My account concerns the Toronto event.
Arrival:
I had been following the developments in Montreal, on the forum and on Twitter. I watched Roosh's victory speech and decided the next day to attend the Toronto lecture. I wanted to be on the front lines, so to speak. Before that, I had been content with simply buying a recording. But the mad witch hunt in Montreal demonstrated to me the importance of the lecture tour, and Roosh's resolve and savvy in dealing with it struck me as admirable, even inspiring. I knew that if I didn't go to the Toronto talk and meet Roosh, I'd regret it.
So, I sent an email to Roosh in which I showed, as well as I could, that I was not a feminist infiltrator. He gave me a code that I used to access the site where I bought my ticket.
On the day of the event, I parked my car next to a building where I was told that the lecture would take place, and went to loiter near another location where there would be a layer of security. I had brought a copy of Roosh's "What Is Neomasculinity?" article, and a couple of Return of Kings posts on neomasculinity by Quintus Curtius, which I read as I waited. I noticed other men arrive early and look around, and I could tell that at least a few of them had come for the event, in part because of their behavior and in part because they were physically fit, well-dressed, and had good posture. It was like Fight Club members noticing each other in public, except instead of having black eyes and broken noses, we're just normal men.
Lecture:
Later, at the venue, attendees arrived in small groups, and eventually the room filled. As it did, I spoke with a handful of locals. A few had heard about Roosh through friends on social media disdainfully posting his "15 Reasons Why Toronto Is The Worst City In North America For Men," an article which these attendees claimed is 100% true. I wasn't familiar with the article and I had never been to Toronto before, but the title certainly rang true, because here we were, about fifty men getting together to talk about how to live better lives, while in response the press, politicians, and protesters were going insane.
Here is
my account of the content of the lecture, from the Battle of Toronto thread:
Quote: (08-17-2015 02:57 PM)Volbeck Wrote:
For the Toronto talk, I took notes for myself and for the following writeup, which I intend to be for the benefit of those who couldn't attend. Since the tour is now over, I'm going to be a bit more detailed about the talk than people have been thus far. At the same time, I'll try not to be too detailed, because I don't want to affect negatively the sales of a recording.
Considered as a whole, the talk is about how a man can live a happy life in today's world.
Here's a simplified version, numbered to correspond to a longer version below: 1) There are many social and political difficulties facing men today. 2) One great difficulty, having relationships with women, requires many sacrifices, but these sacrifices afford men the opportunity to improve themselves. One form of self-improvement is game, because even if a man doesn't get the women he wants, by practicing game he can still become a better man. 3) Indeed, it turns out that women cannot make a man happy, so he has to find ways to enjoy life outside of women.
1. Some of the difficulties facing men today consist in how badly contemporary society regards them: Men have to discuss their heterosexuality privately while homosexuality and female sexuality are celebrated publicly; they have to filter their speech lest SJWs and the women running HR get them fired; they are regarded by default as potential rapists; and they are not valued as fathers and builders of society, but rather are seen as a problem to be solved. This poor regard for men is reflected in the law: Marriage and divorce laws make a man a hostage in his own home, and the rise of "Yes Means Yes" and other such laws, as well as policies denying due process, increasingly criminalize just being a normal man and destroy equality under the law.
Other difficulties consist in the reduction of the value of women to men: Popular culture celebrates the demolition of the idea of female beauty. Also, cheap entertainment and an overuse of the internet turn people into zombies lacking basic social interaction, the result being that women don't care to get to know men, who find it hard to compete with social media's constant validation. The result is that it takes a man hundreds of hours of self-improvement to get into a sexual relationship with a woman.
And the final two difficulties are broader ones (which, so I think, are the result of all of the above): Men don't know how to be masculine and women don't know how to be feminine; and Western Civilization is turning into an open-air candy shop where women are like little kids who do whatever they want with no repercussions, while men have to take responsibility for what women do. We haven't yet seen the worst. And the problem is spreading as entertainment and the proliferation of smart phones export toxic American ideas to women who would have otherwise had to have lived in America to be corrupted.
