درسنامه تعاملی اول

Virtue – Interactive Lesson A

Hi, this is AJ and welcome to this months’ interactive lesson, part A.

In this part I will teach you the vocabulary, so listen first to the whole story, the whole essay and then I will teach you some of the vocabulary words, the phrases and in part B I will ask you questions. Let’s begin…

Strength, courage, mastery and honor, these are the practical virtues of men who must rely on one another in a worst case scenario.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor are simple, functional virtues. They are the virtues of men who must answer to their brothers first, whether their brothers are good or unscrupulous men. These tactical virtues point to triumph. They are amoral but not immoral. Their morality is primal and it lives in a closed circle. The tactical virtues are unconcerned with abstract moral questions of universal right or wrong. What is right is what wins, and what is wrong is what loses. Because, losing is death and the end of everything that matters.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor are the virtues that protect the perimeter. They are the virtues that save us. These are the virtues that men need to protect their interests, but also the virtues they must develop to go after what they want. They are the virtues of the defender and the attacker.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor belong to no one God, though many Gods claim them.

Whatever men fight for, strength, courage, mastery and honor are what they must demand of each other if they’re going to win.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor are the alpha virtues of men all over the world. They are the fundamental virtues of men, because without them no higher virtues can be entertained.

You need to be alive to philosophize. You can add to these virtues and you can create rules and moral codes to govern them, but if you remove them from the equation all together, you aren’t just leaving behind the virtues that are specific to me, you are abandoning the virtues that make civilization possible.

The men who are strong, courageous, competent and loyal will be respected and honored as valuable members of team US. Men, who are exceptionally weak or fearful can’t be counted on. Men, who are inept in some important way must, either find a way to compensate or find other work to do in the tribe. A man of questionable loyalty, who doesn’t seem to care what the other men think of him or how their tribe is perceived, will not be trusted. Men, who are not up to the job of fulfilling the first role of men for one or all of these reasons will be pushed out and sent to work with the women and children, the sick and the elderly.

Men have different drives, aptitudes, temperaments. Most men have the ability to adapt to the fighting role, to life at the edge of the perimeter, but some men won’t be able to cut it. They will be regarded as less manly and thought of as lesser men. Some men are going to get their feelings hurt. That’s not fair, but fairness is a luxury that men can ill-afford in dire times.

Okay, let’s learn some vocabulary, back to the beginning.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor, these are the practical virtues of men who must rely on one another in a worst case scenario.

These are the practical virtues, practical.

Practical – means useful, the useful virtues, right not abstract, not abstract. Not just in your mind, but useful in your life. Practical virtues.

Of men who must rely on one another…

Rely on one another means – cooperate with each other, help each other, depend on each other, trust each other. Rely on one another.

In a worst case scenario…worst case scenario… a scenario is a situation, so situation.

Worst case means – means worst possible, worst possible situation.

So this first sentence means that in a bad situation, a really terrible situation, men must trust each other, must cooperate and rely on each other, help each other, depend on each other.

And to trust each other and to help each other they must have these virtues, these useful virtues of strength, courage, mastery and honor.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor are simple, functional virtues.

Again, this word functional really means – useful, useful in the real world, not just a good idea but useful in the real world; functional. Functional means they work, they’re useful and they work. They’re effective, effective virtues.

They are the virtues of men who must answer to their brothers first,

To answer to your brothers, it means you’re responsible to your brothers. Here brothers just means men who are in your group. It might be a real brother by blood or it just might be a man who is in your tribe, in your group, a very, very close friend; other trusted men. That’s what they mean by brothers.

So they are virtues of men who must answer to their brothers first… rely on their brothers, trust their brothers first…whether their brothers are good or unscrupulous men.

Unscrupulous men are bad men, like criminals, men who are not moral, who are not good.

Like, for example, in a gang, a criminal gang, those are unscrupulous men. They’re men who will cheat, lie, kill, do lots of bad stuff.

These tactical virtues point to triumph.

Tactical – tactical is a good word. Tactical comes from the military, it comes from fighting and it really means… it’s like the useful techniques that work in a fight.

So strategy is like the big plan in fighting. Straight or in a war, the strategy is the big plan, like the generals they do the strategy, but the tactics– the noun– tactics, the tactics are the small plans and the small techniques in the actual fighting. So the tactics that’s the, the actual soldiers have to do the tactics right. In a battle, the strategy that’s when they’re looking at themaps and they decide the big plans, but in the actual battle when the fighting’s happening those are tactics. So these are tactical virtues, meaning, virtues that are useful in a real fight.

These tactical virtues point to, lead to triumph.

