You don't agree that a lot of people (I'd say it seems like it's even more people now that Gen Z have grown up) reject reality and substitute an inchoate fantasy life?
I do agree with that. I don't think that's what the blog you linked is describing. I think the blog you linked says more about the author than about the subject matter. It shows either a profound inability or, more likely, a deliberate unwillingness to understand the experience of being male in modernity, where the qualities and values that are impressed upon us not only culturally and historically but also biologically have become obsolete and we're expected to reject them in favor of roles that we are not in any way primed to find fulfilling. Granted I only got about halfway through the first link, but what I read can be plainly described as a condemnation of the pursuit of excellence and personal growth.
The author condemns the notion that "marginal guys are the real heroes" as though it's a power fantasy, then in the same breath condemns the aspect of the subject matter wherein "marginal guys" take on challenges that necessitate raising themselves out of mediocrity, as well as the promise of reward for doing so. So the conclusion of that logic is that "marginal guys" should not feel like heroes, but also that they should not aspire to become heroes, rather they should be content in their mediocrity. And in rejecting the notion that a "marginal guy" can raise himself to heroism through action, it further implies that guys are either born heroic or mediocre and there's nothing they can do about it; that, or that heroism doesn't exist at all. All of which I reject.
I think the inchoate fantasy is that you should be fulfilled by a life that contradicts millions of years of biological and social programming, or that you should embrace a life that does not fulfill you and not seek to elevate yourself above it, or that a man is a fool for believing such a thing is possible and something to be desired.
Also blaming your bedroom death on that innate desire for purpose rather than on porn and unrealistic expectations as a result of artificially skewed availability bias is downright laughable. That's precisely where I stopped reading because that's precisely where I became convinced that this individual has no idea what they're talking about.
tl;dr the inchoate fantasy isn't romanticism, it's (post)modernism.
" Reeves is a national treasure.
