Philip Julius Blog

How Important is Food Production for the Dissident Right?

Philip Julius April 28, 2022

SpectacularOptical has outlined some of the weaknesses of homesteading with regards to our political situation. My previous post unintentionally came across as though I thought homesteading was the only path forward. I do think Covert Parallelism is our only path forward, but homesteading may or may not be a key part of that depending on people’s circumstances. Either way, whether by homestead or not, I do believe it is important for us to have a significant portion of ‘our guys’ growing food.

Our industry-dependent society has placed us in a historically unique position in which less than 1% of the general population are farmers. Historically, this number was closer to 90%. Most dissidents agree that our industrial civilization is growing more unstable; should this prediction come to fruition, we will need to increase the percentage of the population which is involved in the production of food. This is especially pertinent for a movement with traditionalist undertones. Ultimately, whether or not this food is produced under something labelled a ‘homestead’ is less important than the fact that the food is produced in a future-proof manner and that our community has secure access to it.

One of the obvious weaknesses of homesteading is that not everyone is able to afford land: gathering the money and resources to acquire land with property on it could take decades. If all dissidents decided to move to the countryside, we would be more widely dispersed and thus less able to act as a highly organized minority to apply pressure on the system or convert others as is standard in historically successful political revolts. Also, homesteading may not necessarily form the basis of a parallel economy because local trade is not equivalent to insular trade within a rebel community.

Unless you have a family member with a spare property you can use to grow food, the unaffordability of land is a significant hurdle. Thankfully, agricultural land without a house is significantly cheaper than land with a house and can be bought for about £10,000/ acre. Leasing farmland is another more affordable option, averaging about £200/acre/year in the UK (or even less for smaller urban government allotments). One long-term strategy is to pull a Woodlander: buy a piece of woodland-zoned property, discretely build a house on it and utilize the 7-year rule to break free from the clutch of the overreaching government. Of course, these land-use options are less available to those living in a major cities.

But is it really worth it? Should we really move out of the cities and invest all this time, energy, money and resources into hobby farming?! I think one’s decision on this matter depends on how bad they think SHTF will be. If you think the doomsayers are exaggerating then perhaps it’s better to stay in the city. If you think the food shortages, civil unrest and technocratic takeover will be very serious, you may want to make your exit plan. Ultimately, moving to the countryside is a defensive move.

To be clear, renting out a few acres and growing a noteworthy amount of food on it as a side-hustle would take a significant amount of effort. If you are successful in your efforts producing food, you could pressure-can or freeze-dry to preserve your surplus many years into the future. The skill acquisition could prove priceless. Despite these benefits, I would say the cost-benefit analysis would only make sense for someone who 1.) takes the prospects of food shortages very seriously, 2.) wants to make a full-time business out of it or 3.) has significant extra money to spare. I happen to fall into the first two categories, which explains my bias (still working on the third).

There are other means of producing value in a parallel economy besides farming which should not be discounted. However, farming is unique relative to these other sectors in the sense that once a permaculture-style farm is setup, the land becomes somewhat of an autonomous generator of physical wealth with relatively few low-cost inputs, all while maintaining relative independence from the industrial sector and international trade. You can’t say this about other trades. A carpenter converts wood into something of higher value and a tailor converts wool into clothing; but a regenerative farmer essentially generates the physical product itself (could even be wood or wool) from what naturally occurs on the land, forming the primary root of a supply chain. Trades such as carpentry, tailoring, electrical, plumbing and many others – though critical – are vulnerable in the event of downturn due to their dependence on an upstream supply chain. A content creator or software developer creates information but not physical products, leaving them similarly vulnerable in the event of social collapse. The bottom line is there is a reason why the current elites are buying all the farmland: control over land is control over people.

Retreat to the countryside is not the be-all-and-end-all of victory; it is primarily a defensive posture. Sometimes to win a war you have to retreat in a battle. We need to form civilizational refuges and safe-havens for our people, ideally in strategic locations which take advantage of geography. The mindset of this defensive rural posture is to slowly accumulate generational wealth, numbers (through breeding) and positional advantage to the extent we can. Then, we can make other moves – perhaps an opening will present itself. It’s a marathon run, not a sprint, and this war may ultimately be fought over generations.