Triumph – means victory, victory, winning.

They are amoral but not immoral.

These are two very useful words, two very good words.

Amoral and Immoral, very close sounding. So we have moral, amoral and immoral.

Moral – means you know good, usually in a kind of religious way. Good and kind and generous and forgiving, that’s moral.

The opposite of moral is immoral –with an i. Immoral means anti-moral. So evil basically, evil, immoral, evil, bad, very bad.

So amoral is kind of in the middle. Amoral just means not moral and also not immoral, not good and not bad. It’s outside of good and bad. So strength, courage, mastery and honor, these are amoral. They’re not necessarily good in a religious way. They’re not necessarily bad or evil, right. Strength can be used by good people. Strength can be used by bad people. Bad people can be courageous. Good people can be courageous, and the same of mastery and the same of honor, so that’s amoral.

Their morality is primal and it lives in a closed circle.

So these virtues their morality is primal – meaning ancient, very, very, very, very old; going back to our old, old roots as human beings; primal.

And these virtues they live in a closed circle – meaning they are their own virtues. They are their own importance. They don’t need religion. They don’t need morality or immorality.

The tactical virtues are unconcerned with abstract moral questions of universal right or wrong.

So it’s saying something similar. So it’s saying these virtues, these virtues are not focused on big universal religious questions of, what is always right or what is always wrong? That’s not what these virtues are about. These virtues are about tactical situations, fighting basically.

What is right is what wins and what is wrong is what loses, because losing is death and the end of everything that matters.

So that’s why these virtues are the fundamental virtues, the foundation, the ones you must have first. Without these virtues, in a war for example, in a fight, in a very dangerous situation you will be killed. Maybe your family will be killed. Maybe your friends will be killed. If you’re killed, if you die, the other virtues don’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re a good person or a bad person. If you die you lose and everything is gone, so that’s why you need these virtues first. And, of course, not just in a real life or death fight, but also if you look at it in a more general way, modern way, if you don’t have strength, courage, mastery and honor than you lose in life and your family suffers and you suffer, and everything suffers. Even if you’re a nice person you still lose and you have a very miserable and unhappy life. So that’s why you need these virtues first, especially men.

Strength, courage, mastery and honor are the virtues that protect the perimeter.Perimeter – means the boundary, right the border.

They are the virtues that save us.

These are the virtues that save you and help you have a good life. These are the virtues that save your family, your friends, everything you care about and love, you need these virtues to protect them.

These are the virtues that men need to protect their interests– what’s important, and also the virtues they must develop to go after what they want.

To go after what you want – mean try to get what you want. So to get anything in life, any goal, any success that you want in life, to succeed you need these virtues. It doesn’t matter if your goal is to be rich, if your goal is to have freedom, if your goal is to have a strong family it doesn’t matter. To be healthy and strong you need these virtues, these virtues make you strong and help you achieve what you want in the world.

They are the virtues of the defender and the attacker. Strength, courage, mastery and honor belong to no one God, though many Gods claim them.

Here he’s using God more as a metaphor not in a religious way, just meaning that many groups, many people claim these virtues. Like, I am then strong one. I am courageous and masterful and honorable. So basically saying that all cultures… what this sentence really means is that all cultures value these four virtues in men.

Whatever men fight for, strength, courage, mastery and honor are what they must demand of each other if they’re going to win. Strength, courage, mastery and honor are the alpha virtues of men all over the world.

Alpha virtues – means the first virtues, the dominant virtues.

In the old Greek alphabet, alpha was the first letter. It’s A in English so it’s the first letter, alpha, which means it’s the first, it’s the top. So these four are the top virtues… it also has the idea of dominant, dominant virtues of men all over the world.

They are the fundamental virtues of men, because without them no higher virtues can be entertained.

Can be entertained – means can be considered.

Why? You need to be alive to philosophize. That’s a great sentence… You need to be alive to philosophize.

To philosophize – means to think about philosophy, to think about religion, to think about spirituality; to philosophize, to think about philosophy.

So he’s saying if you’re dead, if you lose, if you’re killed by an enemy you can’t philosophize, so the higher virtues depend on these fundamental virtues.

You can add to these virtues and you can create rules and moral codes to govern them, but if you remove them from the equation all together – meaning if you eliminate them completely, if you eliminate them completely, if you remove them from the equation all together– you aren’tjust leaving behind the virtues that are specific to me, you are abandoning the virtues that make civilization possible.

Abandoning – means leaving, leaving behind completely, letting go of completely.

So he’s saying that for civilization to exist these virtues are necessary. Without strength, courage, mastery and honor civilization will be destroyed, civilization will be invaded and destroyed. To defend civilization you must have these virtues.

