I. The Passing of an Archetype
In my last essay, I argued that the Renaissance Man, though noble and admirable, was incomplete for the age in which we live. Today, we need something more — a figure I called the March Lord: a man who combines breadth of knowledge, moral clarity, and martial courage to conquer the chaos at civilization’s edges.
But as I reflected on the rise of the March Lord, it struck me that in my own generation, few even know what a Renaissance Man is — yet everyone knows the entrepreneur. Since the postwar boom and through Silicon Valley’s ascendancy, the entrepreneur has been America’s hero: conquering markets, building companies, innovating industries, and amassing fortunes.
That era is over. I know this because I lived inside its decaying corpse for nearly two decades — from my first ventures as a boy, to a corner office with a personal R&D team, to the collapse that finally set me free.
The problems we face now cannot be solved by startups, capital, or charisma alone. And the entrepreneurial mindset — brilliant as it has been — is no longer enough. A new archetype, the March Lord, must ascend.
II. The Entrepreneur Hero: An Archetype That Served Its Time
After World War II, the entrepreneur helped rebuild the West. Fueled by a sense of national mission — first to win the Cold War, then to lead the global economy — entrepreneurs built real things: semiconductors, jet engines, infrastructure, industry.
In the early days, business and statecraft were intertwined: Hewlett and Packard started HP, and Packard, believing innovation should serve the nation, felt it was his duty to serve as an Undersecretary of Defense.
But after the Cold War ended, the national mission dissolved. By the dot-com boom of the 1990s and the financial crisis of 2008, profit became the only measure. Many entrepreneurs became allocators of capital rather than builders of civilization.
We were promised flying cars, moon bases, and fusion reactors — and we got advertising algorithms, financial instruments, and social media apps. We’ve seen some true innovations — in AI and a handful of other fields — but they are exceptions among a sea of pump-and-dump schemes, hollow valuations, and rivers of squandered wealth. The entrepreneurial spirit, once a servant of civilization, became a servant of Mammon — its monuments rising in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.
III. Today’s War: The Administrative State
Now we stand before a new kind of challenge: the administrative state — the great Leviathan of our age.
It is a sprawling, unelected, entrenched apparatus of laws, agencies, regulators, bureaucracy, and dependents. It resists reform because it was designed to resist it — a fortress of procedure and power that no single election or executive order can topple.
For decades, this Leviathan has quietly expanded its reach — not only strangling governance but also choking the very innovation the entrepreneur once embodied. The reason we do not have flying cars, moon bases, or fusion reactors is not merely a lack of vision or capital — it is the weight of this machine. Layers of regulation, entrenched interest, litigation, and bureaucratic inertia turn every bold idea into a slog through molasses.
Musk discovered this firsthand. After years of building, disrupting, and innovating, he ran headlong into the wall of the administrative state — and realized that innovation alone could no longer prevail. Joining Trump in the fight against the very system itself was the only option.
But dismantling this Leviathan requires more than vision or disruption. It requires a functioning Congress willing to pass the laws that will change the nature of the beast. And Congress will not move simply because an entrepreneur sits in the White House. To move Congress demands discipline, structure, and leadership.
IV. Trump & Musk: Liminal Figures
Trump and Musk are transitional men — the last great heroes of the entrepreneur era, and the first to collide with its limits.
Trump shattered the complacency of American politics. He showed that will still matters, that one man can move the world. But even he learned that the Leviathan cannot be slain from the Oval Office alone — and that wielding power requires working through the very machinery he campaigned against.
Musk, too, exposed the dysfunction of the administrative state. He clashed with regulators, challenged sacred cows, and confronted the bureaucracy head-on — only to discover that innovation alone could not prevail against entrenched power.
Their clash over the big beautiful bill laid this tension bare. Trump, needing to deliver victories through Congress, was forced to fund not only his own agenda but much of the administrative state that desperately needs to be cut. Musk, by contrast, sought to defund it outright — to strip it of its bloat and make it efficient — but his vision was politically impossible. Any serious attempt to starve the Leviathan would have stalled in Congress, where senators and representatives are deeply tied to its largesse.
Thus we find ourselves trapped: Trump must work through the Leviathan to achieve anything, while Musk rightly sees that it must be dismantled — yet neither has yet found the means to resolve the contradiction that defines our time.