The critique of there being lower concentration of dissidents in the countryside making them less capable of applying systemic pressure is countryside is valid. As Academic Agent has pointed out, all significant political revolts come top-down from a highly organized minority counter-elite, not bottom-up through the actions of majority populist uprisings.

But if a vanguard were to successfully overthrow the current elite, what would happen next? Likely, an outright shunning by the international community and aggressive sanctions. This would not would work out too well for a country like England which imports about half of its food. A counter-elite takeover is a risky and offensive strategy in contrast to the relative defensive posture of farmsteading, and should be recognized as such. Perhaps it would be best executed only once we had a certain level of autonomous control over key economic sectors. I’ll also mention that the direct applicability of other successful political movements in history may be less than usual considering our relatively unique situation.

The concept of being a ‘highly-organized minority’ is undoubtedly key for the movement’s success, including with regards to parallelism. A rural lifestyle will likely lead one to becoming more intertwined within their local community, but does not necessitate a deeper interplay within one’s political community. But we shouldn’t purity spiral too much: making money off of normies in the local area is still preferable to being system-dependent. Also, an insular parallel economy is still possible if we are willing to trade at a distance across county/ state borders. Regardless, ruralism should be accompanied with the raising of plenty of children who share our value system which will increase the number of ‘our guys’ in the local area.

Homesteading is certainly not for everyone. Nonetheless, it appears likely that our society will need to increase the proportion of people growing food. It is telling that the ruling class is pushing for the exact opposite: they are paying farmers to quit. They want less people growing food in their effort to gain power. Having a significant portion of ‘our guys’ involved in food production is a good defensive position but whether or not this is the best use of resources in the context of people’s unique circumstances is certainly up for debate. The concept of having safe havens scattered across our nations out of the watchful technocratic Eye of Sauron is an appealing one but does not necessitate a win condition. Other forms of economic activity should not be discounted but their relative weaknesses should be acknowledged. My next post will delve deeper into the types of economic activity one might consider to successfully integrate themselves within a dissident parallel economy.

Covert Parallelism: Our First Tactical Step Forward

Philip Julius April 24, 2022

Most of those reading this know by now that the hyper-wealthy parasitic class want to subjugate us into a perpetual slave state, destroy Western nations and homogenize the world into an amoral, soulless corporate technocracy where every aspect of our lives and resource consumption is meticulously tracked. Well, what are we going to do about it?

Academic Agent has outlined 4 possible strategies for dealing with our situation: 1.) Retake the Institutions, 2.) Vote them Out, 3.) Parallelism, and 4.) Clear Them Out. He concludes that ‘Clear them Out’ is the only viable strategy long-term and points out that the strategy does require a degree of parallelism. I agree with his assessment that the options ‘vote them out’ and ‘retake the institutions’ are not feasible. Due to the tendency of revolutionary movements to be subverted by external groups, clearing them out may not necessitate an ultimate win condition, but it would nonetheless push things extremely in our favour. Regardless, the main focus of this article is parallelism. I believe the utmost importance and priority of parallelism cannot be underestimated.

Forgive me for the upcoming video game analogy. When playing a real-time strategy game such as Starcraft, the first step in defeating the opponent is not to immediately obliterate them in a sea of flames. The first step is to is to build up an economy. The economy can then be used to raise an army which can defeat the enemy. Of course, in this example, the overarching strategic goal was not economic – the economy was simply a means to an end. Perhaps parallelism can be thought of in the same way: not the overall strategic goal, but an essential tactic in reaching the strategic goal.

We can’t clear anyone out without a stable food supply. We can’t form successfully form vanguard if we’re freezing in the winter without heating. Power requires control of resources, and parallelism allows us to have a certain degree of control over said resources.

