We’re able to see with our own eyes the planned efforts to make us submit to a global tyranny where our existence depends on the scraps the Davos elite throw at us. No man would accept such imposition because it means submitting to slavery. Those of us who do not wield ruling-class status are left to build our own culture to carve out as much liberty as is prudently possible. Each man must fulfill the higher parts of his nature by creating his own space. This is a grand task. Men who do this are frogs by temperament: they are masculine.

I grew up learning that men are obligated do things and need to do real work for themselves. They do not wait around to be saved. To develop a masculine nature, my father encouraged me at a very young age to know what it meant to do real physical work that also challenged and cultivated my mind. I split shifts changing hand line pipes on ranches and wheel lines, bucked bales, fed acres of cows, and cared for race horses. My own family raised cows, hunted deer, fished, and most of all managed our gardens, producing most of our food for the winter through old-fashioned canning. The work was physically demanding, but took the ability to learn how the world works in nature.

Eventually, I got into working on automobiles. Even if you lived in the city, working on your vehicle what any normal post WW2 boy did on the auto intense west coast. If this sounds boomer to you, rest assured, we rejected the boomer mindset because we were more concerned with our family and the community that arose out of that. As Harry Neumann used to say to me in graduate school, I was a “pious rustic.”

When I was a young boy, what chariot you chose, and how well you maintained it, drew the attention of feminine women because it was a physical representation of your character. Working on your car or truck seemed like never-ending work. The attempt to perfect one’s ride required not just knowledge and skill, but fitness to accomplish. Most autos up to the mid ‘80s were heavy, and working on these beasts required strength.

Almost everything on a modern car is made of plastic or aluminum. The engine used to be made of cast iron, and thick sheet metal for the body. The potential for pain was always present because there was ample opportunity to hurt yourself even if you were careful. In fact, this was unavoidable. Turn a wrench for a long time and you’ll experience bloody hands. All boys who hoped to become men need to learn what it feels like to do such work.

The lessons I learned in these formative years never left me, and so, when I joined academia, something was missing. Something was absent. Academic life encourages soft living. Life in this world seemed like an hallucination, as Marshall McLuhan might exclaim. Sitting behind a desk all day is contrary to our nature. In a recent interview with Victor Davis Hanson, the interviewer said that he always found the best professors were those who did something other than teaching.

One ought not live by computers and books alone. Socrates did not.

Academics seldom, if ever, note that Socrates fulfilled his duty to his city in the military, and certainly none mark the importance of him working with his own hands to build fortifications for a 3-year siege at Potidaea. This is why all modern schooling is inferior: because it lacks the requirement of manly pursuits – learning the basic skills of forging in fire. Socrates had many friends who engaged in manly pursuits, yet his reputation for being manly is overlooked. It was because he had something in common with physical men that he could speak so freely with them, and why they sought out his opinions. They had manliness in common. Socrates’ example should be the stark reminder for all pedantic teachers – physical work with one’s own hands is necessary for the soul as much as contemplation. In fact, each has a reciprocal influence on the other.

As Charles Haywood rightly noted in Man’s World #7 “such work is meaningful because it is useful. Making real things in the real world confers power, knowledge and wisdom.” Not everything is valuable because it is useful, however. Take modern architecture. Most of it was designed because modernists deemed it useful. But its ugly construction defies humanity, and that is the reason most modern architecture is eventually torn down or vandalized. As Roger Scruton noted, the beauty of Michelangelo’s work is soul-transporting in and of itself.

What does any of this have to do with working with own hands? And, what can a man do to secure his own owned space? There are real and valuable endeavors frogs may undertake depending on the situation they are in and where they live. Such effort is more important than waiting for some elite to save them.

Curtis Yarvin recently got it wrong in this regard – elites are created and their skills honed; they are not simply born. In fact, they are likely to come from outside the present elite classes. Whether we’re talking about the founders of Rome or the American Founders, such men were not considered great by the elites of their day. Saving a regime, or improving it, will come from a community of manly men who have experience at doing, are prudent, and have a concern for the Good. Who they might be, and their qualities, will be revealed over time by trial and tribulation. The elites of our day will scoff at them. This will be their downfall, just as it was Byzantium’s end to constantly underestimate Osman (the founder of the Ottoman Empire) as a mere goat herder.

So what can men do to prepare? How can they, in some small way train themselves for the coming decline and fall of the west? Here’s one thing: rescue a classic truck. Trucks are the epitome of manliness. They are also useful.

