In all things, balance must be achieved. The universe itself will make sure that it happens in the end and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
A man is a wild thing, a part of nature. And as a part of nature, a man possesses his own internal ecosystem. A system with both static and moving parts, each working with the other to maintain balance.
Like in any ecosystem, the absence of balance will cause a systemic collapse unless all of the wrongs are made right. This can sometimes lead to over-corrections and extreme shifts in the climate.
Man is a simple creature, but like all simple creatures he is held together by complex and paradoxical means and systems that all require maintenance both that of repair and preventative.
An unrealized man is one who is out of balance and lacking in the feeding of a key piece of his corporal tenement.
If even one of these areas is left unmaintained it can be likened to driving a car with only 3 good tires. A man will constantly be pulled towards the empty space by his own nature like a tongue looking for a missing tooth.
So what are these pillars that must all be standing within a man in order to keep him upright? Love, War, Knowledge, and purpose. Each one gives way for the other three to exist.
A man must feel that he is loved by someone. That his very existence matters. He cannot go to war, seek knowledge, or know purpose if he does not first know love. Something intangible and bigger than himself that makes him a part of something.
A man cannot go to war without the love of something that he is fighting for, the knowledge of how to fight, or a purpose for fighting. This war isn’t literal or external, at least not always. It is a war within the man himself in which he must prove to himself that he is enough, that he is worthy to bear the title of Man.
He must seek out battles with the elements, with himself, and with weakness that he must overcome in order to feed the innate warrior that slumbers deep behind the walls of his heart.
A man will not find knowledge without the love for seeking it, a purpose to do so, or a war to apply it to. It has always fallen to man to explore the unknown and bring order to chaos. The pursuit of knowledge within the unknown slakes the thirst of the adventurer.
A man with no purpose is lacking in a war to fight, something to love, and a reason to know why. Ironically, purpose is only discovered through catharsis and the realization of the need for it through love, war, and knowledge.
Modern man has fallen off balance. The absence of love, war, knowledge, or purpose has created a vacuum and he is unable to do anything but steer blindly away from the skid as he is pulled into the vast empty space by his own gravity.
Men without love are seeking to replace it with porn, shallow connections, and transactional camaraderie, yet his cup can never be filled.
Men without war seek conflict with others over the trivial and unimportant. Jumping from crusade to crusade in hopes of latching onto one long enough for him to satisfy he need to test his mettle.
Men without knowledge are led along like sheep to the slaughter by fools with sharp tongues and serpent eyes as they are promised that if they follow and do not question they will receive their daily rations of bread and circuses.
Men without purpose are lost in a see of emptiness and they desperately try to swim against the current while the undertow’s grasp tightens and pulls them further into the stygian depths of its gaping jaws filled with malice and debauchery.
So what must a man do?
The answer is simple but not easy by any means.
A man must look past the lenses of modernity, through the bright and shiny objects, the “processed cheese product” as it were, to find whats real.
He must seek in all things ways to build the 4 pillars of his house lest his roof should cave in and destroy everything that ever truly mattered.