How do the X-Men break down in the Circle?

Getting Everything Set

I am still getting the hang of autoposting useing posterous. So I apologize if these posts seem repetitive. This is me on training wheels. Feel free to point and laugh.

Synching up my life

There is an awful lot that I need to organize in my life. There always seems to be more. And I have had enough. I am downsizing my stuff. Chunking what can be chunked together. And organizing what cannot be removed.

This includes my online interactions. So I am now posting through an autopost system. And although I am sure that this will take some editting to perfect, I think this is a step in the right direction.

This is only a Test

On Connections

 I've been noticing lately, that I have to preface a lot of what I say. I need to point out that simply because I disagree with this left wing political view, I am not a conservative by process of elimination. I need to explain that my rejection of these right wing views does mean that I am a member of the left wing progressive movement.

This happens to me all the time. Because I do not factionalize or pigeon-hole myself into one of the available categories on most issues, I am forced into a weird dream world in debates where my opponent is debating against his or her hallucination of me- one that often has nothing to do with what I have said, but everything to do with what my opponent believes their enemies will say.

I get frustrated when people argue with me against views I have not expressed.

Most people are not caricatures by nature, but I worry that our desire to pick a side is encouraging us to become caricatures willingly as the price of admission into the in-group.

On Running

Running is one for the great equalizers amongst the sports. You don't need money to run, you don't even need shoes. Marathons have been won by people in bare feet with not special gear or expensive training instruction. Running is like soccer, there is no cost barrier to running.

And this is a very good thing, because running is one of the oldest tools known to mankind. A runner trained for distance can cover distances that startle modern people raised with cars and used to thinking of feet as slow. Running was used a hunting tool before spears and bows, with distance runners literally running animals into heatstroke induced death. Running is the oldest form of self defense on the planet. Running is a powerful tool that the vast majority of people can advantage of without anything more than our own two feet.
And yet so few of us can run well anymore.

Scientists are beginning to look into the theory that running may be what made us human, by allowing us access to meat that could feed our hungry brain. Early human species could run properly- they weren't built for it. Just maybe, running is what made us human. And now most of us don't run.

Does that mean most of us have forgotten what it means to be human?

The Lorax

I have a place in my heart for Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax". I have be to careful when I read it, because I am known to get very sad reading it. I was very skeptical of the movie adaptation and horrified at the car commercials that declared themselves "Truffula tree approved". Nonetheless, I allowed myself to be convinced to attend the movie with my wife and her best friend.

I was shocked, and I was amazed, and deeply moved by the sincerity and integrity this bright and immensely funny cartoon managed to maintain in its 88 minutes.

The show managed several very important things. First, it made you empathize for the tragic central figure "The Once-ler". It made the character sympathetic, while still making him responsible for the stories central tragedy. Second, it did not turn the Lorax into an active figure. Although the movie did add a certain amount of comic shenanigans for Danny Devito, but this was used to heighten the punch of tragic sequences by providing a certain amount of mood whiplash and giving the tearjerker moments some camouflage to hide behind. And third, it didn't tone down the message for public consumption- although it did provide a modest happy ending.

What surprised me was how angry the film felt. I could feel the film maker's outrage flaring behind the day glow landscape and outrageous characters and costumes. There was fire in this creation and I can honestly say that I didn't expect it.

This film has generated much outrage from the conservative quarter. And that to is a good sign. I like movie that cause conservatives to recoil in horror and scream propaganda and sacrilege. And when a children's movie that is so touching and powerful to get that reaction, I get a shiver- and a desire to buy tickets to this movie for all the small children that I know.

Occupy

The Occupy movement seems to have bubbled up like built up swamp gas and erupted in chaotic and ill timed blasts here and there to great shock, but little lasting effect. I have yet to be truly impressed by the Occupy movement. I sympathize with them, but they are too laden with drugs and ulterior motives from too many groups trying to use and manipulate them for me to side with them. 

That said, I do think that the Occupy movement is driven by a genuine populist revolutionary discontent. I do feel that this is a sign of the times so to speak. The people, especially the young people, are looking at the status quo and saying "No. This does not work. I will not support this thing any longer." And I think that this is a necessary thing. I do not think that this is a good thing or a bad thing, but necessary is not always good or bad.

