Men Without Roots
Authority, submission, and the collapse of masculine discipline
If there’s one thing chauvinist Christian men like to talk about, it’s women’s submission.
What they despise more than anything else is men’s submission.
A man is not a sovereign authority over women, nor is he a sovereign authority over himself. A good man lives in submission to a moral order outside himself: to God, to the Church, and to a framework that governs his thoughts, words, and actions.
Many men today reject this outright. And they do so for predictable reasons.
Most often, it begins with an appeal to victimhood:
“Young men today have been so put upon by women, minorities, or ‘elites’ that you can’t possibly expect them to bear the burden of a transcendent moral authority over their own lives.”
This is then followed by an appeal to civilizational emergency:
“We need these radicals to save the West. You don’t know what time it is!”
When effective, this strategy accomplishes its real goal: it shifts attention away from rebellious, undisciplined men… and onto anyone who dares to question them.
There’s much more to be said about this pattern and what it signifies. But here is the crucial point: there’s nothing new about it.
As Solomon observed long ago:
“What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.”
Ecclesiastes 1:9
Men have always sought to defy—or outright deny—transcendent moral authority in order to legitimize their own flawed pursuit of independence.
Eddie LaRow on Authority, Power, and Rootless Men
This question of authority and submission isn’t merely philosophical. It has a deeply personal dimension, as well.
In the clip below, Eddie LaRow explains why men always seek to be captains of their own souls. This is why moral authority feels intolerable to the undisciplined man, and why men’s desire for autonomy today attempts to disguise itself as strength.
Watch the Full Conversation
This clip is one thread in a much longer conversation. In the full interview, Eddie and I explore:
Why Gen Z men are drawn toward radical politics
How rootlessness produces substitute authorities
Why power replaces authority when institutions collapse
How speed and media distort the inner life
Why men need formation, discipline, and rooted communities
Catch the full 90-minute conversation on YouTube:
Or listen on Apple and Spotify.
The Will Spencer Book Club
Many of the dynamics Eddie describes aren’t merely political or psychological. Deep beneath the surface, they’re spiritual. And not in a Christian way.
That’s why Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is the first book we’re reading in the Will Spencer Book Club.
Black Sun traces how modern movements repeatedly substitute counterfeit meaning for lost authority, especially among young men searching for identity, purpose, and belonging.
This applies directly to the conversation Eddie and I had, in ways that might surprise you.
If you want to understand the modern historical roots of much that we’re seeing online today, this is the right place to begin.
The Will Spencer Book Club begins this Wednesday, January 7, and is available to paid Substack subscribers. All sessions will be recorded and shared afterwards for subscribers.
Read more about the Book Club here.
Read more about Black Sun here.