By Allan Stevo on LewRockwell.com
Be a rock for another in tumultuous times, like these in which we live. Be that person reliable, who can be there for another.
Reliable can be many things. One thing it means is that something be done well and regularly. You may speak truth reliably. You may show up on time reliably. You may pay your bills reliably. You may be emotionally stable reliably. Doing so allows you to be a rock to another, allows that person to feel good trusting in you, letting down their guard, giving them an opportunity to relax.
You don’t have to be perfect to be reliable, and you don’t have to do all of these things to be reliable. If you do something well and regularly, seeking to be more reliable, then you are moving in the right direction.
It is the duty of every person to grow as reliable as possible for those around them. This is a fundamental component of leadership. The more tumultuous the time, the more this is demanded of you — to provide a port for others in a storm, to provide a rock to anchor steadily upon, to provide a shelter in troublesome weather.
This duty falls upon you, you who are reading this.
I challenge you to be as reliable as you can for those around you and in all ways possible, but especially on the stability of your emotions and the soundness of your ideas, as well as your hesitancy to rush to conclusions. Such reliability can be found in the certainty that you will not be the Chicken Little running around town screaming that the sky is falling, that you will not be the chicken with its head cut off, running around the room uncontrollably. Some behave that out-of-control, despite the fact that they are no chicken and that their head remains firmly in place. Yet, out of control is exactly how so many choose to live their lives.
I challenge you to be the reliable one around you.
Face masks aren’t about face masks, they are about reliability, sensibility, courage, honesty, communication, determining who can be trusted, determining who is an enemy to those who would manipulate us.
He who is of stable mind and stable emotion is an enemy to those who would manipulate us, for he is a bulwark against their manipulation.
Once you realize this about yourself, you see what tools of yours are so powerful in defeating the enemy, in protecting those you love most, in protecting from the manipulation those who shelter under you. In doing so you realize this great strength of yours, and the more you use it, the stronger it becomes, and the more you realize how useful it can be and when.
The more responsible you become, the more you learn to yield that responsibility dangerously, the more effective you become at providing for so many around you. In doing so, you provide what so few in society are willing to provide. The face mask is not about the face mask. The vaccine is not about the vaccine. They are both symptoms of weakness among men.
How will you walk through this era?
Will you walk through this era weak?
Obedient?
Unreliable?
Or will you walk through this era being the rock that others so need you to be?
Be that rock and watch everyone around you prosper — you most of all. When you rise up to be the reliable leader, you take on burdens willingly, and you prosper abundantly so. Tomorrow is not the time to begin that work, tomorrow is not promised to us, tomorrow is especially not promised to us in such tumultuous times. Do not be someone who looked back on an opportunity and regrettably says “I squandered that.”
I’m not talking about an opportunity for a good job, I’m not talking about an opportunity for a fun vacation, I am not talking about an opportunity to watch an interesting movie that only played one time on television in 1986. I’m talking about a time at this point in history that will never be repeated again, that is crucial to the future of our civilization as we know it, and crucial to the survival of our loved ones as we know them, a period that so many are so willingly squandering instead of simply being courageous enough to be responsible.
This moment needs you.
It doesn’t need you to write me emails about how unfair the world is to men. Are you even a man if you obsess over such things? This moment doesn’t need you to worry about what’s in it for you. Leaders who work diligently and take on challenges willingly are leaders who come to prosper abundantly. This moment doesn’t need you to worry about whether you are capable enough. All skills start from zero and grow from there.
You once were unable to walk. Did infant you say “That looks impossible, hardly even worth trying.” No. That didn’t happen. You rose to the occasion then, and many times since then, to do what may have once seemed like the impossible.
This is not impossible.
Growing in your dedication to others. Growing in your level of responsibility. Growing in your level of leadership. This is all natural to he who sees this moment for what it is: a time that will either lead to the enslavement of you and your family, or a time that will lead to your resounding freedom.
No middle ground exists. Your enemy will enslave you if you do not man up.
Will you man up?
The hour is late.
You are not needed on the couch, you are not needed in front of endless YouTube videos, you are not needed in perpetual escapism. You are needed here, active, living every moment as freely as possible, courageously, being the emotional and philosophical rock for all around you, being the leader, improving the things about you that need improving so that you can lead better and better each day.
The world around you needs you too. Not a moment can be wasted.
The enemy is not sitting around.
Come fall, when flu season begins, if we have not done away with all the vestiges of the past flu season — all the vestiges of this awful corona communism — if we cannot do away with those and bring our level of freedom to a new height, we may very well be stuck with this new normal.
Time is short. You are needed now.