The Social Space

There was recently a clip on Twitter that caught my attention that shouldn’t have. It wasn’t because of anything raunchy, uncouth, etc. but because it should be so banal and common that it doesn’t require any thought. It should be the water we swim in, but it’s not.

https://x.com/NoJesuitTricks/status/1746315664036405310?s=20

The scene is a bar, and a group of young Irish men in back spontaneously break out into song. It’s a trope seen countless times, from RPG’s to War movies, because of all it entails. Several people made excellent comments regarding the implicit social capital brought into the forefront with such a spectacle, these men being great friends, probably working together. They could easily be in the same street raising a family in the future, or in a foxhole dying for one another. In the modern context, you can’t help but be startled by some aspects of the scene that are taboo in modern culture.

A Male Space

Watch this video and mentally insert about a quarter women where the men appear. Does it seem fluid anymore? Spontaneous? Does some of the energy leave the video, giving it a remnant of fakery? If so, why is that?

Why is there always a sympathy for a scene where it’s a group of men shooting the breeze in the Pub, but the second there are several women involved, the oxygen gets sucked out of the room, and the entire interaction becomes sterile? How do women immediately have this effect on a Mannerbund, to the point where it goes from organic comradery to a stale H.R. presentation?

In my youth, my social circles were entirely co-ed, with all the drama and tensions associated with it. Mind you, I’m not arguing I was above it all, as I was just as much meshed in the lunacy as everyone else. Some men were always looking in the corner of their eye at the girl they liked, or the married guy kept his tongue when his wife was near. There was a sense of the artificial, as the men were unable to speak to other men the way they instinctively wanted to. At its core, there’s probably chemistry involved, as everyone has a subconscious sense of the hormones in the air, and our minds take that cue to where it affects our conscious thoughts and emotions.

When you have a group of only men, the conversations can be cruder and more raucous, but also contains the energy of fellow travelers working together, sharing their griefs and concerns in a way they know they will be understood. Contrary to popular opinion, a man in your Mannerbund will give you far more emotional support than the most empathetic woman, because the man knows he will be told what needs to be told, and the person he is confiding with is not dependent on him the way a wife is. It’s clear anyone who thinks men don’t feel have never been in a severe stress situation with their comrades. They feel alright, but they do not feel as women feel.

Because of this, the discourse often goes to, bluntly, “women suck.“ This is ridiculous, as men in a social circle ruin women’s comradery just as much but the ever-present suspicion of a romantic interest, divulging information that will make her far too vulnerable, etc. It doesn’t work, and the reality remains men and women occupy different mental worlds, and outside of family formation separation is necessary for everyone’s sanity.

Homogeneity

We can do the same thought experiment and try to mentally replace the men with diverse races. Let’s add a Pakistani in there. Let’s add a few Africans. Instead of a traditional Irish tune, let’s have them strum out some pop song. What happens to the bar then. Does it still have the same energy and comradery, or does it sound like a lame DEI poster?

These men, with that folk tune, shows a group with a shared heritage, build from ancestors who swelled from the same source to populate Ireland. Their history, and their ancestors, are connected, and you can practically hear their great-grandfathers singing along with them. This is not something that can be mimicked in a team building exercise or through some Code of Conduct. The minute these men had a Code of Conduct on how they should act with each other is the day the friendships end. The minute you need to write down what is understood is the minute you forget your primal bonds, and forget them entirely.

Is this to say they would frown from a Middle Eastern man joining them for a shanty, or they should keep insular with their own group? No, but it does mean there is a sense of the “other” that is so deep it comes without question, and the minute you ask “What is an Irishman” is the minute the Irish cease to be. This is why deconstruction is such a powerful tool in the eyes of the elites, because by simply asking the question it beings to destroy the implicit bond these men operate under.

Isolation

The outside world is a mess of distractions at everyone’s fingertips. In a modern bar setting often you will see half of these people looking at their phones while the others tried to converse over music blasting in the background. A lot of what drives the local flavor boils down to isolation, where the outside is either kept away through sheer logistics of distance or locked off with a wall of some sort, whether it be digital or physical. Here there is a constraint that keeps people local by necessity. Many of the best and brightest will be stuck in a town where they could be employed for far greater use elsewhere, and the flip side is these skilled people raise up the town, as opposed to the smart going to the cities and the slackers and unambitious getting stuck in the village, thereby causing a slow deterioration.

The hard choice of modernity is the tug-of-war between keeping local customs and people versus opening up every possible constraint imposed on a community, allowing the brightest to go to the city and get a high paying job, but also losing his connections to his heritage and eventually succumbing to the IQ shredder and not passing on his traditions…. or genes.

The Tradeoff

This is where the simple RETVRN mindset hits a crossroad. Are you willing to go back to forcing people to have a provincial life? Are you willing to wall off the world of knowledge in the web to keep a community’s customs, even if it will block the poison also? If you want to have the best of both worlds, what will that look like? Will it be a timer on Internet time? Is so, how will that be enforced? How will you be able to tell the 120 IQ man living in his little town that he can’t get that lawyer job in the city, as the village needs him here?

There’s a lot to be said for the idea that the proper propaganda will help this pursuit. Note I don’t use propaganda in a negative way, as everyone propagandizes, some for good causes and some for bad. It used to be a common trope of the wholesome-chungus rural life and the hedonistic city, the small-town guy who dreamed big and found everything he needed in his hometown, etc. There are ways to reconfigure the young and ambitious in a way where a good number decide to be the big fish in a small pond, and some make their mark in the world. This sort of balance isn’t going to be found in hard-line policies, but the general culture everyone swims in. This means control of media.

Writing this, I’m sort of a hypocrite, as I grew up in a stable small town, a small town that I never felt I belonged in. I decided to move to a metropolis for the opportunities, while also remember and sometimes pining for the simple village life that was my childhood. There’s also an irony, as my children have a far better grasp of their history and heritage than most children now growing up in my small town.

For maybe five years of my life, I had a group where something like this could happen. Now with family and moving, that’s no longer the case. Perhaps I need to plant the seeds to make it happen again.