2. Although a broader perspective reveals that a lot of things have actually improved over time (for example, technological advances have allowed for better hygiene, greater comfort, and more leisure time), relationships with women are more difficult and require a great deal of sacrifices. At minimum, a man has to use time and money (labor), and he has to make changes to his own self, his personality. In order to get better women, he might have to sacrifice even more, such as moving to another country and learning the local language.
That said, even if a man puts in a lot of work and doesn't get the woman that he wants, he is still a better man for it. He has constructed a lifestyle through which he improves himself as a man regardless of his success with women. In this way, game has become a path to enlightenment.
(At this point, Roosh offers seven game tips, which provide advice that a man can apply right now to improve his ability to have relationships with women. I will only say that the tips are specific and, when necessary, extensively explained, especially the one about how to get first-date sex. If he sells a recording, men are free to buy it if they want to know more. Roosh then describes three things that he has learned from fifteen years of game. They have to do with how a man's methods, perspective, and even goals change over his lifetime. I think that his self-reflection here is admirable and useful.)
3. Even if a man does get the woman he wants, today's women are such that they can only amplify what a man already has, so he has to be content with himself and his achievements. A man's happiness, his enjoyment of life, consists in good work and good relationships. Good work keeps you busy, challenges you, is good for your soul, and makes a difference for you or someone else. Good relationships are those with one's family and friends, and also with one's woman. Work is particularly important for men, because they need to feel that they're improving, and thus they must set goals for themselves.
(Here, Roosh offers a few tips for when things aren't going well, and one is feeling down. In conclusion, he offers some words of encouragement, with a focus on not giving up and instead seeking to live a good life.)
There was a lot of meat in the Q&A. I'm going to work on condensing it for another post.
What we got was a lecture on neomasculinity, without (if I recall correctly) the word even being used. Although a lot of the ideas were presented in a seemingly disparate manner (11 things wrong right now, 7 game tips, 3 things he has learned from game, etc.), their development over the course of the talk are suggestive of the increasing maturity and complexity of a man's inner life, of his needs and goals as they change and grow over time. The talk began with sex: Roosh asked (I paraphrase from memory), "How many of you like sex?" (We raised hands.) "And how many of you are putting in too much work to get the sex that you want?" (We raised hands again.) But by the end of the talk, Roosh was discussing happiness (which he defined as enjoying life), in which sex played a relatively minor role.
Roosh had given himself a rather difficult rhetorical task, and he pulled it off really well. He was talking to a diverse group of men, in different stages of life and with different aspirations, and, by all accounts of which I am aware, he was able to connect with each of us. (And what is more, he did this with the same talk in multiple countries.) In the Q&A, Roosh would speak of the various "seasons" in a man's life, and how he seeks to be able to provide answers to men in each and every season. Game, he said, only caters to men in one season. This point was reflected in the structure of the talk itself, where tips for getting laid were followed by ideas about transitioning toward developing longer relationships (which admittedly still involves game, but of a different sort).
Q&A:
Here is
my account of the Q&A, also from the Battle of Toronto thread:
Quote: (08-20-2015 02:54 PM)Volbeck Wrote:
My summary of the talk itself can be found earlier in this thread. Here is an attempt to distill the Q&A session. I'm going to be a little more free with paraphrasing, rearranging material, and filling in gaps to flesh out some ideas, so this writeup will be less objective than my previous one. I've chosen to leave out details about the Canadian operations, personal details about Roosh, and a few other things.
Canada: There were a handful of questions about Canada. Someone asked if Roosh planned to come back, and he said no, because he had nothing left to prove beyond humiliating the establishment, which he had already done. Asked about problems in other countries on his tour, Roosh said that he had none. Asked if Canada is the worst country for straight men, Roosh said that he had thought that London was bad, but found that Canada was worse. He suggested that Sweden might possibly be a competitor.
