So before I dive right in, I want to briefly introduce the channel. The Red Pill UK is specifically designed to reach men living within the United Kingdom, the discussion will be focused on life as a red pilled man in the UK, how men and women interact, politics, money and so forth. Any aspect that the red pill covers and more, but focused directly on the UK. If you live in the United Kingdom, and you’re red pilled, and you believe you have something to contribute to this channel then please, don’t hesitate to get in touch. So, with that - today I want to take a look at meditations by Marcus Aurelius, specifically the end of Book 3 and some pages in Book 4.

I'm reading this on Apple Books, so I won't be able to give you the specific page number but on the ebook version it is page 95 of Book 3, the following passage:

'He bears in mind too the kinship of all rational beings, and that caring for all men is in accordance with man's nature: but that nevertheless he should not hold to the opinions of all, but only of those who live their lives in agreement with nature. He will constantly remind himself what sort of people they are who do not lead such lives - what they are like both at home and abroad, by night and by day, they and the polluting company they keep. So he disregards even the praise of such men - these are people who are not even satisfied with themselves.'

Keeping the parallel between the red pill and Marcus, he notes that we should only hold to the opinions of men whose lives are in agreement with nature. For our sake, nature being the natural state of masculinity. Dominant, strong, commanding and decisive. So for Marcus, the praise of men who do not live by this described nature is to be disregarded, these unnatural men are not even satisfied with themselves.

If we were to bring what Marcus writes here into modernity, we would be able to exemplify what he means by the men we can see within our society. Our culture in the United Kingdom has over a long period crept into a state of catatonic consumption, and this is best witnessed on a Friday night across every city. The most ‘Alpha’ male is unaware of his prowess and success on a profound scale. His brain equates his loud confidence as a success and he employs it again and again, but never understanding the why of his how.

The worst of the ‘Beta’ males won’t even crawl from under their rocks, but will run their mouths about their plight to anyone who will listen. Marcus and the red pill is keenly aware of the state of these men, and thus, recognises that they do not live by nature and should be disregarded as such.

I want to take a short moment to emphasise how important Meditations and Stoicism is to red pilled life. Marcus’ thoughts, so carefully put down in his collection are a gateway for us to broaden our perceptions. Before we can even begin to influence ourselves outwardly, we must first turn inward and perceive who and what we are within the grand scale of the universe, that is to say, insignificant. This insignificance offers us a chance to draw a blank slate and the possibility to create a new purpose. If you’ve got this far and you haven’t read Meditations, I implore you to, as it is one of the first and in my opinion, most important materials provided by the red pill sidebar.

To close on this piece in Book 3, Marcus is quite right to make of how these people behave, and the ‘polluting’ company they keep. For us, the polluting company would be the RadFem Gynocentric white knights, the Momentum that ironically destroyed labour, the TrustAllWomen in the MeToo movement. If we are to move beyond ourselves and be unapologetic in our purpose of recreating ourselves, then we must look at these pollutions of culture and disregard them as fully as Marcus did before us. ‘Your Duty is to stand straight - not held straight.’

Book 3 closes with a succinct message, viewed through the red pill lens and applied therein, requires no further analysis than the reading of the message.

'And if all people mistrust him, for living a simple, decent and cheerful life, he has no quarrel with any of them, and no diversion from the road which leads to the final goal of his life: to this he must come pure, at peace, ready to depart, in unforced harmony with his fate.'

The first passage I want to focus on from Book 4 reads as follows:

'Consider the number of people who spent their lives in enmity, suspicion, hatred, outright war, and were then laid out for burial or reduced to ashes. Stop, then.'

This, here, is a pure message that can be applied in a meta-sense to the red pill itself. A lot of its users have failed to apply the core tenets to their journey, and have therefore taken, or perhaps even lost, control of their enmity, not just for the matrix which we stepped away from, but even to the men who followed after them. They reign over their suspicion and hatred for others and would rather see the red pill in its current form reduced to ashes, rather than create and reform the red pill to its pure vision. Once again, I must point to the fact that Meditations sits prominently within the side bar, accessible to all - and yet the lessons and practices of stoicism go unheeded, even ignored once learnt as superfluous and noisy, before the users flaunt their antagonistic nihilism once more. ‘Rational creatures are born for each other’s sake, that tolerance is a part of justice, that wrongdoing is not deliberate.’ The Red Pill UK is going to be a strong advocate for that message, unmoving in the face of others enmity.

Another important passage in Book 4 covers the aspect of being a ‘good’ man:

'So keep on observing this, as you have started, and in all that you do combine doing it with being a good man, in the specific conception of 'good man'. Preserve this in every sphere of action.'