AA points out the semantic difference between a parallel economy and an underground economy. A parallel economy is more insular – akin to the Amish, while an underground economy is more system dependent – akin to selling alcohol during prohibition. Regardless of which definition is more aptly suited, moving our economic activity towards a sort of Covert Parallelism is the first priority against a regime which has proven itself willing to cut off employment and grocery store access based on one’s injection status. Eventually, covertness must be dropped should we wish to be recognized as a legitimate state, but that time only comes once enough power has been acquired to safely do so. Until then, we don’t want to be to brazen and we should always be using the internet wisely with good operations security practices (or better yet, meet in person without cellphones as there is no true privacy on the internet anymore).

Critiques of parallelism include that it is not realistic, not scalable and that the state will not allow any exception within its borders.

With regards to being realistic, it is argued that not enough people will be willing to take the homestead pill to make a significant difference. Well, these unwilling people better have some serious contingency plans and/ or connections with food suppliers in case of SHTF or serious technocratic crackdown. It’s not like we have a much choice in the matter: either we grow our own food or we are subject to the rules, regulations and restraints of those who control the food supply. We need to be willing to rise above our petty feelings about what is and isn’t for us and do whatever is necessary to survive into the future. Additionally, just because homesteading isn’t your main thing, doesn’t mean you can’t grow some food on the side (as was done by homes during the War efforts) and doesn’t mean you can’t execute covert parallelism using other skill sets and then trade or barter for your other essentials.

With regards to scalability, it is certainly true that we won’t be able to get the industrial-level scalability that we see in the commercialized economy, particularly if we want to remain covert. Nonetheless, that shouldn’t discourage us from doing what we can, even if it’s just as our initial tactical step forward rather than our overarching strategy. Italy’s black economy accounts for about 1/3rd of its GDP proving that it is possible to generate a significant economic force through covert parallelism.

This leads onto the next point on state crackdowns. Thankfully, citizens outnumber the so-called elite by several orders of magnitude and therefore the state isn’t able to have absolute supervision over what happens within its borders. The Italian mafia still survives in Italy to this day and the illegal drug industry survives all nations despite state disapproval. Of course, our cause is more moral than this sort of criminal activity, but the point is that the state can only crackdown on what has it has awareness of and means to implicate. The importance of covertness, meeting in person, good internet practices and operations security cannot be overstated.

How to most strategically utilize our resource-base once we have the semblance of a covert parallel economy established is a bridge we can cross once we get there. Charlamagne has some insights to offer in this regard:

“Our primary actions should not be political, but social. Politics in the form of running for office and implementing change is an outdated 20^th century concept. Our politics will not take the form of elections, but of favours, commerce and marriage. These connections are the real meat and bones of an organic restructuring of society – not politics. Politics can only be done in a body of people who can form a viable political organism”.

He goes on to say that we don’t even have a real-life body or organic community and instead only have the prototype of a community in digital form. This is putting the cart before the horse. We can’t be political actors before having a coherent organic structure which could form what Hobbes calls a commonwealth.

In conclusion, covert parallelism is not the be-all-and-end-all of ultimate victory over the NWO. Nonetheless, it is a key tactical step forward which must form a significant pillar of any strategy going forward.

Preparing for Winter 2022 with Limited Space and Resources

Philip Julius March 31, 2022

Northern and European lifestyles have traditionally centered around preparing for winter. However, in our age of industry, decadence and comfort we have lost touch with this tradition of seasonal preparation. As our world grows more unstable politically and economically, we will likely find ourselves rediscovering the harsh reality of our seasonal harvest and cold climate. Dissidents need a preparedness buffer so we are not so sensitive to changes in the market, economy or food supply.