The men who are strong, courageous, competent and loyal will be respected and honored as valuable members of team us.

So again, the men who are strong, courageous, competent– means skillful, masterful or skillful, competent-skillful and loyal– will be respected and honored as valuable members of team us – meaning your team, whoever your team is. Maybe it’s your family. Maybe it includes other people also.

Men, who are exceptionally weak or fearful can’t be counted on.

Can’t be counted on – means can’t be trusted.

So, very weak men can’t be trusted. Very fearful men can’t be trusted, and of course that’s true, we see this in history again and again.

Men, who are inept in some important way, must either find a way to compensate or find other work to do in the tribe.

So men who are inept in some important way, inept that’s a good word. Inept – means not skillful. It’s the opposite of mastery. It’s the opposite of competent. Inept means really terrible, you have terrible skill.

So if you have terrible skill, if you don’t have useful skills, you must find a way to compensate…

To compensate – means to kind of balance. So if you’re weak in some area, he’s saying you need to be strong in another area so that you still contribute to the group. You compensate, you balance your weakness with a strength. Or, if you can’t do that, you must find other work to do in the tribe, in your group, in your family, in your, whatever.

A man of questionable loyalty will not be trusted.

Questionable – means you’re not sure about the loyalty.

So, if a man has questionable loyalty, it means his loyalty is unsure, you’re not sure if he’s really loyal to the group. He kind of gives the idea of weak loyalty. So a man of questionable loyalty, who doesn’t seem to care what the other men think of him or how the tribe is perceived will not be trusted. So, if a man is seen as not loyal then the other men won’t trust him.

Men, who are not up to the job of fulfilling the first role of men for one or all of these reasons will be pushed out

So men who are not up to the job; it means they’re not able to do this job, this job of protecting and fighting for their group, they will be pushed out they won’t be trusted by the other men…

and they’ll be sent to work with the women, the children, the sick and the elderly.The elderly – means the very old.

Men have different drives, aptitudes, temperaments.

Drives – means desires, strong desires or motivations, strong motivations.

So, men have different motivations, of course.

Aptitudes – means skills, so men have different skills and temperaments.

Temperaments – means emotions, personalities.

So all men have different motivations, different drives, different aptitudes, skills and different temperaments, emotional personality.

But most men have the ability to adapt to the fighting role, to life at the edge of the perimeter but some men won’t be able to cut it.

Most men have the ability to adapt to the fighting role, so most men can, are able to fight. This means… fighting here means two different ways.

One, actual physical fighting, like self-defense; real fighting, that’s one thing he’s talking about.

But also, just fighting for your family, fighting for what’s right for you and your group, and that might not be physically fighting, it might be fighting in another way.

But fighting to defend your group and what’s good for you and your family and your group.

But some men won’t be able to cut it.

If you can’t cut it – it means you’re not able to do it.

Some men won’t be able to do it. It means they’re not good enough. Some men… if you can’t cut it, it means you’re not good enough. So we might say he can’t cut it, he can’t cut it in this job.

He can’t cut it in this job – means he’s not good enough to do this job. He can’t handle it.

So some men won’t be able to cut it, won’t be able to handle it. They won’t be able to do it.

They will be regarded as less manly and thought of as lesser men. Some men are going to get their feelings hurt. That’s not fair, but fairness is a luxury that men can ill-afford in dire times.

So he’s saying some men aren’t going to be able to do this, they’re not going to develop strength, courage, honor and mastery. And those men they will not be respected, they will not be respected much. He’s saying that’s not fair, but fairness is a luxury.

A luxury is something that you don’t need. It’s very nice but you don’t need it, so like an expensive car is a luxury. You don’t need an expensive car you can just have a cheap car or, if you live in the city maybe you don’t need a car at all, it’s a luxury.

So fairness is a luxury, it’s an unnecessary comfort and men can ill-afford in dire times.

Ill-afford in dire times… dire times – means very difficult and tough times, very tough times.Ill-afford - means can’t use, can’t have. Can’t afford… I mean, if you think of it like spending, if you can’t afford something it means you can’t buy it, you don’t have enough money to buy it, it’s not possible to buy it. It’s the same here… it’s not possible to be fair when the times are very tough and dangerous and dire times.

All right, that’s the end of our essay. This comes from a book called The Way Of Men by Jack Donovan. Men especially go out, get the book and read it it’s excellent. The Way of Men by Jack Donovan.

All right, I will see you in part B where I will ask you questions and you can learn the vocabulary and the phrases more deeply.

See you in part B.