Truth to Power

Denying the utility of Power, vilifying it’s usages, is in itself a a means of using Power.

Real change works from the inside out. If you don’t change your mind about yourself you wont change anything else. Women can change their hair color, their makeup, clothes, breast size, and any number of cosmetic alteration on a whim or as they can afford them, but the constant discontent, the constant inadequecies they complain of are rooted in their self-perceptions, not how others perceive them.

This is an outside-in mentality; hoping the external will change the internal, and it’s just this mentality that lesser men apply to themselves – the only difference being the application. The AFC (for lack of a better term) has the same problem as the vain woman (OK, really any woman) – a lack of true self-understanding of their own problem. It’s very difficult to do self-analysis and self-criticism, particularly when it comes to questioning our own beliefs and the reasons our personalities are what they are. It’s akin to telling someone they’re not living their lives ‘correctly’ or that they’re raising their children ‘wrong’; only it’s more difficult because we’re doing the telling about ourselves to ourselves. Self-estimation (not self-esteem) NEVER happens spontaneously, there always has to be some crisis to prompt it. Anxiety, trauma and crisis are necessary catalysts to stimulate self-consciousness. A breakup, a death, a betrayal; tragically, it’s at these points in our lives that we do our best introspection, we have our ‘moments of clarity’ and yes, discover what abysmal, simpering chumps we’ve allowed ourselves to be molded into.

Denial

The first step to really unplugging from our preconditioning (i.e the feminine Matrix) is recognizing that this conditioning has led to the beliefs we think are integral to our personalities. The psychological term for this is called ‘ego-investment’. When a person internalizes a mental schema so thoroughly, and has become conditioned to it for so long, it becomes an integral part of their personality. So to attack the belief is to, literally, attack the person. This is why we see such a violent reaction to people’s political, religious, inter-social/inter-sexual, inter-gender, etc. expressions of belief – they perceive it as a personal attack, even when presented with irrefutable, empirical evidence that challenges the veracity of those beliefs.

One common frustration that Game-aware Men express is how dificult it is to open an AFCs eyes as to why he’s not hooking up, why he’s not getting dates (or 2nd dates if he is), why he’s constantly getting LJBF rejections, etc., and all the flaws in what is really ego-investment internalizations. As I’m fond of saying, it’s dirty work unplugging chumps from the Matrix, and this is made all the more difficult when a person is in a catagorical state of denial.

People resort to denial when recognizing that the truth would destroy something they hold dear. In the case of a cheating partner, denial lets you avoid acknowledging evidence of your own humiliation. Short of catching a spouse in bed with your best friend, evidence of infidelity is usually ambiguous. It’s motivated skepticism. You’re more skeptical of things you don’t want to believe and demand a higher level of proof. Denial is unconscious, or it wouldn’t work: if you know you’re closing your eyes to the truth, some part of you knows what the truth is and denial can’t perform its protective function.

One thing we all struggle to protect is a positive self-image. The more important the aspect of your self-image that’s challenged by the truth, the more likely you are to go into denial. If you have a strong sense of self-worth and competence, your self-image can take hits but remain largely intact; if you’re beset by self-doubt (a hallmark of self-righteous AFC thinking), however, any acknowledgment of failure can be devastating and any admission of error painful to the point of being unthinkable. Self-justification and denial arise from the dissonance between believing you’re competent, and making a mistake, which clashes with that image. Solution: deny the mistake. Attribute it to an outside element (women won’t play by “the rules”) rather than resort to introspection (maybe I’m wrong about “the rules”?).

Therefore we see AFCs tenaciously cling to a moralistic sense of purpose in their methods which is only reinforced by popular culture in our media, our music, eHarmony, our religion, etc.

 Articles of Power

The term Power has a lot of  misapplied connotations to it. When we think of Powerful people, we think of influence, wealth, prestige, status and the ability to have others do our bidding – all of these are not Power. And as much as we’d like to convince ourselves that women are attracted to this Power, this is false. Because what I’ve described as aspects of Power here are really manifestations of Power. Here’s a cosmic secret revealed for you:

Real Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances. Real Power is the degree to which we control the directions of our lives.

When we allow our thinking, our personality disorders and our mental schemas, combined with their accompanying behaviors, to determine the course of our decisions, we relenquish real Power. The man who succumbs, by force or by will, to the responsibilities, liabilities and accountabilities that are required of him by society, marriage, committment, family, fatherhood, career choice, etc. leaves him very little influence over the course of his own life.