The instability of our modern world keeps snowballing. First, it was looming economic depression alongside racial tensions. These were masked by Covid, which have now become overshadowed by the Russia-Ukraine conflict alongside the global economic tussling which has resulted. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is especially significant because the two countries combined supply approximately a quarter of the world’s wheat and because Russia is a significant global supplier of natural gas and fertilizer. Farmers have already been reporting extortionate prices hikes of seeds and fertilizer and are warning about a low harvest for 2022. It is also worth noting that the Russia-Ukraine crisis alongside Covid provide oligarchs with extremely convenient scapegoats for a faltering economy, weakening currency and living conditions which have been brewing for decades regardless. It also provides a very convenient excuse for them to forward their NWO, green and live-in-the-pod agendas.

It is my belief that we should all be preparing long-term strategies for the decline of our civilization. Ideally, we would all have our homesteads, food supplies or resiliency plans fully prepared by now, but the messy reality of life is that we can never be fully prepared – especially with limited time and resources. We can only do the best with what we’ve got and this article is written with that spirit in mind. Of course, not everyone has extra land to house chickens and not everyone has extra land in the countryside. This article is directed to those of us who are more urbanite and taking their first steps into preparedness and is not an exhaustive list. Thankfully, spring is upon us and it is the perfect time to start thinking longer-term in lieu of a potentially harsh winter up ahead.

1. Install Additional Food Storage Space or Buy an Extra Freezer

Do you have an extra wall, room, closet or attic in your home that isn’t being used to its full capacity? Perhaps you could purchase a shelving cabinet, have some wall-mounted shelves installed, or just purchase some boxes and use that space to store some shelf-stable food or water.

Perhaps you have room for an extra freezer. The disadvantage of freeze storage is extreme vulnerability in the case of power outages which are likely to become more common in the future. A backup generator and fuel storage large enough to keep a freezer going for a significant duration would be very expensive. You can purchase a freezer goods insurance policy for relatively cheap which can cover the loss of food should there be some sort of failure, although that wouldn’t necessarily help in the case of a real emergency. In the event of a power failure, keep the door closed and find some dry ice or bagged ice to keep the internal temperature down

2. Buy Extra Food

What’s the use of extra food storage if you don’t have food to fill it with? Dissidents should be aiming to have at least a 3 to 6 month food supply on hand which would provide a significant advantage in the case of a significant downturn. Building up such a large quantity of food can sound daunting: start with 3-days, work up to 3-weeks and then get to 3-months or more. As a simple mental guide for quantity, in order to gradually build up a 3-month supply of food you would need to buy double what you normally buy over a 3-month period (obviously). Or, you would need 3 meals per person, per day, x90 days.

Make sure to buy foods you actually enjoy eating such that the food doesn’t go to waste should it need to be rotated. Personally, my diet primarily consists of meat, animal fats and vegetables along with a modest amount of carbohydrates; so that is exactly the staples which I should stock up on. Despite plant foods being easier to store, I would advise against a plant-based strategy. Animal foods have amino-acid and nutrient ratios which overlap nicely with our body’s requirements (both are made of flesh) and vegetarian diets are not optimal for the majority of people. Long shelf-life high nutrient animal foods will be worth their weight in gold in the case of a crisis. A simplified way of looking at nutrition is to have sources of meat, animal fat (eg. beef tallow, goose fat, duck fat, butter, eggs, full-fat dairy), and carbohydrates. You’re also going to want some vegetables and palate variety: don’t be afraid to stock up on more luxury items such as chocolate or coffee to maintain sanity.

3. Have a Conversation with Close Friends and Family

Perhaps you live in a tiny space or rented apartment and have no extra room for food storage. In which case, you need to cooperate with nearby friends or family members who do have storage space and work out an arrangement. These days, due to the empty grocery aisles of Covid and constant media hysteria on an array of topics ranging from climate change to war, even normie family members may be more primed than you might think to start thinking about preparedness. The simple fact that Ukraine and Russia supply about 25% of the world’s wheat alongside the fact that Russia is a significant natural gas and fertilizer supplier should be ample evidence to persuade even a stubborn family member that it may be wise for the family to start using some of their extra space as food storage, reluctant as they may be. It’s a good idea to get ahead of the masses on this one

Dare I say, perhaps working together towards a common goal could be a good opportunity to rekindle relationships and instill a sense of camaraderie amongst the family post-Covid?! I’m not asking you to forgive any unrepentant injection-pushers, but it is worth remembering that those who work as a group will perform better than those who work as individuals. Perhaps some family diplomacy is in the cards for some of us. Worst case scenario, if you are completely on your own, you could still use a self-storage company to store some goods for the cost of a few modern bullshit media service subscriptions.

