Second Take Tuesday – Myth, Conflict, Becoming

There’s something different about the way Mads Larsen speaks. It’s not just sharp. It’s layered.
Measured. Almost surgical. Like he’s carrying a heavy truth — but he’s learned to walk slowly with it.

And maybe that’s what struck me the most about our conversation.

We weren’t just talking about masculinity, the Red Pill, or sexual conflict theory.
We were talking about a kind of spiritual confusion that so many men live in — but rarely name. A collapse of story. A collapse of role. A collapse of self.

Mads put it plainly:

“We’ve stripped young men of meaning without giving them anything new to stand in.”

And damn — he’s right.

Today’s young men are raised in a kind of psychological fog.
Taught to doubt their instincts, apologize for their needs, suppress their aggression, hide their pain. Taught to succeed — but not why success matters.
Taught to express — but not what to do with all the feelings once they’re exposed.

They inherit a world where masculinity is either feared or fetishized, but rarely understood.
They’re told they’re privileged — but their lives feel disconnected, aimless, lonely.

“You’re lucky to be a man,” we tell them — while offering no vision, no initiation, no roadmap.

And then we wonder why they drift. Why they cling to extreme ideas.
Why YouTube becomes their teacher and Instagram their mirror.

Mads talks about this not as a cultural commentator, but as someone who’s trying to rebuild a language for masculinity that’s rooted in both myth and science.
Not a return to the past — but a re-integration of what we’ve lost.

We talked about:

• The role of evolutionary psychology in modern dating

• The dangers of shame-based narratives about men

• How the sexual revolution created new freedoms — and new wounds

• The false security of ideologies, both Red and Woke

• The need for generative myths — stories that hold space for complexity

This wasn’t a neat conversation.
It was raw. Tense. Sometimes uncomfortable.
But that’s what made it real.

Because we’re not going to “fix” masculinity with slogans or campaigns.
We’re not going to reach men by shaming them into silence or scolding them into submission.

If we want better men — we have to show them what strength actually looks like.
And that means redefining strength as something that includes stillness.
That includes presence. That includes emotional range, spiritual grounding, and yes — power.

Not the power to dominate.
The power to contain.
To hold space. To lead. To withstand.

What This Brought Up for Me

As a father, I think about my son.
What will he grow into? What myths will he live by?
Will he know what it means to be a man — not from Instagram, but from his father’s presence?

Will he be taught that masculinity is sacred — not dangerous?
That strength and softness aren’t opposites?
That emotion is not weakness — it’s unprocessed emotion that becomes weakness?

I think about the myths I inherited — and the ones I’m still trying to outgrow.

And I realize now: becoming isn’t about abandoning masculinity.
It’s about going deeper into it. With intention. With truth. With lineage.

And if we don’t do that work — someone else will.
Someone less thoughtful. Someone louder. Someone who weaponizes male pain instead of healing it.

What I Took Away

• If we don’t build better myths, we’ll keep recycling broken ones.

• Male anger is often grief — and grief ignored becomes ideology.

• The masculine soul doesn’t need fixing. It needs remembering.

Your Weekly Jolt

You say you care about the next generation?
Then start with your story. Start with your shadow. Start with your shame.

Clean your own myth.
Stop waiting for culture to hand you one.

Don’t just "raise awareness." Raise yourself.
That’s where it starts.

 Next Week: I’ll be going solo. No guest. Just space.
To reflect on what these past conversations have unearthed — from fatherhood and identity to culture, collapse, and healing. If you’ve been following along, this will be the moment to sit with what’s been said, and ask — what do I do with all of this now?

Thanks for reading Second Take Tuesday
If it cracked something open, good. That means you’re alive.
Stay with it.

Until next time,
Daniel