The Real Solution to the Modern Man Problem

Jun 10, 2025

How are you today?

On this day, June 9th, in 68 AD, the tyrannical emperor Nero died. On this same day in 1870, British novelist Charles Dickens died, and on this same day in 1981, Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman was born. My lame claim to fame is that I studied at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem with Natalie Portman, and I met her once (or at least I saw her) at a party. 😂

But what’s going on in this crazy clown world 🤡 🌎 today?

In PostModern Conservative Titus Techera shared a recent conversation between Alex Priou and Audrey Unverferth about “men & care for the soul as a political problem in the context of modern technology, a power that seemingly bestrides the planet.” The problem they address is similar to the problem that Leo Strauss addressed in his 1941 lecture “German Nihilism,” an understanding of which, according to R.R. Reno, Fukuyama gets wrong. Another outgrowth of the problem that Strauss, Reno, Fukuyama, Techera, Priou, and Unverferth discuss is, as Natalie Issa argues, that “young men seek community in the ‘manosphere’.” Everyone and their dog claims to possess the remedy for what ails modern American men. While I also endorse repeated and careful study of Plato’s Republic, engagement with Heidegger’s thought, and an understanding of Leo Strauss and his intellectual posterity, please allow me to politely suggest that the real solution to the problem of modern man, and the modern man problem, is found in the Book of Mormon.

Speaking of the real solution to the problem of modern man, and the modern man problem, I appreciate Daniel C. Peterson’s recent reflections on greatness in his article “When ‘Great’ Men Are Anything But: Rethinking Power Through the Lens of Christ.” I agree with him, for the most part. For my own reflections on the same, or a similar topic, see my post “Soli Deo Gloria: What Is Greatness?” In a similar vein, I also recommend the following of my Book of Mormon reflections: