SSH in the Stoics

How elements of the SSH can be seen in ancient philosophy

I have stated repeatedly that while I may have coined a phrase or two that has gone viral, in articulating the socio-sexual hiearchy I have created nothing except a taxonomy that describes what is already extant and observable. Now I will go even further are point out that what we can observe on the socio-sexual front long precedes the very concepts of the pecking order of chickens or the lupine dominance hierarchy from which the term “Alpha” was originally derived.

This is why it is incorrect to attempt to dismiss the SSH on the basis of details concerning how wolf packs actually operate according to the best understanding of biologists. The nature of the criticism is not only foolish, but a fundamental category error.

Consider a few popular quotes from Epictetus, a Greek Stoic who died circa 135 Anno Domini, and how they relate to the socio-sexual hierarchy. I believe these quotes are modernized to some extent, on the basis of my past readings, but they are relevant nonetheless.

Epictetus is second only to Marcus Aurelius in my estimation.

Here he illuminates why Gammas and Omegas, who cannot control their anger, are necessarily low-status men. In doing so, he also explains why Gammas are constantly making false claims about how their opponents are “seething” or otherwise infuriated.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.

Many of his quotes are of great utility to Gammas in particular. Here he offers a potential explanation for why low-status men are in a near-constant state of emotional pain and suffering.

Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.

He expresses what is an essentially Delta perspective in this admonition, so much so that it points toward the possibility that Epictetus was himself a Delta male. It certainly is not an Alpha perspective, although it does leave the door open to him having been a Sigma, although slavery and Sigma do not fit well together.

Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.

But regardless of what Epictetus was, he clearly understood the low-status male mindset.

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.

He also describes the essential problem with the Gamma obsession with becoming a subject-matter expert.

When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.

He even anticipated what I subsquently described as the most important advice I have to give men of every SSH rank and behavioral profile by nearly 2,000 years.

Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.

And, believe it or not, he also recommended both books and the iron, and cautioned against the conventional educated notion that familiarity is comprehension.

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

The truth is that the socio-sexual hierarchy has been with humanity all along. It has been with us from the start. The truth is, and has always been. To the extent that it correctly reflects human behavioral patterns, the SSH is and has always been too.