Surprisingly for a man as grumpy as the economist, writer and YouTuber Aaron Clarey, his latest work, The Book Of Numbers, climaxes in a relatively upbeat manner.
Yes, before we get there we have to wade through a bunch of elan-crushing statistics that conclusively prove that ‘the real ROI of the pursuit of women in 0% and the price is ‘your entire life’.
But then Cappy makes a HUGE point which – rather like the final scene of The Usual Suspects – changes everything: that taking ACTION makes all the difference.
Action, he demonstrates, is the single factor that has the potential to raise you up from a worthless schlub eating his own (considerable) bodyweight in potato chips to a man of quality who has a somewhat enhanced chance of meeting a decent woman with whom he might be relatively happy.
(I think I threw enough qualifiers into that last sentence).
And in the final section he passionately advocates for men to ‘pursue excellence’ in their lives. Excellence, we are told, can be divided into seven sub-categories: physique, profession, adventure, camaraderie, passion, intellectual pursuit and morality. Work hard to triumph in each of these areas and you will not only have made use of your precious time on the planet, but also, ironically, it will make it more likely that women previously out of your league will be attracted to you.
Debauchery or Excellence?
The question is this – you landed up on this planet without your consent, and unless you take an elegant exit with your own hand then you’re pretty much stuck here, so what the hell do you do with your time?
For most people the answer to this is get married and start a family. But if you agree with the Captain that the ROI of such an enterprise is simply too low (or non-existent), what then? Well, as he says: ‘While there are a limitless number of things you can do in life (boating, fishing, motorcycles, hunting, etc.) all these non-wife/family things fall into two general camps: debauchery and excellence’
More. ‘Debauchery is pretty much what every young man has settled for today. Most men have given up on life, become slovenly, don’t work out, and waste their lives living in an alternate reality online’.
Well what’s so bad about that? Simply, Cappy argues, that ‘if you prefer not to waste your life’ then excellence is the preferable option.
But what of poor, neglected debauchery – why does it get such short shrift from Cappy, and in the men’s online space in general?
A lot of the time it’s because content creators push the idea that your ‘legacy’ is important (and actually this is why trad cons are so keen to lecture everyone to have a traditional family life. Cappy declines to use this argument by the way). But of course in reality ‘legacy’ is a chimera. Once you’re dead, you’re dead, and whether you’ve spawned a tribe of proud upstanding patriarchs, or you’ve outdone Shakespeare in the scrivener’s trade, you’re not gonna know anything about it (much less be able to boast about it on Twitter).
As Woody Allen wrote: ‘I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment’.
Because here’s the nub of it – our consciousness, that is to say our capacity for physical, spiritual and sensual enjoyment (and every other kind) only persists until the moment we cark it. And then it’s game over.
Which is why out-and-out debauchery is such an attractive proposition. As Lord Byron argued: ‘The great object of life is Sensation – to feel that we exist – even though in pain – it is this ‘craving void’ which drives us to battle – to travel – to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principle attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment’.
In other words – fuck all that self-development stuff, let’s party.
I suppose that in order to do a proper analysis of this we would need to delve into the stats once again. For example what brings a man more net enjoyment? Beating his personal best for deadlifts, writing the great American novel, or imbibing mescaline at the Cancun pool party and winding up in flagrante delicto with some co-ed cutie? And how would these differing sorts of experience be adequately measured and compared?
As someone who has dedicated most of his life to debauchery and degeneracy, I can honestly report that it’s a lot of fun and shouldn’t be written off as mere adolescent foolery. After all, If someone told you today – right now – that you only had a month left to live, what would you do? Sit down to create a new cryptocurrency in your name, or book the next flight to Rio?
That said, I do of course have sympathy with the ‘chase excellence’ stance, not only because to be honest you need to be making some bank to enjoy debauchery properly (see the Tates), and also because for many of us there is hedonic pleasure to be derived from many of the things that Clarey lists (fitness training, writing, business etc.)
But listen – if time is short and you fancy going out in a cloud of opium and glory then be my guest. After all, what have you got to lose?
Before that you may as well buy Aaron’s The Book of Numbers – it’s a jolly wheeze!
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