How Testosterone Determines The Fate Of Civilization
A critical review of Dr. Charles Cornish-Dale’s The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity argues that hormonal health, particularly testosterone, plays a crucial role in shaping not only individual vitality but also the character of societies and their political trajectories. The author contends that testosterone and sperm production have declined over recent decades, contributing to more depressed, less assertive men who struggle to form families and participate in traditional masculine roles. the reviewer notes that this shift is linked to broader social problems, including low birthrates, gender confusion, and political dysfunction, and suggests that these trends could destabilize nations if left unchecked.
key points
– Causes: The book attributes testosterone decline to environmental factors such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals in food and water, plastics and microplastics, and poor dietary patterns that favor plant-based diets and processed foods over nutrient-dense animal foods.
– Evidence and examples: Cornish-dale cites studies on declining male reproductive metrics and references public figures and discussions about environmental toxins to illustrate the broader impact on health and behavior.
– Solutions: On an individual level, the book recommends avoiding plastics, eating meat and dairy, exercising, getting adequate sleep, and reducing exposure to processed foods. Collectively, it urges reforms of agencies like the FDA, EPA, and USDA and advocates resisting what the author describes as leftist “nanny state” policies.
– Controversies: The work links endocrine disruptors to transgender outcomes and uses provocative language about gender and politics, which the reviewer treats as a controversial, sometimes sensational framing. The author also connects liberal democracy to the rise of the “Last Man” (a state of diminished spirit and vitality) though the reviewer views this integration as weaker than the core hormone-harm thesis.
– Overall assessment: The reviewer praises the book for being readable, concise, and focused on a single central issue, even as it criticizes certain ideological overreach and speculative connections between politics and biology. The book is valued as a thought-provoking call for more research into how testosterone decline might influence contemporary affairs.
Conclusion
The piece concludes that The Last Men provides a provocative, accessible examination of how hormonal health could intersect with cultural and political life. While some arguments may lean toward sensationalism or broad generalizations, the book successfully prompts readers to consider the biological dimensions of social change and to seek further inquiry into the potential links between endocrine health and the fate of modern societies. The author of the review, Augste Meyrat, is an English teacher and writer who contributes to various outlets and hosts a podcast.
When it comes to understanding complex topics like politics, most people would agree that it is a mistake to dwell on one particular variable — though this is not always the case.
While this much is known and written about by scholars, there is one variable that tends to be ignored, which deserves far more attention: hormonal health. Not only does this have a direct bearing on the fecundity and growth of a population, but it also affects its character. Depending on their hormone levels, some societies might be assertive and energetic, while others might be passive and prone to stagnation.
And yet, for various reasons, this issue is rarely explored, much less mentioned. Fortunately, someone has finally risen to the occasion and addressed this lacuna: Dr. Charles Cornish-Dale, who gained his notoriety under the online sobriquet “Raw Egg Nationalist.” As a historian and anthropologist with considerable knowledge of health and fitness, Cornish-Dale is perfectly suited to the task. In his newest book, The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity, he makes the case for the importance of hormones to the body politic. And at a time of below-replacement birthrates, gender confusion, toxic feminism, and widespread social dysfunction, it is well past time for people to heed his warning on a widespread crisis currently afflicting the developed world.
As Cornish-Dale proves from the outset, there has a been a steady drop in testosterone and sperm production among the world’s male population over the past several decades. Study after study indicates that more and more men today “lack the very physicality required to be fully men, to value what they are meant to value, and to be what they are meant to be—and they lack that physicality because of testosterone decline.” In practical terms, this looks like a growing cohort of depressed, frustrated men who lack the wherewithal to couple with a woman and reproduce.
Although many on the progressive feminist left might triumph over this development, Cornish-Dale makes it clear that a mass of physically emasculated young men does not portend world peace and accelerated material process. Not only will it become “impossible for humans to reproduce by natural means,” spelling certain doom for the human race, but it will also generate mass desperation that will manifest itself in the political realm and beyond. Cornish-Dale notes how even the philosopher Plato “knew that a horde of angry unf–kable men would be a serious destabilizing agent for any society” and subsequently made provisions for this in his Republic.
After establishing the problem of testosterone decline and “Spermageddon,” Cornish-Dale examines the causes. In his view, most of this has to do with the introduction of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the food and the water supply along with the proliferation of plastics and microplastics.
