Author, G. Michael Hopf, famously said the following in his 2016 post-apocalyptic novel, Those Who Remain:
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Some might interpret this as a rather cynical take on human society. But I think it’s more of a cyclical view, since the ends of the statement loop together on repeat to form a continuum. It may be a gross oversimplification, but it does hold up pretty well against historical scrutiny.
My question is this: Among the four stages identified by Hopf, which stage might we be in right now, here in ‘Merica in early 2024?
Good Times, Bad Times
Recently, I stopped by my local Lowe’s to pick up some wiring. I was hoping to relocate an electrical outlet in my kitchen, and I figured about ten feet of 12/2 Romex would do the job – you know, the basic yellow stuff with three wires inside, hot, neutral and ground. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that all the wiring at Lowe’s is now caged, kept under lock and key.
Sign of the times?
If yes, what does that say about our current times? Is all that wiring locked up because the price of copper is on the rise? Is it because Lowe’s is having a problem with theft? Is this a new policy from Lowe’s’ corporate HQ, or is it just my local store manager’s whim? Is this the first of many “product cages” to come?
Any way you slice it, it’s a tangible sign (one of many signs, I’d say) that we may currently be living in Hopf’s fourth stage – hard times created by weak men.
Now, I’m not saying that times are all that hard right now. If they were, there wouldn’t even be a Lowe’s because no one would have enough money to buy anything there. But I am saying that it’s a little weird to see a caged-up store shelf. Also, I’m guessing there’s probably a growing percentage of the population that’s not in a position to fork over forty-five bucks for a 12-ft coil of Romex. Ouch.
I guess you’re supposed to find a Lowe’s employee to come unlock the big cage if you’re interested in buying something. But I’ve never had that much luck finding a helpful Lowe’s employee in under twenty minutes and/or a mile of walking around. Instead of that nonsense, I simply did the following: I located the wiring I wanted, reached in through the cage grid and knocked the spool off the shelf. Once it fell to the floor, I scooched it over to a gap in the cage doors, plucked it out, and tossed it into my cart. Some system they’ve got over there at Lowe’s.
I’m not bragging about winning a cage match here. I’m just describing my instinctual response.
I’ll admit that a more decisive victory would have been achieved had I walked away without purchasing anything. I rather like the idea of sales dropping to zero for caged-up products.
Weaker by the Day
If you happen to agree with me that American society is wounded and receiving shoddy, ill-advised treatment, you might ask (as I do): What’s the root cause of it? Who are the aforementioned weak men? And what characterizes their weakness?
My best guess is that this so-called weakness is really a weakness of character when faced with certain ideas that are presented by strong men with strong ideas. This weakness of character can sometimes arise from basking in comfort and luxury, as Hopf suggests, for sure – however, more often than not, I suspect it instead comes from some sort of misdirected striving.
For example, let’s say you are a strong-minded, evil elitist who wishes to control a country of a few hundred million people by harvesting human energy and material wealth. To do this you’ll need to gather a trusted posse, people you can deputize to help you execute your nefarious plans and enforce your schemes once implemented. Truly strong-minded people – who may also happen to be wealthy and influential – will not be keen to join your goon quad and do your bidding because, by definition, they are individualists who will view your desire to impose your will upon others as a threat to their own, personal sovereignty. So, simply dipping into the well of the rich and famous luxury livers to find your malleable appointees won’t do the trick because their good times may not have made them weak. What you’re after is a squad of minions with niggling holes in their souls that they’re looking to fill. Such people can be easily be manipulated or incentivized to do your bidding. In short, you’ll want to gather around you a bunch of Anthony Faucis rather than a bunch of John Galts.
Good news, though: We can take great comfort in knowing that any such appointed helpers, by their very nature, are not ambassadors of strength, but rather the opposite. The very same weakness of character that got them their jobs makes them likely to be pushovers. They would easily cave if confronted with a strong-minded, strong-willed public that refuses to comply. But, of course, as a first step, the individuals making up “the public” have to recognize this and then step up their game.
Phil’s Two Cents
One good thing about being in Hopf’s fourth stage – the weak men create hard times stage – is that it naturally and inevitably leads to the next one, where strong men emerge to do away with hard times. And – oh joy! – we can all be among the strong, riding that wave.
Being that wave, is more like it.
How do we do this?
I have to admit that I’m not entirely sure. But I think I can at least identify some of the puzzle pieces and a few possible actionables.
For one thing, I suspect that finding strength is a personal endeavor, not a collective one. As such, perhaps joining a political party or a church or a street gang isn’t actually going to help the cause. It may be that we can’t fight collectivism with more collectivism. A family unit probably represents the maximum allowable headcount if we’re hoping to secure and express individual freedoms. Anything beyond that could be a slippery slope. So, we might do well to view with some suspicion any external-to-family pretenses of purpose or authority.
Another thing we can probably do (assuming we can commit to a little strength training) is speak our minds when confronted with ideologies that disturb our inner compass. Let’s not be quiet about such things, even if raises some eyebrows – or worse, gets us excommunicated from the herd. Unfortunately, silence can easily be mistaken for an endorsement these days, and echo-chamber amplification of strange narratives is rampant – and the last thing we want to do is let oddball ideologies have free reign without any pushback or counterbalance. There’s no need to be combative when we voice our oppositions – we just need to be conversationally clear.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to live our lives with intact, healthy souls rather than suffer the self-inflicted puncture wounds that result from silence and acquiescence? I mean, we don’t want to run around with Swiss cheese souls do we? That’s no fun. And who knows? It could potentially lead us into getting recruited and deputized by one of those lunatic elitists. Thanks, but no thanks.
– “Phil”
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