You will notice I employ the word “rescue” instead of “salvage”. This is because I honor man’s honorable productive past. Much of what man created with his own hands is lost. Fewer and fewer works of literal automotive art are being sent to the graveyard known officially as the “pick and pull”. Yet, think of how you react when you see a classic car like a 1968 Stingray, or 1973 Ford Bronco: you take a second look. You admire the past and feel the power that your fathers could do something that you cannot. You may also admire the beauty of the classically built auto. No modern vehicle is able to summon such thoughts. The modern vehicle is like a copy of a copy. Plato called such things inferior and lacking in form. The phrase “they don’t make them like that anymore” is a lament for something lost.

Modern vehicles are made so cheaply that they are as discardable as a Bic lighter. This was not the case for cars made up to 1986. After that year the cars got lighter, and the aerodynamics pushed the front into a rounded nose design so as to displace airflow more efficiently. None of this was done out of a concern for beauty. As a result, all modern cars are quite ugly and lack character – they are designed for “green” purposes, and “efficiency”. Like in modern architecture, there are made to be “useful”. No-one today has a fond attachment to the modern chariot.

But why would someone want an older vehicle, much less a truck?

Let’s work from the anticipatory to the practical. Modern cars are highly susceptible to EMP attack. Because almost everything is electronically controlled by a computer on modern vehicles, their functioning depends on computerized electric current. While even older cars have an electric element, through the distributor providing spark to the engine charged by a stator, the electrical system is minimal by comparison. Couple that with the fact that all modern cars have electronic fuel injection (EFI), and you increase your risk of possessing a useless unworkable car in such a situation. An EMP will wipe out all your electronics. Your new car will not start, and if running, it will soon come to a halt. Older vehicles were carbureted and so wouldn’t not suffer from this weakness. Old tech beats new tech. Sorry, nerds.

Modern cars are also plugged into the global internet system, and highly susceptible to being tracked and hacked. Not many people fully consider the grave consequence of this. Modern vehicles can literally be shut down (or controlled) through hacking or the flip of a switch, not to mention they can be tracked by GAE. If your car is turned off by an invisible force, there is nothing you can do about it. Enjoy being stranded. If you have a new vehicle, you are enjoying your transportation only because you are allowed to, that is, until you are not. All of our global corporations are making sure we really don’t own anything. You may think you “own” your car, but the ultimate control over it rests on the goodwill of a global class which can technically shut it off at will.

Practically speaking, for anyone considering going more off-grid, homesteading, prepping, or even just trying to live a more self-sufficient life growing healthy foods on a farm, you need an old vehicle that can be repaired if need be. Acreage demands something that has payload, can tow, and otherwise make manual work easier. Manual shift with manual locking hubs (yes, you need a 4×4) is a must in this endeavor. Automatic transmissions are notoriously difficult to repair, but they are also the lazy man’s vehicular option. There is something more interactive to drive a stick, and it is more manly to know how to shift, clutch, and brake. This requires self-reliance, timing, and strength.

I wanted to do something to create my own space and prepare for a worse future. I began searching for a classic truck as a means to this end. Even today, when newer overpriced used cars are crowding the middle class out of ownership, older vehicles are quite affordable because it takes time and effort to rescue them to restoration.

When I purchased my 1980 truck, I immediately began working on it. Many of my neighbors thought I was crazy not just to buy something that old, but to purchase it when it required much effort to restore. The most common comment I heard was, “too much work.” My reply? “When a man stops working and creating, he dies.” One person shuffled off without a reply. Many boomer mindset “men” have lost the very thing that distinguishes them from women – the desire and drive to show off their work and talent. Most men retire to my community only to die months after. The reason? They have given up pursuing the very thing that defines their manhood. With nothing left to live for they die. GAE rejoices in this.

My project took 6 months of work every day for 4-6 hours a day. The knowledge and skills for such a project include electrical troubleshooting, metal fabrication, mechanical repair, welding, chemical application (acid to neutralize rust), searching auto graveyards and knowing where to look, comprehending tech manuals, and finally, body work. In the case of body work, this is when the restorer must have some knowledge of art, because body work is art.

All of this takes time and patience. Attention to detail is required. Rushing such technical work is bush league and will force the discerning man to redo the work done. If you want to do something of lasting value, you have to do it right the first time.

I undertook this project not only to reclaim space. I wanted to learn how to develop a new skill and bank it for the future. Some things I could already do well; others I wanted to add to my arsenal. For example, I had never painted a car before. This is a difficult skill that must be learned and, like all traditional art, is difficult to master. Since I was not going for what restorers call “concourse” level restoration, I wanted to at least begin my learning so that I might achieve that level one day. The lessons I learned through practicing a useful skill will be called upon again in the future.

Let us make sure the last gasp of the ruling class ends in miserable defeat by training ourselves for the hardships of life. One must prepare for necessity. One way to do that is to dig into a grand project and develop skills to solve unexpected problems. Not only will you gain more confidence in yourself, you will be able to receive the honors that come with a talent well applied. Don’t be like all the average Joes. Don’t just buy: build.