“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
— Proverbs 28:1
As a man you must be a conqueror not because you want to be, but because you quite literally have to be, for if you are not, you will be treated improperly and unkindly, and told you deserve it because you are weak. And so unlike with women where fragility is often found endearing and elicits social reward, within man it is found pathetic and thus elicits contempt. The message man repeatedly gets from the world is thus a very clear one: to be a weak man is to be unworthy of respect, which is in itself a death sentence - the signature on the dotted line of your impending dehumanisation.
A man’s respect is neither negotiated nor demanded, but commanded through exceptional self-command and prowess, the natural consequence of both his competence and ruthlessness. Few people truly respect you for your kindness, because most do not see your kindness as strength - not even your mercy - for the ignorant and self-indulgent simplicity of the majority cannot even perceive strength beyond that of raw dominance. They may like kindness, even appreciate it, and if they are of a gentle nature they will certainly not punish it, but that does not mean they will not take liberties with you in their sense of relaxed familiarity with you, for kindness alone does not command respect - so let us be very honest and clear about what kindness is for a man: it is an indulgence from a position of strength - from spiritual abundance, he gives.
If you are not sufficiently feared for your capacity to impose consequences and expose falsity - if you do not elicit within others implicitly some degree of threat and danger - then you cannot be respected, and where there is no respect, love is corrupted. Love in its corrupted form decays into pity, indulgence, condescension, disingenuous maternalism, petulant familiarity, meek gratitude, resentful indebtedness, or some other lesser form that allows one to speak to you as if they are concerned for you whilst treating you irreverently - as if they are doing you a favour - as if you are beneath them.
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