The Legacy and Service of Robert Mueller

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Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon . I'm Scott Galloway and this is No Mercy, No Malice. Robert Muller's life was a master class in masculinity. But that's not the real story here. Donald Trump's reaction to Mueller's pass ing is a case study and how not to be a man. The Manosphere and Robert Mueller, as read by George Ha hn. I think about masculinity a lot. I have two sons, and the market for good public male role models is experiencing a supply sho ck. In his new Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere, filmmaker Louis Thoreau chronicles influencers who cosplay as alpha males, displaying their fitness and wealth while vomiting misogynistic garbage regarding men dominating w omen. Spoiler alert These guys will die alone and forgot ten. They're also painfully bor ing. After watching the film, Jessica Gross wrote, The only way for them to maintain the attention of their audiences is to ramp up their behavi or. They go beyond slurs and conspiracy theories to filming sex acts and beating strangers in the stre ets. These influencers aren't providing a template for a virtuous life. They are shills for an attention economy gri ft. Tragically, there's never been any one so adept at grifting the manosphere than Donald Tr ump. He claims to be concerned with the plight of young men, an admirable aim of the manosphere, but pedals a loud, crass and ultimately bogus version of masculinity in service of his own enrichment, at the expense of his mar ks. In my book Notes on Being a Man, I offer a vision of masculinity that emphasizes the roles men can play as providers, protectors, and procreators . Some people have pushed back, arguing that my framing overlooks men who don't fit easily into those categor ies. F air. Here's a simpler framew ork. Men should add surplus val ue. Give more than they take. Leave rooms, relationships, and institutions better than they found them. That's the whole shooting match . Try to absorb more complaints than they levy, de escalate conflict, and notice people's lives without needing to draw attention to their o wn. Another takeaway from Thoreau's work calm and intellect trump physicality and aggress ion. The documentarian is slight, awkward, and owns the room . His honest, unafraid queries are never mean spirited, and when his subjects turn on him, he just takes it, see above , as he knows he's right . I wish I'd learned earlier in life that being a man means occasionally absorbing a blow without responding to restore some fucked up sense of equilibrium to the universe . Final takea way. Ideology isn't what's driving the manosph ere. The icons of this realm are grifters. There's always a supplement, a crypto course, or a trading platform that drains boys, these are boys, economically in exchange for an illusory sense of self . Their followers engage because they have a desperate need for community . The Manosphere, for all its flaws, is a community of men. The left should take notice. It celebrates and funds almost every special interest group except the one that's fallen faster than any other group in the last fifty years, young men . If you're a young man trying to figure out what surplus value looks like ince practi, here's a fil ter. Are you optimizing for attention or serv ice? Attention offers a dopa hit that evaporates into the ether, sending you chasing after things that will never merit mention in your best man's wedding speech, the story your partner tells about why they chose you, or the eulogy your children g ive. Optimizing for service compounds value over a lifet ime. Last Friday, we lost a great Americ an. Rather than sharing condolences or reflecting on Robert Mueller's decades of service or simply demonstrating some grace, President Trump wrote Good, I'm glad he's de ad. With just five words, Trump personified the antithesis of masculin ity. In contrast, Mueller's life was a case study in what it means to be a man. He optimized for service as a Marine Infantry officer, prosecutor, FBI director, and finally, special couns el. In addition to a bronze star and purple heart, he was awarded two invaluable tit les, husband and fat her. Sociologist Robert Merton coined the term role model in nineteen fifty-seven while studying the socialization of medical students . He found that we learn scripts from role models teaching us how to behave in a specific status. Doctor, leader, parent, etc . Mahler likely had dozens of great role models, but it was David Hackett, a classmate and lacrosse teammate at Princeton, who provided the leadership scri pt. After learning that his friend had been killed in combat while serving in Vietnam, Mueller volunteered for the Mar ines. As a fortunate son, Muller was reportedly a Credence Clearwater Revival fan, he could have sought deferments, like Bill Clint on, asked a doctor to write a note saying he had bone spurs, like Trump, or had his family pull strings to secure a national guard spot, like George W. Bus h. Sociologist Alec Campbell quantified an uncomfortable truth about the Vietnam W ar. Someone from the general population was three times to four times more likely to die in combat than an Ivy League gradu ate. Mueller's decision to serve was out of step with his socioeconomic cohort, but very much in charac ter. I had one of the finest role models I could have asked for in an upperclassman by the name of David Hack ett, Mueller recalled in a twenty thirteen speech he gave as FBI direc tor But many of us saw in him the person we wanted to be, even before his death, Mueller went on. A number of his friends and teammates joined the Marine Corps because of him, as did I. The Marines live by a code Semper Fidelis, Latin for always faithful, to the Constitution and the country, to the Corps, to their fellow Marines, and to the miss ion. Muller served three years on active duty before attending law school. After a brief stint in private practice, he joined the Department of Justice . Years later, reflecting on a lifetime of service, Muller said, I consider myself exceptionally lucky to have made it out of Vietnam. There were many who did not, and perhaps because I did survive Vietnam, I have always felt compelled to contribu te. Mueller's contributions read like a John Grisham novel. After rising through the ranks as a prosecutor, he oversaw cases against Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, and the terrorists who bombed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerby, Scotland? But it's the work Mueller did outside the spotlight that reveals his charac ter. In nineteen ninety-five, two years after leaving the DOJ for private practice, Mueller volunteered to return in a lesser role as a line prosecut or. Our nation's capital was a city in great distress. We were called the murder capital of the United St ates. For the next three years, Mueller prosecuted murder cases, helping to bring down the city's homicide r ate. His greatest contribution, however, was leading the FBI for 12 years in the aftermath of 9-11, restoring public trust while reforming the Bureau to address the systemic failures that had allowed the worst terrorist attack in American hist ory. Fealty to his mission sometimes put him at odds with the presidents he served . Letter in hand, confronted President George W. Bush about a secret NSA program to spy on Americans . In his memoir, Bush wro te, I had to make a big decision, and fast. I thought about the Saturday night massacre. That was not a historical crisis I was eager to replic ate. Fearing others would follow Mueller's lead, Bush battered A year later, Mueller's deputy, James Comey, told an NSA audien ce It takes far more than a sharp legal mind to say no when it matters most. It takes moral character, it takes an ability to see the future, it takes an appreciation of the damage that will flow from an unjustified y es. My sons are too young to remember when Trump didn't dominate America's politics. In their eyes, bragging about grabbing women by the pussy, using your office to enrich yourself, and calling your efforts to avoid STDs your own personal Vietnam aren't disqualify ing. The manosphere is teaching their generation that masculinity is performative. Muller's life proves the opposite. Masculinity is a lifetime practi ce. Vietnam wasn't a punchline for Mueller, but a moral proving ground. As he later said, you were scared to death of the unkno wn. More afraid in some ways of failure than death. More afraid of being found wanting. That kind of fear animates your unconscio us. I want my boys to know that kind of fear, to understand that men aren't measured by social media stats, body counts, and bank statements, but by whether they do the right thing even when it's hard, and especially when nobody is looking. The grifters are busy counting their followers, but real influence comes from planting trees whose shade you'll never sit under . Should his family choose, Captain Robert Muller will be laid to rest with full military honors, a three rifle volley salute, folding of the flag, and taps . In attendance will be many of the twenty-five high school hockey players he captained, the fifty Marines he commanded, the thousands of colleagues he served with, his two daughters, five grandchildren, and one wife of 60 ye ars. Captain Robert Mu eller, United States Marine Corps, was 8y- one life is so ri ch.