Men Worthy of Emulation

Benjamin Whitlock

Graduation is quickly approaching. As I prepare to leave the University of Louisville, I am reflecting more and more about the advice that I have been given, and one particular piece that stands out to me comes from a great mentor who will remain nameless. It was this: “Think about the man that you want to be...and be it.”

This is great advice, but if I’ve learned anything from UofL History Professor Thomas Mackey, it is to “go to the sources, go to the sources, go to the sources.” The McConnell Center, likewise, has taught me to emulate great men...so...I have been doing my research!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present three "manly men" worthy of emulation and draw from two great articles on my favorite site, The Art of Manliness, to unravel and identify traits I seek to emulate.

Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt infused life and energy into everything he did. In "Fists of Theodore Roosevelt," Brett and Kate McCay point out that even photographs of TR capture his zest for life: In almost every photograph, his hands are always balled into fists.

“I think if [Teddy Roosevelt] were a little boy today, he might be given Ritalin and grow up to be a salesman of some sort and we would never have heard from him again. Look at photographs of him. Whenever he’s seated, if he has a hand on a desk or a hand on his knee, it’s always in a fist. There’s all that coiled energy. It’s not—it’s not anger, it’s just energy coiled, waiting to be let loose.” -- Historian Patricia O'Toole

This energy drove him in all aspects of life. According to Brett and Kate McCay, "For the ancient Romans, energy was manliness, and Teddy showed the possibility of embodying this definition of manhood even in the 20th century." TR is remembered for his exercise, including boxing, tennis, hiking, rowing, polo and horseback riding. During his politicking, he gave up to 20 speeches a day, mainly focused on his cardinal virtues: decency, courage, and common sense. He forced visiting leaders and dignitaries on long hikes. After his left retina detached in a boxing bout (which left him blind in that eye), TR practiced jiu-jitsu.

This energy allowed him to accomplish numerous feats. Any one of these alone is worth celebrating -- but here are 10 identified by Brett and Kate McCay:

1. TR worked as state legislator, police commissioner, and governor in New York.
2. He owned and worked a ranch in the Dakotas.
3. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
4. He was a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War.
5. He served as President for two terms -- and then he ran for an unprecedented third term.
6. He was the first President to leave the country during his term in order to see the building of the Panama Canal.
7. He wrote 35 books.
8. He read tens of thousands of books--several a day and in multiple languages.
9. He discovered, navigated, and then named a completely uncharted Amazonian river over 625 miles long.
10. He earned the Nobel Peace Prize and the Medal of Honor (posthumously).

Cato the Younger 

In "Cato: Lessons from a Self-Made Man," Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni discuss how Cato the Younger's life offers lessons on becoming a self-made man. I summarize key lessons from their piece on what we should emulate from Cato's example.

Cato the Younger—the great Roman soldier, senator, and Stoic—was a hard man to like. He was ungracious in his friendships, uncompromising in his politics, blunt in his conversations, yet able to talk the Roman Senate’s ears off from sunup to sundown. The story of how he was a self-made man and the last man to stand against Julius Caesar in defense of the Roman Republic. 

Cato wasn’t self-made in the familiar sense: he came from a long line of statesmen, and he never had to worry about money. But Cato was self-made in a deeper sense: he made it his life’s work to live deliberately....His character—austere, tough, principled to a fault—was a conscious creation.

• Respect Your Roots—But Don’t Let Them Trap You. Cato, the great-grandson of the sainted Cato the Elder who saved his country "when the Roman state was tottering to its fall," embraced his legendary roots--but he knew when to depart from them. He was a defender of "the way of the ancestors," but Goodman and Soni point out that he was also a Stoic which meant he was part of a school of philosophy "with a suspect, foreign and cultish reputation." A relatively new--and foreign--philosophy, Stoicism taught that virtue was the key to happiness; the road to virtue was to learn that destructive emotions can be controlled consciously. Self-sufficiency and self-control were its key tenets. But Stoicism was "mocked for its outlandish practices," and many Romans rarely considered the merits of the Stoic philosophy. Cato became the public face of the philosophy--at great risk to his political career--and made it acceptable. In so doing, knew when to honor his Roman past and when to leave it behind.

• Don’t Be Afraid to Be Ridiculous. Cato walked barefoot, wore outdated clothes, and went without material comforts. Plutarch noted that Cato was mocked by ambitious friends for his resistance to politics. He spoke bluntly, made few friends, and learned to steel himself against disaster and emotional loss. He channeled the Roman Stoicism and resolved to make and develop his character. He focused on the philosophy but also the doing--he deliberately trained himself so these habits became second nature.

• Know What’s Important and What’s Superficial. Cato saw himself as a defender of the Roman tradition and love of liberty in light of Caesar's rise and the impeding Roman autocracy. While others also challenged the status quo during the late Roman Republic, Cato deliberately rejected the conspicuous consumption around him, bucking his own family's great wealth and choosing to live frugally and simply. He avoided the bribery and corruption around him and was noted for his civil disobedience. And as Rome celebrated Caesar's slaughter of an entire Gallic tribe, Cato rose in the Senate to demand that Caesar be tried as a war criminal.

• “Self-Made” Means More Than You Think. Today, "self-made" means you are what you earn (in a monetary sense). Cato demonstrated a different type of "self-made" man. He was already wealthy, respectable, and from a long line of Roman politicians. Goodman and Soni say that we remember Cato because he made a different choice: he was courageous and took a stand. He made himself into a critical thinker and leader who questioned the status quo. 

Josiah Bunting, III + US Army Strategic Broadening Seminar

This summer, I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Gary Gregg and the McConnell Center's Strategic Broadening Seminar for the U.S. Army. One of my duties, for one wonderful week, was to drive Ret. General Josiah Bunting, III from his hotel to the McConnell Center and back every day.  I may have learned more in that one week than in all of my time in the McConnell Center.  

While driving, Gen. Bunting would discuss everything from TR to Cato, from Gen. McArthur to Gen. Petraeus, and from the Invasion of Normandy to his own experience in Vietnam. One night, I was to introduce him. In discussing what I should say, he gave me the most valuable advice I have received in many years: “Keep it brief.”

Despite the many experiences and accomplishments of his life, and despite the vast amount of knowledge that he possessed, he wanted me to say this:

“Gen. Bunting is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He currently serves as the Chairman of the American English Speaking Union. He will present a lecture on General George C. Marshall.”

That was it! The great man was humble—plain and simple.

Application

After considering what it is that drew me to these men, I have drawn these conclusions about characteristics I seek to emulate:

• Build your body 
• Work tirelessly
• Be a citizen in the true sense of the word
• Build your character
• Remember your past 
• Be willing to break from the past
• Don’t be afraid
• Be humble through it all

Benjamin Whitlock is a senior McConnell Scholar studying political science and history. He is from Greensburg, Ky.