Red Pill

Something often overlooked is just how critical the early onset of puberty is on a young man's development.

Think of the guy that guy that hits puberty at 12. He's suddenly shot eight inches overnight. He's got a baritone voice, he's growing a dirty sanchez, he's towering over the pipsqueaks beneath him. Adults treat him like an adult instead of a little boy, he's on sports teams, girls are interested in him.

Contrast that with a late bloomer. He's got it rough all through middle and during the early high school years. Guys are constantly tooling him since he's smaller, girls don't pay him attention. He catches up eventually, but by then the psychological scars are set in, internalized, and it takes a hell of a lot to summon the strength to shed those shackles.

I was the latter. Fortunately being tagged as one of the "smart kids" granted me a measure of respect, and in that sense I was conferred "alpha" status in the crew of overachieving immigrant brown & Asian kids that I rolled with. Girls weren't in our radar and we weren't in theirs, and one can only imagine the torment that a skinny brown kid in a John Hughes-esque white suburban school would have been subject to - you carry that baggage with you through life.

A lot of guys don't hit their stride till their mid 20s - the guys that assiduously hit the books instead of screwing around smoking dope... And the guys that picked on you? They're pumping gas. Of course some dudes are just plain social retards, but the guy with the quick wit, clothes and coin could suddenly be swimming in tail. And when girls you once considered out of your league are suddenly showing interest, it's jarring as you must now re-evaluate where you stand.

Certainly this is liable to make one frazzled, even insecure. It's like the fat guy who works out and gets buff - in his mind, he's still fat; the internalized psychological baggage is hard to overcome. Is it you they're really after, or your wallet? Is it you they're interested in, or what you can do for them?

But really, for us guys today, when is it ever really about YOU anyway? It doesn't take long for one to realize that most yuppie city girls in their 20s are absolute superficial status whores - and you're just an accessory to their lifestyle.

Look at the guys at the multiplex with the girls you want to nail and it's almost comical to note how much they all conform to the same aesthetic. Faux hawk? Check. Kanye West aviator Ray-bans? Check. Air Force Ones? Check. Lacoste golf shirt? Check. Tattooed, buff? Check. It's not YOU in and of itself that they find attactive, it's how much YOU conforms to the societal, media-dicatated standard of what's in, what's hot. It's got nothing to do with what's up in your head and in your heart.

And once you swallow that red pill and see the matrix, it's disillusioning. And so it's up to every young male today to confront this quagmire - either fight the game and be miserable, or accept things as they are and play the game.



Clip from my favourite show at 4:40 explains this perfectly... guy sounds so much like me.