to do. It means caring about your reputation as a man and holding up not just your name, but your family’s name.
Family Honor
In normal times in normal communities, your family’s name says things about you. It will tell people what trades you are associated with. Your name will tell others the way you do business. Your name will say whether you honor debts. It will say if your family is dangerous. Your family name carries weight and is not just yours it is also your son’s and daughter’s, your future grandkid’s names, your father’s name, and your mother’s name. When you are accused of an action or commit some violation of the code dishonoring you, it dishonors everyone associated with your name. These are important things because people live off their names in a lot of places. The reason why is that if others know your family will come and seek revenge if you are harmed then this is a shield when doing business or just walking around. The problem comes in for most people because they do not want the responsibility of having to uphold such a reputation. If your name carries that much weight it means you cannot act like it doesn’t. So if a man decides he wants to find out if this reputation is earned you must commit violence to uphold your name. This is a responsibility that comes with rewards. We all want the reward but no one wants the responsibility.
Today in modern society we have forgotten many of these principles and have shirked our responsibility as men of honor to gain the freedom to be individuals. We have offloaded our responsibility to the government and allow them to commit violence for us so we can go about life like we are children. We need to become men again and reclaim what has been lost. Our honor our code and our manhood. Honorable men should subscribe.