This is the defining tension of our time — and it cannot be solved by charisma or disruption alone. It demands something more: a disciplined federation of men, who over time can conquer Congress, coordinate their strength, and implement a deliberate transition that dismantles the Leviathan without catastrophe.
The road ahead will not be won in a single administration or a single battle. It will require vision, patience, and discipline — and it begins with the rise of the March Lords.
V. The March Lord: The Archetype for This Age
The March Lord is the figure fit for this fight.
Historically, the March Lords (or margraves) arose in the age of Charlemagne and beyond — appointed to govern the marches, the dangerous borderlands between order and chaos. Their duty was to hold the line — and push it outward. They were conquerors, builders, and stewards — not merely warriors, but governors of contested ground.
The word march itself carries rich meaning:
The march: the boundary — the frontier where civilization meets chaos.
Mars: the Roman god of war, symbolizing conflict and courage.
March: the month of renewal, when life returns after winter.
To march: disciplined movement toward a common goal.
The March Lord blends the Renaissance Man’s breadth with the entrepreneur’s drive — but transcends them both. He is a warrior-statesman: forged for stewardship, trained for conquest, disciplined for dominion — a man of order at the edge of chaos.
And he is committed to the mastery of the twelve pillars of knowledge — disciplines of governance, war, culture, and soul — which I have outlined elsewhere.
VI. The Mission of the March Lord: Conquer Congress, Dismantle the Administrative State
The business of our time is the conquest of Congress — and through it, the dismantling of the administrative state. This is not a battle that can be won from a single office, nor by charisma and disruption alone. It demands structure, discipline, and a new breed of leader.
Today’s March Lords must rise to secure and advance the contested frontiers of our age: geographic, technological, cultural, political, and spiritual.
They must establish themselves in every county, city, district, and critical industry — the modern marches where chaos presses in — and there bring order, stability, and loyalty to the people around them. A March Lord earns his following not through force, but by improving lives, defending what is good, fighting off evil, and proving himself worthy of trust. He organizes his domain into a stronghold — delivering results, inspiring loyalty, and setting an example others wish to follow.
Winning elections is a part of the campaign — but winning hearts and minds is the war. The March Lord must show his community that order, prosperity, and justice are possible, bringing light into the darkness around him. From these local victories, he forges a disciplined political engine, ready to scale.
But no March Lord can stop at his own borders. To conquer Congress and dismantle the Leviathan requires more than isolated victories — it demands a disciplined federation of leaders who inspire others, govern locally, collaborate nationally, and advance the mission at every level — turning contested ground into strongholds of order and weaving those strongholds into an unbreakable whole.
Let it be clear: dismantling the administrative state does not mean shutting down government or inviting chaos. It means restoring a government of rightful scope — one that serves rather than smothers. The work ahead will require deliberate planning and disciplined leadership, ensuring a stable transition from the bloated Leviathan to a leaner order that honors federalism and subsidiarity. In future essays, I and others will explore how March Lords can lead this transition — pruning excess, returning power to the states, and rebuilding trust — without catastrophe.
VII. The Call
To Trump: In your remaining time, use your platform to begin training and equipping the next generation. Direct funding into organizations that can grow under your administration — but structure them so they cannot be easily dismantled by a hostile Congress or successor. Hide them within the administrative apparatus itself: resilient, disciplined, and ready to emerge when called. Leave behind not just a movement, but the first disciplined steps of a march.
To Musk: You have the time, means, and genius. Fund the institutions that will find, train, and equip March Lords — men who will lead and dismantle the machine you yourself have fought. Build more than a party — help forge the March Lords and their armies.
To other men of means: See clearly. The world no longer needs your capital games. It needs your resources to forge leaders for this fight — leaders who will carry the charge you can no longer carry alone.
VIII. The Path Forward
The entrepreneur conquered markets. The March Lord conquers chaos.
The task ahead is clear:
Train and equip the March Lords.
Elevate men who can lead and govern.
Forge the ranks who will march under their command.
This is the age of conquest — of Congress, of the administrative state, of the frontiers where civilization meets chaos.
The March Lord must rise — and he must not march alone.
The age of the entrepreneur is over. The age of the March Lord has begun.
In the coming essays, I will continue to chart the path — for those with strength enough to rise, and march.
This is very good. We need to have morality in our leadership. Musk and Trump are not moral beings, morality is not driving their actions. The foundation of success going forward will be uniting the people along core ideals so we can together upgrade what governance looks like.