Let’s allow Ludwig Von Mises to consider inflation and it’s evil consequences:

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved” – source

As the great but ultimately flawed Milton Friedman stated, inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon. It is created by the central banks and their flunkies in the money centre banks. For those of you with a genuine interest in the theory of money and credit, a surprisingly alive topic and one necessary to attain intellectual mastery, go over to Mish‘s website for his commentary on the roving cavaliers of credit.

But this isn’t the inflation I’m talking about.

I’ve been reading “King Warrior Magician Lover” (Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette) as part of my Skeletor homework. A fascinating book that I’m only halfway through. It’s heavily influenced by Carl Jung, a guy I never really got into during my psychology classes. Back then I was a hardcore Scientist to make even Richard Dawkins blush and thus if a proposition couldn’t be falsified, it had no value. Now I’m becoming more sympathetic to the 19th Century German conception of science as a unified and systematic system of enquiry. And thus symbolism and cultural commentary is back on the menu. But I digress….

Moore & Gilette contend that modern society is undergoing a crisis of masculinity in which boys are not being inducted into manhood due to an absence of coming of age rituals. This leads men to remain esconded in Boy Psychology throughout adulthood. I used to first notice this when I worked out in weightlifting gyms – they’d be full of huge men completely lacking any maturity or confidence. My brother and I used to call them “little boys in gorilla costumes“. I saw the same thing throughout university when many highly–regarded academics where just building walls and fences of inpenetrable jargon and bullshit to protect a vulnerable core of intellectual incompetence. But due to their socially elevated position and the huge barriers to entry in getting to their ideas, they were able to sit atop Mount Olympus and pretend to be gods. I used to call them “a dwarf on a mountain”.

M&G offer more examples: “the drug dealer, the ducking and diving political leader, the wife beater, the chronically crabby boss, the hot shot junior executive, the unfaithful husband, the company yes man, the indifferent graduate school advisor, the holier than thou minister, the gang member” and interestingly the therapist to attacks his clients’ efforts to shine and achieve so he can impose upon them a gray mediocrity. These are all boys pretending to be men. I’d add the perpetual-SNLing PUA, and the Roissy-ite “more alpha than thou” douchebag who haunts the manosphere. [though not Roissy himself, just his keyboard jockeying commentors].

Each of the four adult male archetypes has a preceding Boy archetype that determines the final makeup of the mature male, should he make the ego-killing transition to Man Psychology. In this sense the boy is the father of the man. The archetypes are:

KING: The Divine Child [DC]

WARRIOR: The Hero [HE]

MAGICIAN: The Precocious Child [PC]

LOVER: The Oedipal Child [OC]

These boy archetypes represent a balance between two extremes, or shadow sides, which boys need to tread carefully to avoid becoming a fucked-up worthless little turd. The Divine Child is the baby Jesus/Moses of unlimited potential who is both almighty and vulnerable at the same time. He is the source of life, energy and boyish wonderment at the world, producing our sense of wel being and enthusiasm for life. However when out of balance one extreme is the High Chair Tyrant, sitting at the table banging his spoon and demanding the universe revolve around him and his insatiable desires. He is exemplified by Spoilt Bastard in Viz, or the typical American entitlement princess. This leads to inflation through pride, hubris and narcissism. When the HCT is set loose upon the world as an immature adult we end up with Hitler and Stalin. Less murderous we get a Dick Fuld who would rather bankrupt Lehman Brothers than deal with his own hubris and grandiosity. In pick up, it’s Mystery.

The opposite extreme for the DC is the Weakling Prince, a pathetic little boy with no personality, initiative or enthusiam for life. This boy plays the sickly child who needs mollycoddled throughout life lest he break. It’s fake because he attacks those around him with sarcasm and passive-aggressiveness. He’s playing the Kick Me game.

The Hero is full of desire to achieve, to impress and to become great. He provides the means to tap into our masculine energies and propel us from boyhood to adulthood. But as M&G comment, “ours is not the age for heroes. Ours is an age of envy, in which laziness and self-involvement are the rule. Aynoe who tries to shine… is dragged back down by his lackluster and self-appointed peers”. If you’re making a connection to socialism and why it is the enemy of moral character, well done.

When out of balance he is commonly a Grandstander Bully who believes the centre stage belongs to him and he’s going to rattle off display after display of unnecessary attention whoring so everyone will applaud his brilliance. Think of Tom Cruise in Top Gun, or Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s the jingoistic officer throwing his men into peril to earn his Victoria Cross. The hero thinks himself invulnerable and chases the impossible dream.But once the hero has slain the dragon and rescued the princess he doesn’t know how to live with her. At the other extreme is the Coward. This is self-explanatory.

The Precocious Child is eager to learn and wants to share it with others. He is an adventurer in the world of ideas with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. He represents our curiosity and impulse. When twisted at an extreme he can be the Know-It-All-Trickster who is constantly manipulating and playing tricks. He sells us a psychological lie just to enjoy pulling the rug out form under us once we’ve commited to it. He’s the Jim Jones looking to lead his followers into the jungle. Unlike the PC, he participates in discussions simply to show how clever he is. He has no interest in helping others or advancing the inquiry towards truth. His knowledge is a sham and thus he’s aggressive when pressed lest everyone realise the smoke and mirrors hiding his vacuous mind. Such immature men delight in wrecking things of beauty, diminishing great accomplishments, and have an authority problem. They will never achieve anything of note themselves and thus feed their egos by becoming haters. Think of the fat virgin losers on PUAhate. Many keyboard jockeys are KIATs. They have no heroes because to have heroes is to admire others. The opposite extreme for the PC is the Dummy. He seems unresponsive and dull but it’s often a shame to hide his grandiosity because he feels he’s too important to share it with the world. He’s a secret KIAT.

The Oedipal Child is passionate with a deep appreciation of inner depth. He is warm and affectionate, interested in spirituality. When out of balance he can become the Mama’s Boy. He persistently chases the impossible perfection of female essence, trying to reconnect with his mother. He moves rapidly from one woman to another unable to find satisfaction with an actual mortal woman. He’s the number’s game roadsweeper who trawls nightclubs at 2am to take home drunk skanks. He may compulsively masturbate and collect pornography. He doesn’t want to have an actual relationship because that involves taking on responsibility and he’s too immature for that. At the other pole is the Dreamer. This pretentious little shit sits on a rock meditating on the infinite complexities and beauties of life, withdrawn and depressed in his own little Emo kid world. He’s the teenager who sits in his dark bedroom listening to The Smiths, dressing like Jarvis Cocker, and never getting anything done. Top Man exists to relieve them of money.

Inflation is the condition in which a boy lives when he is at an extreme of his archetype. He stays there into adulthood. Inflation is what we talk about to say “he has an inflated ego” or “he needs to be brought down a peg”. It’s the hubris that leads to nemesis. The pride before the fall. Inflated boys want to just be. They don’t want to do the work to be great, they just want the river of greatness to flow to them. They are the theory junkie PUAs who never approach women but type volumes on the internet about what other doers should do instead. They are the gurus who won’t release infields lest they be exposed (KIAT). They are the cultish gurus who collect acolytes and send them into the jungle without food and water (HCT) to face rejection after rejection until their spirits are crushed. They are the lay-report fabricating PUAs who tell noobs they have threesomes five times a week with playboy models (GSB), and in some cases they might even get those lays. They are the cowards who sign up to a $1,000 bootcamp and then wont do a single approach  then blab on the internet how it’s everyone’s fault but their own. They are the dreamers who sit at home reading Echardt Tolle and navel-gazing their nimbus without ever talking to girls.