4. Purchase a Freeze Dryer, Food Dehydrator, Canning Kit, Pressure Canner and/ or Vacuum Sealer

Freeze Dryers are the most expensive of these options, but the most effective. A food dehydrator is handy but will not be able to store your food for as long a period. Self-canning in your own jars is a tried and tested method, although you will only be able to store specific foods and recipes which are more acidic. A pressure canner is more expensive than a traditional canning kit, but can be used to store a wider array of non-acidic foods.

Vacuum sealing can be used in conjunction with other food storage methods (besides canning), increasing the storage life further by about 3 times. Another benefit of vacuum sealing is you can decant foods which have been bought in bulk into smaller quantities, or preserve foods which have been opened or prepared. Use an oxygen sealer in conjunction with the vacuum sealer to increase the storage life even longer. Keep in mind the main enemies of long-term food storage: temperature, moisture, oxygen and light.

Of course, none of these devices will be of any use if you don’t put in the time and effort to actually put them to work.

5. Install a Wood Burning Stove

As our world grows more unstable, it is in our best interest to have as many options and contingencies available to us in case of a broader systemic failure. One of the fundamental pillars for survival in the North is a source of heat, and being completely dependent upon a natural gas line for your winter survival is not the best resiliency strategy.

Do you rent? Perhaps you can work out an arrangement with your landlord where you can split the costs. Even though it may be currently more expensive to heat your home with wood or coal, the fact that a wood-burner opens up the option to heat your home and potentially cook food with an additional fuel supply that can be stored on site can make it a valuable investment in the face of greater geopolitical instability

6. Start Networking

Despite the decline, we still have the power of the technological age at our fingertips and we should use it while we still can. If you’re finding it hard to network with like-minded people now, imagine how much harder it will be once the internet gets even more censored, if telegram gets shut down or if there is a crisis. Now is the time to find meetups and begin forging relationships that can become useful to our futures in unexpected ways. Do not delay. In addition to like-minded people, it’s a good time to get to know some local farmers in your area on a more personal level.

7. Grow Some Food

In addition to these steps, we should also start thinking about growing our own food. Should you need more space, you can consider renting an allotment, someone else’s garden/land, or using a family member’s property. Vegetables will be of value but animal foods will be of more critical importance.

If this is your first season, do not expect to grow anything of significant quantity unless you have a decent space and put in a good amount of effort. A dozen potatoes ultimately won’t do you much good for winter 2022. One laying hen certainly would though! Regardless, the knowledge, experience and momentum gained in the process of getting your hands dirty will be priceless.

This is said not to discourage self-reliance but rather to provide a perspective of what is realistic for winter 2022, unless of course you put in consistent and significant effort throughout the season. Longer term, it is essential that we get our hands dirty, save seeds and learn how to grow our own food. In the meantime, until you prove to yourself your actual food-growing capabilities, stay well-stocked on other food sources. Perhaps it would be wiser to treat this growing season as a practice and

8. Additional Considerations

This list was not intended to be exhaustive. There are plenty of other preparations which can be made depending on your circumstances or eagerness. The main things which come my mind in this regard are water (storage, source, and filtration), bartering supplies (eg. lighters, razors, hygienic products, precious metals), warm clothes/ blankets and contingency plans in case of a emergencies, specific crises or setbacks. Do not use my list as the be all and end all and do feel free to get in touch if you think I missed something important.

The Dissident Right’s NPC Support of Putin

Philip Julius February 28, 2022

There are 3 types of people: those who believe everything the media says, those who go against everything the media says and those who think independently about each issue. Many dissidents have taken the side of Putin in the Russia-Ukraine conflict simply because they instinctively go against any mainstream media position and because apparently, ‘the enemy of your enemy is your friend’.