The painter Paul Gaugin is one of history’s most powerful men. At middle age Paul was a “successful” banker, with a wife and children and by all appearances, a man of great merit and considerable wealth. Then one day Paul decided he’d had enough and wanted to paint. He left his wife, children and his money, and decided he would become a painter. He cast off his former life to live the life he chose, he had the power to assume control of it. Eventually he died in Tahiti, but not after having one of the most interesting of lives and becoming a world renowned painter. You may think, what a horrible man he was to abandon his responsibilities to selfishly pursue his own desires, but the fact remains that he had the Power within himself to do so that most men would shudder to even consider. So entrapped are we in our self-expectation and self-imposed limitations that we fail to see that we have always had the keys to our own prisons – we’re just scared shitless to use them.

This Power is the root of that all important ‘confidence’ we toss out every time we tell a 19 y.o. chump what women really want so he can get laid. It’s this ability to make our own decisions, right or wrong, and to confidently own them that separate us from “other guys.” It’s this self-guided Power that evokes a seemingly irrational confidence to Spin Plates, to assert ourselves and to be unafraid to make ourselves the PRIZE, and it’s just this Power that women want to be associated with.

Lack of this Power is exactly what makes master PUAs revert to some of the most pathetic AFCs once they become involved in an LTR. They sell women on this idealization and the perception that they possess this Power only to discover the AFC insecurities these behaviors were meant to cover up once they’ve bought the act. This isn’t to devalue PUA skills as effective behavior sets, rather it’s meant to illustrate the behaviors that should be manifest as a result of effecting a real personal change. It should be that adopting a positive-masculine mental schema prompts these PUA skills as a result. Instead we have the cart before the horse in a mad rush to get that all important pussy we’ve been deprived of for so long, by masking our deficit in real Power and understanding with rote memorized PUA techniques hoping that by practicing them they’ll turn into “natural game” and we’ll mature enough to initiate a lasting personal change.

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Published by Rollo Tomassi

Author of The Rational Male and The Rational Male, Preventive Medicine

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12 years ago

[…] bingo […]

(r)Evoluzione
(r)Evoluzione
12 years ago

Tour de Force here.

Powerful words, something to consider deeply and act upon relentlessly.

hustle harder
hustle harder
12 years ago

Excellent post. Fake it til you make isn’t really a valid concept. Self-improvement is the way to go.

Mike C
Mike C
12 years ago
Reply to  hustle harder

Agree on some level, but whenever people say this I think to the example of babies learning to crawl, then waddle, then walk, then run, then sprint, etc. You couldn’t just grab a baby and say “self-improve” yourself to being able to sprint tomorrow. I’m not sure the pure AFC chump could even process this sort of thing above as absolutely phenonemal as it is. I think you HAVE TO start with some basic “behavior set” type stuff, see the outcome, and then you can move on to reflecting and processing on some of the deeper stuff like adopting totally… Read more »

YOHAMI
12 years ago

“Real Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances.”

“This Power is the root of that all important ‘confidence’”

“It’s this ability to make our own decisions, right or wrong, and to confidently own them”

“to assert ourselves”

“and to be unafraid”

———-

Good stuff.

The Shocker
The Shocker
12 years ago

Came here from Roissy’s site a few days ago.

I’m here for good.

Traveller
Traveller
12 years ago

“When we think of Powerful people, we think of influence, wealth, prestige, status and the ability to have others do our bidding – all of these are not Power.”

“Real Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances.”

Actually I do not see so much difference. I think if there is a difference it is quite abstract.

YOHAMI
12 years ago
Reply to  Traveller

“influence, wealth, prestige, status” can be the inherited, can be the result of hard work, can be the result of false advertising, etc. Think of the corporate world, anything institutional, candy producer-made pop stars, rich families, etc. Having power and influence on others doesnt mean you´re doing things your way nor that you own your circumstances. A lot of the people in these positions are just slaved to someone or something else, money, owners, fans, system, ego structures, etc. No internal freedom, no “power” to own your circumstances. Without owning your circumstances, it really doesnt matter how much power /… Read more »

Traveller
Traveller
12 years ago
Reply to  YOHAMI

I stay my point. They are sophisms. First, power is not a light bulb, or on or off. There is not contradiction on having power on someone and no power on someone else. Second, power has not moral connotation. Women, just to stay in topic, look if you have money, not how you earned it (and if you stole them, they are excited much more). So please spare us about the rich being a slave of money and the famous being a slave of fans. That’s the fox and grapes fable, a bit old. No one said power comes without… Read more »

YOHAMI
12 years ago
Reply to  Traveller

Traveller, so whats your point? the point here was discerning between social power and personal power. But this: “First, power is not a light bulb, or on or off.” True and irrelevant. “There is not contradiction on having power on someone and no power on someone else.” True and irrelevant. “power has not moral connotation.” True and irrelevant. “Women, just to stay in topic, look if you have money, not how you earned it (and if you stole them, they are excited much more).” True and irrelevant. “No one said power comes without effort ot without choices.” True and irrelevant.… Read more »

Traveller
Traveller
12 years ago
Reply to  YOHAMI

My point is your first reply to my message has no point.

