Remember to read Part 1 and Part 2.
It’s never fun to watch your heroes fall. I have zero shame in admitting that, for many years, Tucker Max was a hero to me.
At the age of 20, when I first came across Max’s website, I was already a hard-drinking, skirt-chasing asshole. I didn’t need someone to teach me that those choices were OK.
But at that point in my life, I had stopped reading, stopped writing, and in a lot of ways, stopped thinking. I was living an unexamined life, largely because that’s just what a cool guy does in college. Life was fun, but I was incomplete.
At a first glance, Tucker Max had some funny stories. As I read more though, I noticed that they were peppered with references to literature, history and science. Slipped in behind all the stories was a reading list that kept me busy for the better part of a semester, and reawakened a habit — compulsive reading — that has benefited my life more than any other.
I had already figured out that I didn’t need to apologize to anyone for being an asshole. But I hadn’t realized that I didn’t need to be ashamed of having intellectual interests. Ironically, Tucker Max didn’t teach me that it was OK to get drunk and hook up. He taught me it was OK to read books that weren’t in my course syllabi and write for my school paper. For that influence, I will always be grateful, regardless of what the man has become, or will become.
But let’s take a step back, and consider the recent twist that Tucker Max’s career and outlook appears to be taking.
From 2002 until 2008 or so, Tucker Max was a cult hero to millions of college-aged American men. He achieved this status by writing stories about his adventures as an asshole completely unconcerned with the feelings and expectations of those around him. Who are the interesting characters in this story?
Tucker Max’s answer is that he is. Hence, psychotherapy, introspection, and ruminations on how his alcoholic mother and absentee father lead him to lead the life he did.
But explanations that centre around the experiences and characteristics of Tucker Max ignore the real story: the legions of young men who followed him. Did they all have absentee fathers, etc, as well? No? Then perhaps the Tucker Max phenomenon is better explained in broader terms — what is it about our culture that made Tucker Max a star?
- Why are Millennial men so eager to jettison society’s expectations of them?
- Why are they spending their early twenties in a haze of boozing, partying, chasing slutty girls, becoming pick-up artists, and playing video games?
- How would Tucker Max have been received in virtually any culture outside of early 21st-century America? What is it about the present that makes us uniquely receptive to an ethos of nihilistic hedonism?
These are big questions. Tucker Max 2.0 doesn’t seem to be interested in them. And that’s fine, I suppose. I wish him all the best, with his yoga and psychotherapy. It’s just disappointing to see that one of the first distinct voices to truly speak to the young men of the 21st century is putting down his pen.
Cross-posted at Freedom Twenty-Five.
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Whoa! This guy was a hero?
Just imagine. The new masculine ideal – a drunken hedonist. Tucker was popular because it was easy. Just say whatever you like, go to the bar, and act like an asshole.
Nihilism is a good response to being dispossesed. You are white, Tucker is white, most of his fans are white. Your nation is being stolen from you. Your future, your past, your racial identity the same. If allowed to continue, this will be a country full of affirmative action candidates – negros, mexicans, homos and feminists. That’ll cause anyone to drink.
You have missed what is going on. This douchebag is a Ferris clone who made money ina niche he realises is overplayed and is now trying to set himself up as some expert or guru in Paleo and/or mma, both growing fads that Max has jumped onto whilst proclaiming to have been there from the ‘start’. Dont be suckered into his bullshit.
As one who appreciates condign expression and is always on the lookout for exceptional terminology, I must say categorically that “nihilistic hedonism” is the best I’ve seen in a very very long time. A true wordsmith created it. Like all such great concepts, it does not seem to have been “created” so much as summoned from the collective consciousness. A tour de force. I am both envious at its creation and thankful for it. I have much musing ahead of me on this one.
I missed the initial Tucker Max wave.Have little to add beyond you are an artist.
Tucker max was your hereo?
P>A>T>H>E>T>I>C>
at least Male Feminists have Yugo Shwanz-Hertz-Herr
heck even nerds have video game hero’s like Duke Nuke ‘Em….
“If allowed to continue, this will be a country full of affirmative action candidates – negros, mexicans, homos and feminists. That’ll cause anyone to drink.
oh, lala-we all know that you nazi’s like the sperm milkshakes more than anyone. ask anyone whose been in prison….
drinky, drinky ryu….
At the age of 20, when I first came across Max’s website, I was already a hard-drinking, skirt-chasing asshole. I didn’t need someone to teach me that those choices were OK.
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Apparently, you need someone to tell you that “chasing skirt” isn’t an asshole thing to do. It’s a completely natural thing to do and is the action taken to get your sexual needs met.
“He achieved this status by writing stories about his adventures as an asshole completely unconcerned with the feelings and expectations of those around him.”
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This is an impossible statement. Anyone who is “unconcerned with the feelings and expectations of those around him.” by definition, has no social skills or charisma and won’t be swimming in vagina juice left and right. Anyone with even basic social skills is meeting the “feelings and expectations” of others, by default. Tucker Max would be devoid of friends, let alone girlfriends, if he was “unconcerned with the feelings and expectations of those around him.”
That’s like saying, “I am unconcerned with the feelings and expectations of my growling stomach”
Men: get out of the pop culture ghetto.
This is your ticket out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon
Why does Ryu seem to think it’s easy, especially long term, to get the hottest women in bed. It’s not. The word hedonism implies it’s not an intense challenge that most men are never successful at, even once.
These blogs wouldn’t even exist if achieving quality lays was easy.
Finding a hot wife who won’t lose her looks in 4 years is several orders of magnitude harder than finding a top notch short term lay. Would having this concern also be called “nihilistic hedonism”?
I already commented on this on Frost blog (part 1)
The problem with seduction community/manopshere is that to many guys are “Fanboys” who worship the next man blindly and if you question the status quo, your labeled a “Hater” or a “feminist”. I admire a lot of bloggers/Gamers and even Guru’s but reading some of the comments on their blogs or forums by their followers, is frankly pathetic. It’s like guys jumping on a movement just to be “down”. Sort of like the new Hip-Hop generation who are jumping on the “Swag movement” bandwagon even though it’s borderline feminine and homosexual i.e. skinny jeans, calling themselves “pretty bitch”, wearing long earrings, etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuykJRlVlrY
Case in point^^^
Tucker Max was funny but the kind of humor that gets old fast.
Tucker is completely full of $h*t. He was called out as a liar on the Opie & Anthony show and couldn’t defend himself. One doesn’t need much mental acumen to put those two mental midgets in their place (although Jim Norton was there and I think he actually has a brain).
Tucker’s stories are complete embellishments of things that every single guy has gone through. I met him at a party in Philadelphia years ago and he was nowhere near the 6′ height he claims. He’s still a mental child looking for validation because his d*ckhead father ignored him as a kid.
I hardly hate the guy – I feel bad for him in a way.
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