Observe the pretentiousness of the memes:

Touting themselves as independent special-boy thinkers, these dissidents simply take a default position against the mainstream Western media and then mock the normie types who do the exact same process in the opposite direction.The irony is thick and in fact both groups are acting like NPC’s.

There also appears to be a certain childishness and naivety about the seriousness of war and its potential to escalate out of control in an extremely unpredictable manner. One small misstep now from either side of the conflict now and the destiny of Europe can be forever altered, plunged into yet another brother war.

It’s less funny when you’re the neighbouring country who has to deal with the burden of refugees, or when you happen to have fighting age male family members in the region who might get dragged into the conflict should things escalate. Are these people really ready in the case that the natural gas supply gets cut off? Do these people realize that Russia and Ukraine combined supply a quarter of world’s wheat? The ironic humour and childish attitude of the right becomes quite tiresome.

While were at it, can we please stop with the ridiculous claims of Ukraine not being a genuine nation despite having them having their own language and clearly defined recent history distinguishing them from the Russians?

Are You Contributing to the Decline at your Job?

Philip Julius February 17, 2022

A long-term trend in the West has been the general decline of our institutions and diminishing efficiency of our systems. This decline can be encapsulated by countless examples ranging from intermittent supply chains, failed foreign policy, senseless Covid rules, endless expanding bureaucracy to the fact that our education systems don’t actually turn out competent, employable individuals anymore.

Can we even run an election nowadays and have the people trust the result? Gamers, have you noticed that video games don’t actually seem to be getting any better, and sequels are often worse than their predecessors? Perhaps you’ve tried to get a simple medical treatment from your public health service and have been baffled by the ineptitude. Or maybe you’ve recently tried to change something about your utilities service and have noticed how endlessly tedious the process has become. Another example of the decline could be the reproducibility crisis in science.

Western institutions are so corrupt, converged and anti-white that some of the reasons for the general decline are beyond our control. Nonetheless, other things are in our control, and we have a responsibility to play in ensuring that our respective partition runs smoothly. Who else will carry the torch or kindle the flame of our civilization?

1. Intellectual Laziness

Do you need to be spoon-fed information, have things explained multiple times, or have your hand held through each given task at work? These are signs of an immature mind which lacks initiative, presence and focus. If you do need something explained, reduce the burden on others by being focused and be attentive while they explain it to you such that you understand the first time. Perhaps you rely heavily on others and their expertise to successfully complete jobs? Instead of constantly leeching off others, be willing to take responsibility for the particular task you’ve been delegated.

Another bad sign of intellectual laziness is if you never seek knowledge outside of your institution and stay within the comfortable confines of your little box. We can’t count on our institutions to carry us into excellence anymore. Thus, whether one is a doctor or a tradesmen, they need to take responsibility for acquiring knowledge beyond the boundaries of the bare minimum which their qualification requires. The doctors who are both conventionally trained and have seeked out alternative knowledge are truly something to behold, especially when compared against those who simply stayed in the standard lane.

2. ‘Not My Job’ Attitude

Related to intellectual laziness, a ‘not my job’ attitude is characterized by the mindset of always doing just the bare minimum required by your position. While we shouldn’t trample on other employee’s toes, doing those extra little bits outside of your position can go a long way. Even from a selfish point of view it can yield unexpected fruits: you never know what sorts of rewards or interactions may come your way when you meander off the beaten path or go the extra mile.

I believe our civilization is at the stage that even for our hobbies we should feel the obligation to go the extra mile. For example, if you do music on the side, don’t just go about it with a nonchalant attitude. Do it with the degree of seriousness akin to someone who is preserving the artform into the future. An amateur might say in his head: “well, that’s not my job”. Well, times have changed. We can’t necessarily count on our institutions to do that job for us into the future anymore.

