There are moments in life that make you feel like a genius. For most people, it’s when they successfully parallel park on the first try or remember someone’s name at a party.
For me, it was when I found a voice memo on my phone I didn’t even remember recording. I was at home, scrolling through a digital junk drawer labeled “Voice Memos,” right next to a folder titled “Workout Plans” that has never once been opened. I expected to find half-formed ideas for grocery lists or poorly hummed tune fragments I was convinced were the next Bohemian Rhapsody.
What I found instead was a statement so wise and so profound that it made me pause mid-sip of lukewarm coffee and whisper, “Oh my God… I’m a philosopher.”
It was a recording of something I had clearly heard on a podcast; my own voice mimicking back someone else’s brilliance like a philosophical parrot with an overpriced iPhone. It said:
“Weak men create hard times. Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. And good times create weak men.”
And then there was a beat of silence where, presumably, I stood in awe of myself for having had the good sense to record it.
Now I want to tell you that I immediately did something wise and world-changing with that quote. That I printed it out and stitched it onto a throw pillow or spray-painted it on the side of a Whole Foods. But no. I forgot about it entirely for a year and a half. Because apparently strong men may create good times, but good times also come with distractions like flavored seltzer, streaming television, and a society that rewards people for lip-syncing into their front-facing cameras.
When I finally unearthed the recording, I was struck again by its accuracy. The cycle is both profound and absurd, which is basically how I feel about most everything in my life. It’s the kind of wisdom you wish you had thought of yourself, but you know deep down you were too busy Googling if cashews are a legume to ever arrive at anything quite so elegant.
The brilliance of this statement is in its heart-dropping symmetry. It’s like a Shakespearean tragedy but without the poetic meter and with more Twitter-like quality. We are doomed to keep circling the drain of history, dragging generations with us, as each group learns nothing from the one before it. It’s the Circle of Life if Elton John had been more cynical and less enthusiastic about baby lions.
And yet, there’s something kind of cozy about it too. The quote offers a strange comfort, like when a doctor tells you that your chronic fatigue is just “part of being in your forties.” It means the chaos isn’t entirely personal. It’s not your fault that the world feels like it’s being run by interns. It’s just that we are in the “weak men” part of the cycle. The weak men are everywhere; some of them even own media companies or make policy decisions or have podcasts with sponsors like beard oil and tactical backpacks.
But don’t worry. According to the cycle, the hard times are coming. And with hard times come strong men. Not CrossFit-strong, mind you, but the kind of people who can fix a generator and also tell you the capital of Estonia. People who are too busy surviving to care about what “vibes” their living room gives off. They’ll rise up, rebuild, and start the whole loop again, at which point their grandchildren will invent something called “empathy smoothies” and everything will fall apart once more.
It’s tragic and hilarious all at once. Like watching someone attempt to fold a fitted sheet while arguing about geopolitics. You want to intervene, but you also kind of want to see how bad it gets.
So now that I’ve remembered this quote and shared it with the world, I feel like I’ve done my part. Maybe someone else will hear it, be struck by its brilliance, and forget about it on their phone for a year and a half. Maybe in the next loop of the cycle, some future anthropologist will discover it etched on the back of a Tesla and call it ancient wisdom.
In the meantime, I’ll be here; still scrolling through voice memos, still dodging hard times, and still trying to figure out if I’m the weak (wo)man or the strong (wo)man or just the person in sweatpants ordering pad thai at 2 a.m. while the cycle spins endlessly around me.
Join us in making the world a better place – you’ll be glad that you did. Cheers friends.