The New Man, His Nation and His World

The New Man, His Nation and His World (or For Those Eternal Men) is a work of political philosophy published by Tashrak Khulwat in 1934 in response to Drakat Mown’s Matter of the State. The treatise is largely in support of Mown’s work and seeks to build upon and reconcile it with Haksar Ardemot philosophy. Where Mown argues in favor of the need for a strong singular figure in which all authority can be invested, Khulwat focuses on the need for every man to be a strong figure in his own right, at all levels of society. In doing this, he extends Mown’s Adaptor-Prey-Apex system down to the individual and alters it to fit his worldview, largely influenced by Ardemot theology. The book is regarded as holding an important place in the history of Haksar thought, and was especially influential in the formation of the Unitary Republic at the conclusion of the Haksar Civil War.

Historical Context
Khulwat's childhood was marred by political violence, instability and civil unrest in Haksarad. The conflict in the country was primarily between leftist !Syndicalists, and rightist reactionaries, and the weakened central government was powerless to stop it. For the majority of his life leading up to his authoring of The New Man, Tashrak lived in a part of the country dominated by revolutionary !Syndicalists. Tashrak's father was a member of the military government, but had essentially given up his power in all but name to radical !Syndicalist elements in exchange for amnesty and freedom from political violence. This would give Tashrak a great disdain for what he saw as his father’s weakness in accepting the illegitimate rule of leftist atheists. At the age of sixteen, Khulwat would be enrolled in the Saint Neqsaidhar’s University, where he would show a great affinity for philosophy and theology in particular. It was here where he would meet many of the people who would make up what was later called the Khulwatin Circle, a group of conservative Haksar intellectuals who had a great effect on the nation’s political thought throughout the remainder of the 20th century and even into the modern day. It was also during his time at Saint Neqsaidhar’s that he would first come into contact with the writings of Drakat Mown, first through Mown’s graduation thesis Successes and Failures of the Gemutrak Political System and then through Matter of the State.

Khulwat’s first significant work was A False God: The Idol of Revolution, published in 1930, just after his graduation at the age of twenty. In it, he attacked the government for flirting with !Syndicalists, whom he attacked for their attitude toward the church and tradition. He also claimed that “[contemporary Haksar] society has turned away from God and set up idols of the state and of the self in His place,” and that ”where their revolution has arisen, morality has fallen.” While many of his friends would publish their works under pseudonyms in the interest of their own safety, Tashrak disavowed this as cowardly and refused to do the same. The first of many arrests would come after the publishing of A False God.

Content and Philosophy
The New Man was written with the intent of building on Drakat Mown’s philosophy as it was found in Matter of the State. Khulwat agrees with Mown’s assertion that struggle is needed for improvement, and he applies this to all levels: individual, national and international. Firstly, a man must struggle personally against his sinful nature and the wickedness of his material self in order to better himself and achieve virtue and rightness. Secondly, those men who have achieved greatness of soul through the internal battle then must turn toward the betterment of their community and their nation. This second level of struggle, that against one’s fellow man, reinforces the fruits of the first; struggle with others helps to bolster one’s own virtue and strength. Thirdly, after a people have been improved by the triumph of the virtuous over the wicked, and they have unified under a just and righteous ruler, they must take that fight to every corner of the earth. Khulwat defends Mown’s belief that there must always be an external enemy and argues that his critics have taken his stance ungenerously. Khulwat states that, while Mown did not explicitly say so, it should be obvious that such enemies must be made on moral and ideological grounds, and that it is not arbitrary, nor will it lead to the demonization of undeserving peoples if carried out correctly. Khulwat defends this point by saying that wickedness as a force will exist in the world until the end times, and so too will wicked people exist; ”there will never be a shortage of wicked men to set one’s self against.”

Book I – The Trichotomy
In the first book, Khulwat outlines what he calls simply “the Trichotomy,” which he then applies to both individuals and states. The Trichotomy, inspired by Drakat Mown’s Prey-Adaptor-Apex system, categorizes both people and states as one of three things: Lamb, Jackal or Lion. While the basic correlations between Khulwat’s Lamb-Jackal-Lion system and Mown’s Prey-Adaptor-Apex system seem simple at first glance, there are some significant differences. These differences are due in large part to Khulwat’s concern with entrenching morality in his system in a way that Mown did not.

Khulwat’s Lamb and Mown’s Prey are often stated to be two names for the same thing. However, once again, there are certain moral statements embedded in Khulwat’s idea of the Lamb--especially on the individual level--that do not exist in Mown’s Prey. In fact, Tashrak sometimes refers to Lambs instead as “cubs” or “little Lions,” and classifies those people and nations that possess some degree of virtue, but not the unity and strength of arm to be considered a Lion, as Lambs. In Khulwat’s system, it is the natural place of the Lamb to submit itself to the Lion for its own protection. He applies this to the family, to the community, to the nation and to the world as a whole—children should submit to their parents, wives to their husbands, men and women to their local and religious authorities, communities to their legitimate rulers and weaker nations to the strong. As is implied by his occasional use of the terms “cubs” or “little Lions,” there is mobility in the Trichotomy, but ”a Lamb should never roar as the Lion does if it does not possess the teeth and claws.” There has been some debate as to Khulwat’s idea of the Lamb, as he seems to have two separate ideas. The first, and the one he wrote more about in the book, is the one described above: possessing some degree of virtue, but not the strength, will and unity to go with it. The second is more reminiscent of Mown’s Prey category, being weak and self-righteous pacifists and decadents. This failure to draw a distinction has been the subject of some criticism.