“Having power and influence on others doesnt mean you´re doing things your way nor that you own your circumstances”

Some things yes, some others not. “power and influence on others” ARE circumstances, so this fits perfectly in Rollo’s definition of power.

His post often have not to be taken literally.

Traveller
Traveller
12 years ago
Reply to  YOHAMI

“His post” is “His posts”

The Alchemist
The Alchemist
12 years ago

Great write up on power and personal change. I’d be interested in hearing a more practical discussion on this. That is, exactly how does one go from a position or pyschological frame of no power, to one of confidence and power? As the poster above mentioned, it’s very easy just to tell someone to be more aggressive or confident etc.. but, it’s a whole other thing to get them to do it. What are the mechanics of the change? Is there a blue print for initiating these types of personality changes? Stepwise, where would one begin? And what type of… Read more »

bmwk1200s
bmwk1200s
12 years ago
Reply to  The Alchemist

Meta evaluation: consciousness evaluating the efficacy of its own operations; an integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect; power derived from the feeling of an unlimited ceiling and pride as a response to the achievement of self-esteem, since self-esteem is value to be earned and kept. John Galt and Howard Roark fit the image. In large part Rand was successful because she used literature as the mechanism to sway the heart first and the mind later. Nathaniel Branden has been at the forefront that you’ve got the understanding of self-esteem all wrong…it’s actually a fucking heroic achievement on a magnitude that… Read more »

Muse
Muse
12 years ago

there is a book worth reading called, Power, Freedom and Grace by Deepak Chopra.

Jim
Jim
12 years ago

In “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill there is some suggestions. For example, Have a burning desire to achieve One Major Definite Purpose (Know specifically what you want to do in your life, What do you want most in your life, describe exactly what you want : what specifically is your most important goal), what is your plan, what is everything you have to do to achieve this goal, start immediately to do these actions and do actions every day towards your goal, find partners to work with towards this goal, get specialized knowledge, keep doing actions until you… Read more »

Teras
Teras
12 years ago

Post reminded me of this quote of Dostovesky I always come back to:

“One’s own free, untrammeled desires, one’s own whim… All of this is precisely that which fits no classification, and which is constantly knocking all systems and theories to hell. And where did our sages get the idea that a man must have normal, virtuous desires? What man needs is only his own independent wishing, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.”

dragnet
dragnet
12 years ago

This is a really deep post. Mastering Game isn’t really the endgame—or at least it shouldn’t be. Unplugging yourself from culturally ingrained gynocentrism is crucial to really freeing your mind and walking the path to true personal power. Hopefully this message will seep more into the manosphere bloodstream. I’ve made a related point in the manosphere before at Roissy’s: “If you run Game for 20 years, bang hundreds of 9s & 10s the whole way through, establishing a harem of goddesses along the way—but don’t thoroughly cleanse yourself of the feminist social engineering that has crippled your mind since you… Read more »

Tay
Tay
12 years ago

Sir, you are an asset to the internet. Bravo.

walawala
walawala
12 years ago

Great post…””Anxiety, trauma and crisis are necessary catalysts to stimulate self-consciousness. A breakup, a death, a betrayal; tragically, it’s at these points in our lives that we do our best introspection, we have our ‘moments of clarity’ and yes, discover what abysmal, simpering chumps we’ve allowed ourselves to be molded into.”” Just broke up with the gf. She was driving me crazy…endless shit tests, jealousy, controlling,manipulative. Game was slipping…for all the agree and amplify..she was out-doing me… So finally, I just unplugged. There was a catalyst. She embarrassed me in front of some guests by making a scene and threatening… Read more »

Brian
Brian
12 years ago

Chris Rock said something like, “Men think what do I have to DO to get what I want? Women think who do I have to GET to get what I want?” Therefore, in general men have an “Internal Locus of Control” and women/AFCs have an “External Locus of Control.” Men have Power from within. Women try to get Power from others. Such as, an AFC asking a woman “So what would you like to do now?” and this makes a woman see him as a weak wuss thus it turns her off, instead of using Power from within to strongly… Read more »

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11 years ago

[…] Truth to Power […]

Sword
Sword
11 years ago

Der wille zur macht

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[…] The truth and the denial – http://rationalmale.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/truth-to-power/ […]

