Every man should learn how incredibly lucky he is to be alive right now.
If you are reading this, it means that:
someone has taken the time to teach you English, and how to read it. These are two of the most important skills you can learn.
you have survived infancy, and as a man you can reasonably expect to live 68 years - and even longer if you have access to health care and take care of yourself.
you have access to the internet, the most important communication tool ever. No one had internet until 30 years ago. Many people still do not have it.
Throughout most of human history, only 1 in 17 men ever had children before dying. You live in an era when most men are able to marry and have children.
This is the most peaceful time in human history. Men are less likely than ever to be drafted into military service, and less likely to die a violent death on a battlefield.
It isn’t easy being a man. It is hard. Men have responsibilities to their families, to each other, and to humanity as a whole.
But it’s much, much easier being a man today than it has ever been in the past.
If you were born even 10,000 years ago - anywhere on Earth - this is what your life would look like:
You are incredibly lucky. Don’t ever forget that.
Here’s something else you should learn and learn well. You are where you are today because thousands of generations who came before you worked hard to get you here.
Always remember the hunter-gatherers who clutched their babies in the darkness, who had little understanding of the world around them, but fought like hell to survive.
Always remember the early farmers who toiled in fields with primitive tools, experimenting with agriculture so that they could help our species settle down long enough to create societies.
Always remember the scientists who wondered, experimented, and in many cases died at the hands of anti-intellectual leaders - all so they could push human knowledge forward.
Always remember the soldiers who died in wars against tyrants. They fought to preserve the rule of law - and beat back the ever-present threat of rule of man.
Whatever success you may achieve in this life, remember that you owe most of it to these people who came before you.
You have an ancestral obligation to continue pushing humanity forward. To help solve the great problems of our time. And to teach your children to do the same.
That’s what it means to be a man.
Learn it.
Live it.