Game & Travel: I suppose that there were one or two questions that could be interpreted as being directly about game. One Canadian attendee asked for advice for those on university campuses. Roosh acknowledged the problem, noting that the more formal education a woman has today, the less feminine she is. He basically recommended filtering out crazy feminists who can get you in trouble. So, he advised seeking out women in the university's nursing program, because they're more likely to be nurturing (a feminine characteristic). He also encouraged going for good-looking women, who are the safest bet, perhaps with the exception of white women, who can be dangerous. On a related note, another attendee asked whether the language barrier alone could stop the spread of radical feminism. (Stated differently, is it enough for one to move to a country where English isn't spoken to live well and find a good woman?) Roosh said that the language barrier is not enough. What is needed is some sort of cultural immunity. He said that, for example, Russia due to its culture will not degrade as much or as quickly as other countries. He advised actually going to and checking out a country in order to gauge the local conditions. One should find a place that will be good for at least the next ten to fifteen years. There, a man should focus on individual self-improvement, and then fight the battle as it comes.
Self-improvement: Someone recalled Roosh's remark about game being a path to enlightenment, noted that game does not seem to be necessary for some men, and asked what the common factor is for those who find their way in life by starting with game and those who find their way without starting with game. Roosh pointed to character traits: being free-thinking, independent, and resistant to authoritarian control. The people who exhibit these traits tend to be more open to enlightenment.
What we're up against: This last point played into something that Roosh hinted at in his talk, and about which he went into greater detail in the Q&A. All of the destructive policies and social movements that Roosh discussed seem to have a common goal, and that is to make people easier to control. Those in power work to destroy the family unit, the tribe, and people's sense of purpose. They make men and women distrust and fight against each other. The old bonds are replaced with food, cheap entertainment, and the iPhone. The consistent consequence is a reduction in the fertility of the native population (of whatever country is infected), which is then replaced with immigrants, who are cynically used to break down solidarity even more. In this way, people who would otherwise resist authoritarian control are rendered less effectual in their attempts, and thus become more easily controlled. After this is accomplished, a nation finally hits bottom and can be controlled from the outside, like Greece is today. The elites who push all of this are seeking their own common interest, which is to secure more power and wealth. To this end, they elevate themselves and other people who agree with them, such as reporters who are easy to manipulate.
(In short, then, the very traits that help us to begin to cultivate our masculinity and to enjoy life, that is, being free-thinking, independent, and resistant to authoritarian control, are the very traits that those in power are attempting to stamp out. We are the great threat, hence the strong response to Roosh among Canadian reporters and politicians.)
How to deal with all of this: Throughout his answers, Roosh reflected on lessons from his recent experiences that can help us men deal with what we're up against, and what will come our way.
"Having a business for yourself should be the goal of all of you here." One person asked about being antifragile. Instead of discussing the broader meaning of that term, which would have taken too long, Roosh gave a brief response about how a man can be antifragile in his own life: Make it so that there is no one person responsible for you getting money. Create a lifestyle where you have various sources for your income. Roosh has been able to survive because he has no one weak point. He had no employer for the Canadian SJWs to berate or boycott. The goal is to be one's own man, to be able to tell people to "fuck off" and "cry some more." Roosh himself is able to live well in Poland with expenses as low as $1,500 per month.
"A lot of you don't know how strong you actually are. You have power you don't even know. Those at the top make you think they're more powerful than they really are." Roosh advised, "If you attack someone, annihilate him. If you don't, he'll know how to fight." The Canadian SJWs erred in not destroying him in Montreal, because he was able to apply in Toronto the lessons that he had learned from the week prior. Their attack had made him stronger. He remarked on a similar phenomenon that has taken place over the past four years, beginning with attacks on him over his first work to gain widespread attention, Bang Iceland. In response to these attacks, his hands were shaking. This was followed by attacks on him over his work on Denmark and then Colombia. Finally, the SPLC came against him. At that point, his hand did not shake. All of the attacks had given him strength, and they would continue to do so as people went on to attack him for various Return of Kings articles and for his "How To Stop Rape" article.
One attendee noted that Gavin McInnes and Ezra Levant had used the terms PUA and MRA when discussing Roosh. He asked what term Roosh himself would use to describe himself. Roosh tentatively suggested "neomasculinist," then he asked if anyone had a better idea, and finally he seemed to settle on it. He later
tweeted, "I identify as a neomasculinist. Feel free to correct people when they use the incorrect terms PUA or MRA.", followed by a link to his "What is Neomasculinity?" article.