The Jackal resembles the Adaptor in some ways, but is usually considered to be of the lowest moral character in the Trichotomy (sometimes the second, more Prey-like variety of Lamb is considered to be lower). A brief description of what it means to be a Jackal may be found immediately after Tashrak’s warning against Lambs behaving as Lions. “To possess the teeth and claws [of the Lion] without the heart and soul would make one but a Jackal.” A Jackal is, to some degree, strong like a Lion, but lacks the Lion’s virtue, discipline and benevolence. Robbers, murderers and rapists are all condemned as Jackals by Khulwat, as are genocidal tyrants and unjust invaders. He also derides the Jackals as ”[desiring] the glory and power that is afforded to the Lion, but not the virtue that has earned him these fruits in the first place.”

The Lion is ”the height of Man and Nation.” In his description of the Lion as a man, Khulwat focuses on the triumph of personal struggle over one’s own sinful nature and the wickedness of the material self. In order to truly become a Lion ”Man must struggle against his own flesh in order to conquer those baser parts of himself, and to restrain the wickedness of his heart and the strength of his arm with the chains of disciplined virtue.” Like the Jackal, the Lion is strong; unlike the Jackal, the Lion knows when to practice restraint. The strength of the Jackal is bestial and unchecked, but the strength of the Lion is exercised in pursuit of the highest good. Once a man has achieved that greatness of soul and become a Lion, it is his duty as such to protect those who possess virtue, but are weaker than himself (the Lambs, particularly those sometimes called “cubs” or “little Lions”). It is also the duty of the Lion to drive out wickedness in other men by his counsel and, if necessary, by his strength. "In all things, the Lion must subdue the Jackal. The domination of the wicked by the righteous must not be hindered or forbidden. It is common among so-called ‘modern men,’ those who claim to be the paragons of civilization and morality, to say that ‘violence has never solved anything’ or that ‘violence is never the answer.’ This is merely a lie told by the wicked and weak to keep the strong and righteous from taking up arms in defense of morality and truth. These effete and effeminate soft-bellied intellectuals and degenerates rule not by strength or right, but by the mere fact that we believe them to rule."

When Khulwat speaks of the wicked here, he refers both to Jackals and to the type of Lamb that more closely resembles Mown’s Prey.

Book II – A Nation of Lions
In the second book, Khulwat continues to elaborate on how Lions as men should drive out wickedness from their homes and their communities, which will eventually lead to morally upright communities and even nations. These nations, where the Lions justly rule over the Sheep and are able to overcome and constrain the Jackals, are Lions as nations. Here Khulwat briefly recaps what it means for a nation or a people to be a Lamb, a Jackal or a Lion, as opposed to what it means for an individual to be the same. He also goes into further detail in regards to his “natural order,” in which the Lamb rightly and willingly submits to the Lion. It is also in this book that Khulwat outlines his concept of the citizen. Like Mown, he supports a strong central authority primarily invested in a singular man. Unlike Mown, Khulwat advocates for some level of representativeness, believing that the nation will be better ruled if the ruler is selected by virtuous men as opposed to the capricious fortune of heredity. To this end, he believes that those people who have undergone the individual struggle in the betterment of their souls should be afforded citizen status, which would include the right to vote. It is this concept that would lead to the system of citizenship in the Unitary Republic, in which voting rights are tied to military service. In this same section, however, Khulwat argues that a free society under republican rule can only exist in a morally righteous culture, and in all other instances, representative systems would be harmful to the virtue of the nation and the people.

Book III – Anathema
In the third book, Khulwat decries the state of his homeland at the time of his writing. ''”The land of my birth is in an unnatural state; one in which wicked Jackals and effeminate Lambs rule over a nation of Lions. This is anathema to me and it is anathema to God. It cannot last.’'' He attacks the military government, making not-so-subtle references to his own father, he attacks !Syndicalist revolutionaries, he attacks atheists, and lastly he attacks those who know that the state of things is wrong but make no effort to fix it out of fear. Khulwat’s philosophy is rather economy-agnostic, and his attacks on !Syndicalists focus on their anti-traditionalism as opposed to their economic system. While he does condemn them as materialist “money worshippers,” he applies this generally to all who emphasize economic issues over social and moral ones, including many capitalists.

Reception
The creator of Matter of the State, Drakat Mown, was reportedly filled with glee when he first heard about The New Man and promptly acquired it within weeks of its initial release, going as far as hiring a translator to read the book to him. Mown would publicly voice his praise for the book saying "had he not been a Haksar, thousands of Kilometres away, I would've thought this man as my brother... Truly, he understands the points I have given that were so frustratingly put aside by the fools in Gemurtrak. His expansion of my theories only further show that this is a growing field and one ripe for change in this tumultuous century". A friendship between Khulwat and Mown developed following Mown's public and private praise towards the book. Mown notably traveled numerous times to Haksarad following the release of The New Man and engaged in many dialogues with Khulwat during his time there.