Hathcock
Hathcock
11 years ago

K

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10 years ago

[…] regularly use those laws to illustrate how they apply to intergender relations. That said, I have dedicated posts to the influence power has in personal dynamics, and I certainly recognize, if sometimes indirectly, […]

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[…] These aren’t just examples relating to men’s lack of power in parenting; these are examples of determining the degree of control a man can exercise over the direction of his entire life. From Truth to Power: […]

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[…] at me in this conversation, but It’s important to bear in mind the real nature of power. By my own definition, power is the degree of control we exercise over the direction of our own lives. As I mentioned, I […]

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[…] Rollo, On rereading Truth to Power a very inspirational post, I wanted to hear your thoughts on men with families such as my self […]

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[…] nor a king, nor a pope, nor a lowly baron. The most powerful man that ever might have been, was the Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. All things considered, it seems like a bizarre choice, but he had something that most powerful men […]

Dan
Dan
8 years ago

Alright, Rollo, or any of you other guys that are well versed in this mindset, is there another avenue to take for a guy like me that’s been a classic beta my whole life and has woken up finally after a failed marriage at 45 years of age? These concepts seem to really apply to guys in their 20’s and early 30’s. However, I’m committed to improving myself after realizing how much power I really gave up during my marriage. That being said, I love my children, and will do everything in my power to create positive manly influences on… Read more »

YOHAMI
8 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Get Rollo’s two books

Morpheus
8 years ago
Reply to  YOHAMI

Second what Yohami recommended. When you get back into the dating game, fully internalize that it is OK to just have fun and no woman is owed your commitment or exclusivity.

trackback

[…] nor a king, nor a pope, nor a lowly baron. The most powerful man that ever might have been, was the Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. All things considered, it seems like a bizarre choice, but he had something that most powerful men […]

ollieoxenfree1
7 years ago

Another brilliant essay Rollo. Having had my moment of self evaluation 2 years ago, but not the means to change my circumstance. We’re all dependent on something for our existence. I would argue the man who took on the responsibility of husband, father, slave. Did so willing, under the false assumption his efforts would be appreciated. Our investment in a wife, mother, overlord is so great and the consequences of leaving, so daunting we stay. A bit like the homing pigeon who is set free, but, willingly, returns to a life in a cage. Real freedom is dependent on so… Read more »

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[…] as you desire and ave total control over your life (for an excellent read on the subject, checkout this article).  Tyler a beta’s idealized self, the true alpha that does what he wishes, beds the women he […]

rugby11
rugby11
7 years ago

“Real Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances. Real Power is the degree to which we control the directions of our lives.”
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/822855801400414211

mail mai
mail mai
6 years ago

“You’re more skeptical of things you don’t want to believe and demand a higher level of proof. Denial is unconscious, or it wouldn’t work: if you know you’re closing your eyes to the truth, some part of you knows what the truth is and denial can’t perform its protective function.”

Not so fast.
Some part of you knows what the truth is (they wouldn’t get so angry when hearing it, otherwise).

It’s… to know while not knowing. It’s not a full not-knowing.

mail mai
mail mai
6 years ago

And I want to point your attention to a point, taking as example painter Gauguin’s leaving everything behind is back, including his closest relations. There are honest and not honest ways to do this. You are right to hammer on the substantial amorality of humans (women), but each of us should try to act well, and it can be done while keeping our freedom and independency. Women, sadly, can’t, because a prerequisite for it is to know ourselves. If you know yourself… don’t leave all of a sudden. Don’t seal pacts, don’t make vows… and then disrupt them with a… Read more »

JT McMahon
JT McMahon
6 years ago

Foundational core.
Cuts “the fog of war” as the tempered blade.

To see this clearly is genius.

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[…] Çeviri : Truth to Power […]

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[…] From Truth to Power: […]

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[…] prior posts I’ve defined power […]

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[…] Outlaw King on Netflix recently. There’s a part where the wife of Robert the Bruce says ‘Power is making decisions, and whatever course you are charting, I choose you, my husband’ It struck me that my own wife […]

Rollobosss
3 years ago

Rollo you is a bosss

Ben
Ben
3 years ago
Reply to  Rollobosss

““When we think of Powerful people, we think of influence, wealth, prestige, status and the ability to have others do our bidding – all of these are not Power.” “Real Power is the degree to which a person has control over their own circumstances.” Actually I do not see so much difference. I think if there is a difference it is quite abstract.” Not sure if he got there in the end? 😁 As is provided in the essay such examples of power (the first paragraph) are exactly as Rollo describes: they are the obvious signs of external power much… Read more »

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