Before I move on, I will note that the audience was rather impressive. There were several comments made by attendees during the talk, which is something that can be annoying, but in this case actually contributed to our enjoyment. For example, when Roosh talked about the response to his coming to Canada, someone said, "Welcome to Canuckistan," which elicted laughter. At one point Roosh asked (I paraphrase from memory), "Do you think a woman who is a 6 wants a man who is a 6, too?" And someone said, "She wants a man who is six two." (That is, 6' 2".) Clever.
We took a little break before the victory speech, and I chatted with a local. As part of our conversation, we exchanged nearly-identical stories about how we each had tried to tell a married male friend about game and its importance for relationships, only to be rebuffed and to see, from a distance, his marriage fall apart.
Dinner:
After the victory speech, those who could stay longer (which was most of us) went in small groups to a restaurant to eat together. On the way, I spoke with another local, and we exchanged ideas and we recommended reading materials based on each other's interests and goals. He told me that he and some other men in Toronto have formed a men's group whose members help build up one another. It's one of those ideas that sounds simple when you say it, but is more rewarding than you might imagine. It is also a good extension of self-improvement, a sort of mutual improvement.
At dinner, the conversation continued. Roosh made his way around the room. When he stopped by my part of the table, there was a comment about the current state of society. I asked him how can we fix it. I said I had a younger brother and was worried about what he's facing. Roosh's response was that I should focus on improving myself and to help my brother, too, if I could; after all, to fix everything else would take decades. I thought that this was a good general response to that question. Many of us are in that season of life where we should be focusing on ourselves and those close to us. At the same time, I could see that Roosh himself was not on his world tour just for his own self-improvement, but for the benefit of the rest of us.
Club:
After dinner, those who planned to stick around were given directions to the club where we would finish up the evening, and we went in small groups. Before heading over, I stopped by my car, where I kept some formal clothes, and changed into a grey suit and black tie. I mention this so that the men who were there can match a face to the account I'm presenting here.
I don't have much to say about the club that hasn't already been said. I was happy to shake hands with Lothario and thank him for his work in Montreal. He has given me some good professional and style advice and I'm grateful for that. I also met Gmac and Snurby, and some men who said that they lurk on the forum. There was also someone all the way from Texas but I didn't catch a username, if he had one. All-in-all, I was really struck by the camaraderie among men at the event, many of whom had only just met each other that day.
Conclusion:
I had intended to talk to Roosh before he left the club and thank him for everything he had done, but I'm guessing he left through a back door when I wasn't looking. So I'll just say now, Roosh, that I appreciate all of your good work on your blog, on the forum, on Return of Kings, and on the lecture tour, notably your steadfastness and strategy in Canada. I've said that the mad witch hunt in Montreal showed me the importance of the lecture tour. I should explain that. The SJWs identified you as a threat, but they either could not or would not be clear as to precisely why you are. The blind accusations were a smokescreen for what they really felt deep down, which is that masculine men who think for themselves and act with resolve are the ones who pose the greatest threat to the SJW ideology and related policies. Indeed, being a man, and encouraging other men to be men, can reasonably be regarded today as the most subversive activities in which a man can engage. In a way, I had already thought this before, but the Battle of Montreal brought it home for me.
I suppose that there might be some people reading this who consider themselves outside observers. To them I say, just look at the accounts in this thread (and in others, if you wish) of the official event activities in Montreal and Toronto: the lecture, Q&A, and hanging-out. Does it seem at all reasonable for the people in power to promote a campaign against a small, private event for men to encourage each other? Yes, some of that encouragement involved discussing ways to get women to agree to sex. And how exactly is that a big deal, when every form of sexuality other than male heterosexuality is publicly promoted and celebrated? If anything, the Canadian SJW hissy fit lent credence to the observations about society that Roosh made in his lecture. And the fact that the hissy fit came to nothing (that is, nothing other than more exposure for our ideas) shows that those in power aren't quite as powerful as they think they are.
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) for the first time at the "unknown secret meeting location" where we turned off our phones and walked on foot in groups of four to the venue.