To kick off this discussion, he cites the podcaster Alex Jones, who rose to infamy by declaring (rightly, as it turns out) that unseen actors are “PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN’ FROGS GAY!” Sure enough, herbicides like atrazine have been proven to poison the endocrine systems of clawed frogs, turning them gay or trans, yet are still in use in many modern farms. Even though the paid hacks for these massive agricultural companies will swear this has no negative impact on humans, there is plenty of evidence to show that these kinds of chemicals pose major hazards to people’s health, causing an array of reproductive and mental disorders for both men and women.
Along with these toxins are microplastics which are everywhere. Primarily, microplastics act as “vehicles … for harmful endocrine-disrupting chemicals, carrying them deep in our bodies,” but they are also disruptors themselves since they have been shown to “literally ‘suck up’ hormones and other important substances in the blood, including testosterone, making these unavailable to the body for use.”
With these factors in mind, Cornish-Dale takes the argument one step further by linking the spread of endocrine-disruptors to the rise of transgenderism. Once again, this phenomenon obviously stems from a multitude of social conditions, but it makes sense to think that the growing ubiquity of substances that compromise people’s reproductive systems also play a major role. If so, perhaps those struggling with gender dysphoria would be better off being medically treated instead of medically castrated.
Cornish-Dale also brings up poor diets as a cause for the worldwide decline in testosterone, taking particular aim at campaigns pushing “plant-based” foods and vegetarianism. Simply put, humans are omnivores who are not designed to eat soy products, processed foods, seed oils, or meat-substitutes. Such a diet will make a person weaker, sicker, fatter, and much less masculine. Nonetheless, global elites will continue pushing this propaganda, prompting Cornish-Dale to recommend forming a “political movement that makes access to nutrient-dense animal foods a basic right and protects traditional agriculture.”
Much of the rest of the book lists ways to combat testosterone decline, both on an individual and collective level. For the former, Cornish-Dale’s suggestions are basic common sense: stay away from plastic products and processed foods, drink filtered water, eat more meat and dairy, exercise and build muscle, and get more sleep. On the collective scale, his suggestions become somewhat more nebulous: reform institutions like the FDA, EPA, and USDA, don’t worry about being called gay by leftists, resist the leftist nanny state, and don’t become a male feminist who takes hormonal birth control for men.
As for his deeper argument about the implications of testosterone decline, Cornish-Dale frames his argument in terms of Nietzsche’s “Last Man,” which is a man completely devoid of “thumos” or spiritedness and thus completely preoccupied with petty comforts and short-term goals. The book’s title, The Last Men, is itself taken from writer Francis Fukuyama’s use of this idea, which he sees as the result of liberal democracy triumphing over authoritarianism at the end of the 20th century.
While Cornish-Dale makes a few remarks about the effect of liberalism on masculinity, mainly at the beginning and end of the book, it feels more tacked on after the fact than truly integrated into his reasoning. Indeed, this ends up being the main weakness of the book since it opens up a can of worms about the relationship between certain political systems and ideologies and the physical wellbeing of men. Is global emasculation a product of bad ideas? Is it the inevitable consequence of leftist rule? Would a collective increase in testosterone make a difference in the political trajectory of developed nations? These are interesting questions, but Cornish-Dale mostly uses them to tease his reader and nothing more.
That said, the book as a whole demonstrates that there was little need to bother with such tactics. Simply knowing more about the general importance of testosterone is reason enough to read The Last Men. It also helps that Cornish-Dale does a superb job making his book readable, interesting, and concise. Unlike other writers and influencers who might discuss the worldwide drop in testosterone, he avoids the usual pitfalls of shilling for a particular product, droning endlessly about the perfect weightlifting routine (though one can follow him on X, if he’s interested), or chasing down half-baked conspiracy theories.
Hopefully, Cornish-Dale and others can do more work on the problems brought up in The Last Man and consider how testosterone decline might be influencing current affairs. It’s difficult to imagine a more urgent and worthy endeavor. If enough people can inform themselves on this topic, then the testosterone tide might be reversed, and the ignominious end of men could be flipped into a beautiful beginning that revitalizes the West and renews masculinity and humanity everywhere.
Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher and freelance writer in the Dallas area. He is the founding editor of The Everyman, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and has written for essays for The American Mind, The Stream, Religion and Liberty, The Blaze, and elsewhere. He is also the host of “The Everyman Commentary Podcast.” Follow him on X.
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