Men Wither Without Affection
Your brain is literally drying out.
I remember back in like 2011 listening to a Molyneux podcast where he was pointing out how Tony Robbins’ whole motivational schtick was predicated upon his being 6’6” with great teeth, good looks, and a full head of hair. That life was on Easy Mode for such a person (this is a rough paraphrase) and that you couldn’t extract much in the way of universals from Robbins’ advice (this is a very rough paraphrase, basically my own take). That if you wanted life advice, you needed a more challenging proof of concept than basically a born demigod.
As an aside, it used to kind of irk me that Molyneux always mentioned people’s hair as an attribute, having clearly lost his hair sometime in his 20’s, but now that I’m older, I appreciate just how much a full head of hair contributes to people’s experience of you. Having entered middle age last year, I see so many men my age turn to hair loss solutions and wonder when it will be me that takes a gander in that direction.
What remains true of men, irrespective their looks or their station, a man needs affection.
Men without affection wither away.
There are all these studies on WWII orphans and Eastern European orphanages after the Goy War that show babies who were not held simply passed away.
The same is true of adults, men or women.
You need love.
I find myself in the lonely and underappreciated position of attempting to administer to the needs of decent people without the support of State or religion or credentialism or corporatism.
I chose literally the most difficult path in life that I could possibly perceive.
It could have been easier for me. But my effect as a “spreader of virtue” would have been diminished. I have never been seriously tempted to step off of the path but there have been opportunities, lucrative ones!
The love and affection of the good people in my life help keep me going.
And if I did not learn to love myself in principle and based on an observable virtue in myself originally, I would not be where I am today. I would not know the splendor that I have known.
Trying to do it all alone is folly.
People don’t want to live with the humiliation they feel when they go to some menial meetup or a hopeless date with a diminished prospect.
Not everyone gets to be Tony Robbins.
Tony Robbins gets to be Tony Robbins, 6’6” and 150 IQ, because he won the genetic jackpot.
People like Tony Robbins are exceedingly rare.
And they do us no favors by adopting the bulk of their children instead of MAKING A BABY.
It is better to process the humiliation you feel at being whatever age you are and living through the social hellscape that governments via COVID and now the Iran War have created. Yes, it stings to know that maybe you could have found that special someone when you were in high school or in college when everyone is supposed to go to college. But what if the distance between you and your future spouse is exactly the amount of that sting? Get through the pain, get to the other side.
People are withering.
It is important to take heart in your own potential. You have to find that aspect of yourself that is loveable.
If you have no physical affection in your life, you must understand that this absence is shrinking your brain. Musculature that should be strong and resilient is instead fading into the background. How many months since your last strong embrace? How long since you kissed another person? How long since you’ve held hands? Why let the world separate you from this? Find the love you need. Follow the dream.
Without love, you will wither away.
You need oxytocin pumping through your system.
If you can’t get affection today, consider taking some l. reuteri.
This will get oxytocin pumping in your system. Then you will start to think and feel like a squishy, flesh and blood person again. You won’t be a dried out husk of disillusionment and isolation.
Don’t be tricked by the Sciencebros out there who promise you that testosterone and peptides will be the cure to all your ills. Test supplementation can make you more autistic and strange and inaccessible to women. Peptides will never ease the agony of all those days lost not spent in full earnest pursuit of connection and affection.
You want to be someone’s Valentine.
Affection gives us a biochemical cascade that plugs us into reality.
Look at the hellscape of 2026. Who is doing anything artistically worthwhile or compelling at a humanistic level? Only the people who have affection and bonding in their personal lives. Everyone else is spinning out, however charismatically and based on the remaining fumes of previous affection and socialization.
Love is the renewing principle at the heart of existence.
Without love, there is no future.
Make your future happen.
Please support this important work I’m doing by DONATING.
Catch my latest video on Women? It managed to tick off a few feminists.
Need another pick-me-up? Read my Walk Toward The Fire essay.
I just gave a strong embrace to the woman in front of me in line at the grocery store. She called the cops, but I feel better!
This is gold