As he does with the word ‘right’ in clarifying the sense of ‘Just’, the same can be applied to ‘Good’ in the context of man. Modernity in all of its capricious forms would reduce the concept of a ‘Good man’ to an archaic chivalry in which he carries the handbag and holds the door open and tends to the woman every need. This concept of ‘Good’ pervades everything a man applies himself to, and leaves behind the real concept of a good man far behind. A good man, is a just man. A just man is a strong man, a strong man is a firm leader, a firm leader is a patriarch, a patriarch is a good man. A patriarch will attend to his followers in a just manner, their benefit is his benefit, and the benefit of all. This concept and more can be pressed down into the concept of good, but in doing so, the meaning is left to be exploited, morphed and leveraged for the feminine imperative to manipulate and employ to their own benefit. Do not reduce yourself to a puppet under the guise of being a ‘good man’, instead, be good in everything you do. ‘Preserve this in every sphere of action.’ With this frame of mind, you will be better equipped to recreate your masculinity in a proactive and mindful way.

Marcus writes:

'No wandering. In every impulse, give what is right: in every thought, stick to what is certain.'

The wandering mind is plain for us to see when we disengage and let our auto-pilot be exploited, when we binge watch Love Island, when we aggravate ourselves watching BBC News, when we click through Instagram for hours at a time. This wandering is the lowest of impulses, the easiest to exploit. We are and have convinced ourselves that these superfluous moments are the certainty in our lives, and have failed to recognise that these moments have given rise to another certainty just behind our screens - a short, uneventful, unfulfilled and ultimately empty existence. The Red Pill is as guilty of this, the slow drip feed of rage-baiting articles in which what we already know women to be capable of is proven once more. So, we must open our eyes to that despotic certainty and create our own through trial and effort, so that we know with every impulse that what we give is right, and then, we can stick to what is certain.

Marcus ask the question of himself:

'So where should a man direct his endeavour? Here only - a right mind, action for the common good, speech incapable of lies, a disposition to welcome all that happens as necessary, intelligible, flowing from an equally intelligible spring of origin.'

For us, the answer is similar. If we live within our moments, without the temptation of the past or the impatience for the future, we can realise what we might do now that can influence the other. If we set our minds to our right nature, we will see that we are capable of investing our time more accurately to ourselves and that we might speak our minds more clearly. If we remain in our present selves we can see that the events that happen around us are necessary for the strengthening of our disposition, and that they all, as Marcus says with influential clarity ‘flow from an equally intelligible spring of origin.’ …The present.

In the interest of keeping this video short enough to hold your attention, I will wrap the final two passages of interest into this last analysis.

'It is my bad luck that this has happened to me. No, you should rather say: It is my good luck that, although this has happened to me, I can bear it without pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearful of the future.'

This, alone, is my favourite quote from Marcus Aurelius, as it defines everything about stoicism in one moment. It has been a long time since I encountered someone who did not lament their lot in life, and instead presented themselves as someone who has been challenged and tested by their life. Unfortunately, it is now an innate personality trait in the United Kingdom to use your trials as an excuse for why you are behind or falling behind your peers. Everything is something else fault, never their own. It is this lesson that holds the most significance for me, as it was one of the first lessons that really clicked with me when I entered the manosphere. If you can take your trials, whatever they may be, and bear them without pain and move through the present and into the future, you will look back on the past with an ease of self-confidence. Your greatest trials await, and be glad of it.

In hand with that lesson, Marcus closes out Book 4 by saying:

'Always run on the short road: and nature's road is short. Go then for the healthiest in all you say and do. Such a purpose releases a man from the labours of service, from all the need to manage or impress.'

Do not come to the red pill with the idea that you are setting yourself up for others to view. You will poison and expect the wrong ideas. Look at the red pill as a reset button. You have woken up in a new reality, and you are as yet unformed in said world. Here lies your manual, and with it you might walk natures short road, this purpose will release you, as a man, from labours of service, from all need to manage or impress. You are here for yourself, and others will only benefit by proxy of knowing your new self.

In closing, it is hard to overstate the importance to which Meditations can benefit the introduction to The Red Pill. One cannot truly become red pilled until he has imbued and applied the lessons of stoicism to his existence. Through your new ability to manage your ego, and your investment in trivial matters throughout the course of your present, you better equip yourself to distinguish between the importance of matters. Through stoicism, you will find the importance of crafting yourself as an intellectual and physical being. You will accept the ideas handed down through the red pill with a new sense of understanding, and you will take pride in your ability to rise to new heights, you will relish the opportunity to test yourself, and push yourself further than you knew you could go. It all begins now, in the fire of the moment that burns throughout your soul. Stoke the flames and embrace your nature as a man.

I hope you enjoyed the first episode of The Red Pill UK, I wanted to tackle stoicism first and foremost as it is, for me, the precursor for things to come. Of course, these are just a few brief excerpts from a much longer collection of books - but book 4 sticks out to me because Marcus Aurelius writes with more flair and anger within this chapter, he repeats often how short his time is, and makes convictions of how to best move through that short time. Meditations will be the pillar on which I hold The Red Pill UK up moving forwards. I look forward to episode 2, see you then.

Tip Abaddon for their post.