Spring Cleaning is a lot like Christmas Morning. 

That’s because you find stuff you either forgot you had, or have been looking for for ages and finally hit the jackpot. 

That’s the way it’s been for me these past two weeks, cleaning out the basement and barn.

And amongst all the clutter, debris, and junk that got re-gifted to the Good Will, I found a treasure beyond compare…

My lost box of James Lafond books.

And of all the bangers that were in there, The Masculine Axis: A Meditation on Manhood and Heroism hit the hardest of all…

A SECRET DISCOVERED FROM EXPERIENCE 

I last read The Masculine Axis in October of 2020, around my 25th birthday.

I even have my United Airlines plane ticket that I used as a bookmark in the tome as I was reading it in the airport, travelling to visit a friend as a birthday present to myself.

Upon cracking it open again tonight, I was struck by a momentous weight. 

I’ve lived a lot of life since I last read that book.

And in that time span of over half-a-decade, there have been more bad times than good times. 

On every front, the world is collapsing. 

Everything that was once sure has steadily been swept away in a vast torrent of evil, turning bastions of sanity and order into morasses of madness and chaos. 

I have documented much of this on my site in various guises, but reading The Masculine Axis after all these things have happened, it made me realize something that is very important…

After all of my experiences and observations, I have learned one thing:

I am an Alpha, not an Omega.

THE RULES OF THE ROAD 

For those of you unfamiliar, the Alpha and Omega dichotomy is James Lafond’s way of explaining the different types of Men out there.

You got the Alphas who are leaders.

You got the Betas who are followers.

And you got the Omegas who are the lone wolf advisors.

As James Lafond likes to say, you got your King Arthur, your Peasants, and your Merlin respectively.

Those are the Rules of the Road, as James Lafond lays out in his masterful Taboo You: Deluxe Man Cave Edition and extended in The Masculine Axis. 

THE MISTAKEN UNDERSTANDING 

When I first discovered this set-up, it explained a lot of things to me. 

And upon discovering it, I made a big mistake:

I thought I was an Omega. 

I wrote about why I thought this was so in an article exchange with James published on his website on September 17, 2020, entitled “To Control the Omega Man: Richard Barrett and James Lafond Discuss the Self-Cultivation of the Alien Mind”. 

In it, I wrote:

“I have been reading a lot—many of your works in fact. I have read The Gods of Boxing, All Power Fighting, Your Trojan Whorse (one of my favorites in the Lafond collection!), Taboo You (another favorite!).

“From these, I have learned that I am an Omega Man, and that Omega Men can be tough. For much of my life, I was banished to the library, and was content there. But when I decided to come out of the library, I felt pushback from many in my life.” 

THE ALIENATION THAT BORE THE MISTAKE 

I assumed that I was an Omega because I was banished to the library.

But with more life experience and reflection, I realized that I was banished to the library because I am an Alpha who does not believe in the current system of organization, and therefore have been a threat.

Finding freedom in that environment, the library became my domain. 

And when push has come to shove in the past six years, and for a variety of reasons having been stripped of any authority I once had, I have retreated in the domain of the library once more.

For there, I could be a Prince taming the World of Form devoid of Matter. 

And that right there is the crux of it. 

WHAT JAMES LAFOND KNEW 

In The Masculine Axis, James Lafond explains that:

“What sets an Alpha apart is that the leadership role itself, the act of compelling others to act in accord with his wishes or the demands of the hierarchy, and the responsibility to do so, does not, in and of itself, repel, stress, or diminish him.”[1] 

The reality is, when I reflect upon my life, all the times when I have felt the most alive was when I was leading others, “to carry the message of Law and Order, into a Wicked Land” as the song goes.

And all the times I have been hurt the most have been when my leadership has been rejected. 

I suppose I am probably the last person to see the truth of this.

I like John Wayne more than Clint Eastwood. 

I like John Carter more than Conan the Barbarian. 

I mean, I have been a committed Colonialist since the age of 12…you’d think I’d have put two and together sooner!

AT THE BACK OF THE BUS WITH MERLIN  

I’ll never forget watching the 2008 Merlin TV series with my Mom and little sister Liberty in December of 2020, shortly after reading The Masculine Axis. 

My Mom’s Cancer had come back, and she was laid up on the couch, barely able to move, and TV time gave her joy. 

Watching the show, I remember not being able to identify with Merlin at all…he’s a dorky kid, and nobody likes him. 

Meanwhile, King Arthur is like a combination between Lawrence of Arabia and Mad Mitch Mitchell, guys who are my active role models, heroes whom I consider to be the measure of Manhood. 

Soon thereafter, I would find myself in Alpha Role which made me very happy, but that is a tale for another time.

And when it ended, I was very sad, and my Mom’s death would come soon thereafter.

Before her death, she told me out of heart-break borne necessity: 

“Richard, you got to drive the bus for a long time. Now, you’ve got to go to the back of the bus.” 

The context was clear. 

Like Lawrence of Arabia and Mad Mitch Mitchell, I was a historical relic. 

And the Sword was to be cast back into the Stone.

WHAT ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S MENTOR KNEW  

For four years, I have played a Beta, acted as an Omega advisor in reality, and have been repeatedly shocked that I have not gotten Alpha status. 

This has all been borne of not consciously accept who I am.

In his masterful book, Psycho-Cybernetics, the author Dr. Maxwell Maltz explains that the Human Brain is a Goal-striving mechanism. 

What 20th Century Science proved was what Aristotle knew so long ago…

Whatever Final Cause, whatever Telos, whatever Goal you set…you will unconsciously work to achieve that Goal you’ve consciously set. 

I consciously set the Goal of Omega, thinking it was my true Form.

But unconsciously, I longed to be the Alpha, and have been continually unhappy and surprised in equal measure that I have not achieved this. 

Alexander the Great’s mentor would not have been surprised at all!

THE GAME’S AFOOT!  

“You’re more like a Kid to me than a Prince,” I was once told. 

That’s because I consciously chose to go for the Omega…and became the dorky Kid like Merlin on the TV show…an anathema to my beliefs. 

And I have paid the price for this. 

At the end of the day, you play the hand you are dealt with Honor, and this I have done, having done the best I could see at the time, to the best of my abilities in the moment. 

This I do not regret. 

But here is to a New Era, the Era of the True Form, the Era of the Alpha…

And upon its threshold, I usher it in with the immortal words from John Wayne’s favorite Shakespeare play, Henry V:

“I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

“Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:

“Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

“Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’”

Sincerely

Richard Barrett

05-03-2026 

Written at 11:04 PM, somewhere in the USA…

Sources Cited 

Image 1. [1] Lafond, James. The Masculine Axis: A Meditation on Manhood and Heroism. A Punch Buggy Book: Monee, IL, 2017. Pg. 17.