Observing the gamma in the wild

Whether we find them amusing or aggravating, the vagaries of human socio-sexual behavior are always fascinating.  The patterns that Roissy, Athol, Dalrock, Rollo, and others have identified continue to reveal themselves again and again in a fractal manner; we see the same patterns repeating themselves on both the micro and macro levels.

One of the key weaknesses of the gamma is an inability to maintain frame.  He is customarily reacting to the frame set by others.  Roissy places particular importance on this in the pickup and text Game arenas, but as you'll see in a moment here, it applies everywhere.

Now, here is John Scalzi's initial response to discovering that a new verb has been coined in what I suppose we could call his "honor" by the Dark Lord of the Crimson Arts.

I would certainly agree that I don’t conform to their expectations of manhood. This is of course a feature, not a bug. As I wrote yesterday on Twitter, “Today I will offend racist sexist homophobic dipshits simply by EXISTING. Evidence of a life lived correctly, I would say.”

This is a calm and reasonable response, superficially a masculine one.  But look a little closer and three of the major hallmarks of the sniveling gamma can be identified, the departure from objective reality, the passive-aggression, and the self-justification.  The problem, of course, isn't that he doesn't conform to our expectations of manhood; he is actually conforming quite closely to our expectations of his behavior given his socio-sexual rank.  The problem is that he is ineptly attempting to reframe by making a clearly false claim.  It should be manifestly obvious that Roissy and I, among many others, are not offended by his mere existence, but rather, we are AMUSED by his BEHAVIOR.  As I wrote today on Twitter, pointing and laughing is not an indication of taking offense, it is an indication of contempt.

Notice that whereas the ALPHA points (links and identifies) and laughs (is genuinely amused), the gamma avoids (refuses to link, refuses to even name), and alternates between feigned laughter, feigned indifference, and genuine anger.  Confrontation and contempt are alpha.  Evasion and sniping from safety are gamma.

Given that the gamma male in question is a chubby little nerdman, this is unlikely the first time that he has experienced contempt from his sociosexual superiors.  And given that he is more intelligent than the average, it is even more unlikely that he does not recognize that contempt when it is directed at him.  But instead of admitting it and confronting it in a straightforward manner, as alphas, betas, and deltas would do, the gamma attempts to create his own reality and transforms the situation into an imaginary one in which he is secretly the master.

The astute reader will notice this is exactly what gammas do when they are confronted by the unhappy news that the saintly girl on the pedestal they adore from below is happily playing slutbunny for those dreadful alphas whom he believes are unworthy of her. 

But false frames are difficult to maintain, particularly for gammas because they are less emotionally stable than other men.  This is why Scalzi lurches wildly back-and-forth between calmly attempting to pretend that he is genuinely amused and enjoying the attention to remaining above the fray to implying threats and plotting with his fellow rabbits to try to figure out how to make it stop.  It is particularly informative to count the number of times he refers to some form of insecurity in his most recent post; like women, gammas tend to be solipsistic and habitually project their own psychological tendencies upon others.  Even if we accept the absurd notion that two manifestly self-confident individuals such as Roissy and me possess "deep and abiding insecurities", is it even remotely credible that all of the thousands of our readers who are simply enjoying the entertainment are "equally insecure"?  He is attacking the readers for the same reason the bullied kid at school thinks everyone hates him, when most of the other kids don't know his name and couldn't care less about him.

The funniest part, in my estimation, was this phrase: "The pathology of it is pretty standard elementary-school taunting dynamic...."  Which is partially true, as while there is nothing pathological about it, the rhetorical dynamic is no different at the elementary-school level than the adult one.  But since he recognizes the dynamic, he should have been able to recognize the parts being played by the various players.  It would not surprise me in the slightest if his response tends to echo the advice given to him by his mother some 30+ years ago.

Don't cry, Johnny.  They're only being mean to you because they're jealous of how smart you are.  They're just insecure!

It can't possibly be because they are cruel and predatory, and you made the mistake of asking for it, can it? Gammas aren't well-suited for conflict with alphas, (much less sigmas), because their instability, reality-avoidance, and passive-aggressiveness, and need to justify themselves renders it all but impossible for them to understand the alpha game of direct challenge-and-submit.  Gammas usually have enough sense to avoid challenging their socio-sexual superiors and stay out of their way, but because John a) doesn't understand socio-sexual dynamics, and b) overestimated the importance of his status in his field, he badly misjudged the situation and thereby has ensured us a considerable amount of entertainment and socio-sexual education in the future.

But understand that it's not the particular gamma who matters in the context of Alpha Game.  That's completely beside the point.  What matters is the way in which the behavior observed is reliably indicative of the rank in the social hierarchy.  How do you behave when you are confronted?  How do you behave when you find yourself in a conflict of your own making?  How do you behave when you find yourself in a conflict with a woman versus one with another man?

The more you learn to confront reality, address it head on, and refuse to flinch simply because it is difficult, painful, or unpleasant, the more others will come to respect you, take you seriously, and even submit to you.  It's not always an easy thing to do; people retreat into their imaginary subjective realities in preference to it for a reason.  But you simply cannot control yourself or your environment by denying who you are, where in the hierarchy you happen to be, and what you find yourself facing.


UPDATE: Speaking of the reality-avoidance, what on Earth is Scalzi babbling about here?  I have never backtracked in the slightest; quite to the contrary, I have repeatedly insisted that his claims of satire must be false due to his uncanny ability to get into the mind of a rapist.  Credulous unsophisticate?  I'm the only one who appears to see through his blown cover as cover!  Between the cross-dressing, the rape confession, the Photoshop narcissism and the obsession with fecal matter, he's one step away from being Buffalo Bill.