Creating Alpha – Why The Right Will Win the Culture War

By Francis Marion

Our political battle is one between a glut-exploiting r-reproductive strategy of rabbits designed to produce raw numbers and a shortage-surviving K-reproductive strategy of wolves designed to produce quality. The swings between conservatism and liberalism at the societal level are not the result of logical argument or reasoned debate. They are the result of psychological shifts produced by perceptions of K-stimuli in the environment such as conflict, danger, and shortage, or r-stimuli, such as safety, pleasure, and abundance. These perceptions trigger ancient mechanisms in the brain that adapt psychology to environment. All of politics and much of history are r vs K. – Anonymous Conservative

When my son was five years old I bought him his first pair of hockey skates. In the winter, behind our house and across the back alley, there was an outdoor long track speed skating oval. The local speed skating club usually laid the track in late November or early December and maintained it weekly for as long as mother nature would allow. In the evenings after dinner we’d grab our skates, our hockey sticks and a puck and scoot across the alley where I’d spend an hour or so teaching him how to skate and handle a stick. It’s a stereotypically Canadian thing to do but it is what it is. When all you have is nine months of winter and three months of poor skating you go with what God gives you.

About half the time we and a few other hockey dads would have the ice to ourselves. The other half of the time we had to share the oval with the long trackers. If it was an official practice sometimes we’d sit in the bleachers and watch them skate. If we’d been especially good mum would bring us hot cocoa while we sat and observed.

My son would watch the speed skaters with interest. Their skates were remarkably different than his. The boots were shorter, the blades longer and unlike his hockey skates, they had no rocker to them. Additionally, in long track the back of the blade “claps” or disconnects for a brief moment from the boot to give the skater more contact between the blade and the surface of the oval and to prevent the toe from digging into the ice. The clapping sound the skaters made as they pushed their way around the track fascinated my five year old boy.

One evening after we’d given up the track to the club we were sitting in the bleachers sipping our cocoa when suddenly my son looks at me and says: “I want to do that.”

I was stumped. This was not supposed to happen. He was supposed to play hockey like his old man did. I looked him in the eyes as he sipped from his melamine cup and asked “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” was all he said.

I blew the steam coming off the surface of my mug, took a sip and shrugged my shoulders. So much for the Marion hockey dynasty.

The next year, when he turned six, we took him into registration for the speed skating club. He is fifteen now and ranks in the top ten for his age group in the province. It is interesting to watch kids grow in this sport. Aside from the competitive aspect of it the development end of it is fascinating. When the kids first get into the sport most coaches will tell you that the name of the game is patience. While the club is technically a team of sorts with the exception of relay events, all of the kids compete against one another. There are no trophies for participation. From the time they are about seven or eight years old they begin to learn that they are responsible for their own development, successes and failures. At this stage failure can be a difficult pill to swallow because it is so personal and so public. The kids are skating in front of rinks full of friends, family and media and they come to realize early on that with the exception of a foul on behalf of a competitor, that winning or losing is their own responsibility.

Kids that stick with the sport beyond the age of about thirteen or fourteen are faced with hard choices as they progress. As they get older the field of competition becomes narrower and much more difficult. This means greater dedication to training both on and off the ice just to stay competitive. The difference between first in the province and tenth in the province is a gap so wide that to close it requires time and dedication that few will attempt.

My son sits somewhere in the middle. At the age of fifteen he is coming to the realization, on his own, that the Olympics (amongst other things) are not likely to happen. Yet he trains anyways. As he grows and begins to fill out he looks, acts and makes choices more like a man.

As such, a few weeks ago we had ‘the discussion’. What next? He told me that he would continue to train and to compete and when he was finished, some time in the next two to three years, that he would coach. He doesn’t know it yet but he is blossoming into an alpha. Accepting responsibility for failure and limitations, pushing forward in the face of them and planning for the future are the hallmarks of an independent thinker and leader.

But why does it matter?

Because. It is one of the primary characteristics that distinguishes us from our marxist counterparts and it is what gives us the advantage.

In the broader sense when I think of the purpose of Alpha in a healthy society I think of it as I do the roots in a grove of Aspens. To the naked eye the aspen grove appears as a forest of separate trees but underneath a different story is revealed. On the surface the Aspens appear solitary but in reality they share a system of roots that makes them a single organism. The unity of the root system gives the grove both strength and longevity. A single tree may die but the root system ensures that that the grove lives on. Alpha is the root system of a strong civilization. It is what allows smaller numbers to overcome or withstand much larger numbers. It ensures that if one member is felled that another will rise in its place.

On pondering this idea, that alpha is like a seed that we plant that grows and matures into an interconnected, sturdy and healthy forest I began to wonder at what the formula is for nourishing such an organism.

How do we create it?

Ultimately, the answer lies within the life cycle of the grove itself.

JC Collins of POM fame writes:

But what if the point of death was not to avoid it? What if the purpose of life was to prepare for the event we call death?

Herein lies the key. The secret to generating alpha on a broad scale is understanding our place within the cycles and rhythms of the natural world. The basis of it all is simply acceptance of our own mortality. From there the seed is planted and the grove can mature.

This is why the left cannot win this conflict; because it clings to life without living it. Its fear of death paralyzes it and neuters its existence in this world. It becomes a sterilized observer instead of a participant, dependent on others for its survival. The result is that it follows instead of leads, parrots instead of thinks and lives in fear of being separated from the herd.

Conversely, the alpha understands his or her place within the life cycle of the grove and can look not only backwards but forwards as well. They understand the significance of their duty and can clearly see their place within the grove stretching out from the beginning to the end and beyond. While they may not embrace death they do not fear it and look upon it as a natural part of their existence. Those who do not fear their nature are not easily misled or used.

The left cannot win this war because it is disorganized spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. It cannot see its place in the world, fears its own nature and requires charlatans posing as kings or queens to give it direction. The right requires none of this. Each of us is a king or queen in our own right. A horde of hundreds of thousands of mindless followers versus a single legion of kings will not be victorious. As we have recently witnessed, followers are easily routed. The stragglers easily brought to heal.

When I look at my son, now almost grown, I see a young prince set upon the path of the grand man. With his father’s help he will be a king among kings. And soon, the disconnected, marxist left will be little more than a foot note in a brief but turbulent period of our history.

For love, brotherhood and unity.

For duty, selflessness and sacrifice.