3. Staying at an Institution You Hate

It’s nigh impossible to give full effort if you are working for a corporation you despise. So don’t put yourself in that position, and if you are in that position, get an exit strategy out as soon as possible. Sometimes life puts us into circumstances where we have to do something nonoptimal. This point is not about ‘following your passions’ and only doing things you absolutely adore: all jobs – even those we are passionate about – have certain aspects about them which we don’t enjoy. It’s about finding a job that you are able to do with dignity.

Many modern corporations are so despicable that we shouldn’t be buying from them let alone working for them. Some of these companies have a vitriol for European heritage and Christianity, others are simply incompetent or unethical. If you are a willing employee of such a company you are legitimizing the institution and corrupting your soul. However, I do sympathize that we are all trapped in Babylon to a certain extent and sometimes the journey to escape is a long one.

4. White Lies

Do you make mistakes at work without owning up to them? Doing so usually creates more work in the future for someone to clean up the mess you’ve made. Not owning up to mistakes can also get you into the habit of being less prudent as you feel that your errors will go unnoticed. For the sake of the organization, have some honour in this regard. Another example of telling a white lie would be calling in sick when you could have worked. Come on now, you are simply offloading the work onto your fellow employees.

5. Fickleness

It’s becoming endemic in our society for people to say they are going to do something and then not do it. Even outside of work you see this quite frequently: someone says they are going to go to an event but then never show up. Oftentimes, this isn’t done intentionally. Modern people are just flippant with their words and commitments. Traditionally, a man’s word was his bond and we should be returning to this code of conduct.

Fickleness can also take the form of being chronically late or being someone who is impossible to get a hold of. Instead of being tardy and slow to answer phone calls or messages, we should strive to be solid pillars of reliability.

6. Can’t Fit into a Hierarchy

A good organization requires subordinates to respect the leadership. You may have what you believe to be a slightly more efficient way of doing things than was suggested to you by your superior. Sure, you can suggest they do it your way but if you’ve given your case and they still don’t budge, it’s not worth it to be stubborn. Should the leadership at your work be incompetent and irredeemable you have 3 options: work your way up to a leadership position, find a new place to work, or start your own business.

Some men have a ‘secret king’ mentality and can’t seem to relinquish the feeling that they are not in charge. These people want all the power of being a leader without bearing any of the responsibility that comes with it. Others are unable to put their differences aside for the greater good of the team and insist on bringing personal drama into the workplace. All of these cases involve people who are unable to sacrifice their own pettiness for the greater good of the organization.

7. Inability to take Initiative

Oftentimes, a man is needed who can simply get a job done. Many people have an inability to take such initiative. They need their hand-held through the entire process, especially if they encounter a road bump. You should be able to make yourself productive without being micromanaged. You should also have an ‘I can figure this out’ spirit when encountering problems rather than immediately offloading the responsibility to someone else.

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t seek out superiors or expertise when needed. However, before we do, we should ask ourselves whether it’s worth their time or whether we can solve the problem ourselves. Subordinates shouldn’t be making major decisions without the approval of their bosses, but they should be striving to reduce the load on the higher-ups by offsetting the amount of micromanaging they need to do.

8. Singular Focus on Money

The tradesmen who do piss poor jobs are usually the ones who are strictly focused on money. They leave lousy work in their quest to get paid as much as possible for the least amount of time and effort. Throughout Covid, we saw a similar phenomenon in medicine: GP’s were getting paid per dose of mRNA vaccine administered. Many doctors blindly followed protocol and focused on cashing in without putting any effort into discerning the safety, efficacy or necessity of their given task. Though finances are important, we should have higher values than simply ‘getting paid’. This is why it’s especially important to work a job which you are willing to do with dignity, pride and honour.

9. No Attention to Detail

It’s so much better for the collective if people do a job correctly the first time rather than cutting corners, forcing others to come in and fix the problem. Firefighters have a motto: “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast”, sometimes worded as “slow down to speed up”. You may think you are helping by rushing or being sporadically, but that is exactly when we are most prone to make fatal errors. Stay present, stay focused and don’t ever panic: it’s best for everyone in the long run.