When I read that we must send money and food aid to West Africa, because the rainy season does not allow for a long enough growing season to produce enough food to feed the population, I am struck by our stupidity. If the landbase cannot support the population, then any food relief will simply make the crisis worse next time. And this is the way. Grow until the system cracks from the strain, and then expand to new territory to use that new resource base to feed further growth.

This has worked for centuries and has allowed our elites to live very well. But we have run out of places to expand into. We are running out of resources to tap. The toxins produced by our lifestyle are piling up.

We can only live in defiance of biological law for so long until the court of Mother Nature renders judgement upon us. The mildly stupid Superhero 'the Tick' once noted that "Gravity is a harsh mistress."

Well, so is biology. The laws that govern population growth are the same for llamas and otters and ticks and liver flukes and humans, to paraphrase Daniel Quinn. We are not special, we are the same decaying matter as everything else, to paraphrase Chuck Palaniuck.

People like the Occupy movement are becoming, more or less, aware of the problems inherent in our system. It does work. It can't work. And whether we like it or not, sooner or later it is going to fail. Like West Africa, famine is inevitable. Because even if we stave disaster off this year, we are not living within biological limits, and eventually we must pay the Piper.

The War Language

Tribal societies frequently engage in warfare that is dramatically different than modern warfare. This tribal or endemic warfare is highly ritualized and almost playful or sport-like. Fatalities are rare and injuries are significantly less common. These ritualized wars serve the purpose of allowing warriors to show their courage and allowing tribes to sort out minor disagreements without major loss of life. But Tribal societies do also engage in true warfare when necessary. 

Such conflict inevitably puts huge stresses on warriors, and tribal cultures have discovered that there are several factors that help reduce trauma from war. First, social sanction from the tribe helps warriors cope with their actions in war time. Second, purification rituals which ceremonially cleanse the warrior of their sins. Third, transformation into a warrior state that can be left behind through another transformation at the end of war time.

Having a separate language for warriors in war time, such as the 'clipped speech' of the (admittedly fictional) Klingon Military allows for a dramatic transformation on the part of the warrior. According to the Sapir-Wharf Hypothosis, what we are able think about and how we are able to think at all is mediated by the language in which we speak and think. By giving warriors a different language to communicate in, we create a different culture and with luck a different persona for the warrior to wear on the battlefield. With luck this persona will be one that can then be put aside when the battle is over.
 
There are other parts of this, such as purification rituals and transformation rituals and public support for warriors and their actions. And all of these are important. War is a traumatizing and demoralizing event. War can break warriors by the boatload, even for those who come safe home. And having that different language creates break between peace and war, warrior and enemy, and warrior and civilian.

What does it mean to immerse rather than transcend?

Answer:

Modern religion and pop psychology loves to talk about enlightenment and trascending the everyday. The idea is typically visualized as a meditating figure floating into the heavens. The idea of heaven as being above the earth stems from the mythology of many modern religions which casts the earth as an unworthy place that people should escape. Buddhists consider it an illusion that causes suffering, and attempt to see through it. Christians and most Abrahamic religions see the earth as a sinful place that acts as a test of faith. In both cases, the earth is not where humans were meant to be. Earth is bad, the good stuff comes after you die.

Freepathers feel that this mythology, which casts the earth as an intrinsically sinful place where one is meant to suffer while one waits for entrance into the perfect heaven above, is dangerous to life on earth and ecosystem itself given humankind's ability to affect the ecosystem. People who think the world is meant to be suffering do not think things are strange when the ecosystem is so damaged that everything depending upon it suffers from said damage. People who think the earth is a sinful place, may see less reason to avoiding damaging things- just as one would not see a problem in kicking the fence of a crack house. People who see the earth as a waiting room for heaven, are not likely to see a pressing need to keep the earth in working order far into the future.

Freepathers therefore look in the opposite direction. Rather than idealizing the heaven image, freepathers look for understanding and epiphany in the moist black wormy earth below them. While Christians hope to ascend to heaven on the wings of angels, Freepaths prefer the metaphors of sinking roots deep into the land. Learning more through a deeper connection, one that also strengthens the land itself.

Should be Afraid of the Possibility of God? A Question of Sim City

We now have computers advanced enough to run simulations where people go about their lives in virtual worlds, and those people seem to make their own choices based upon the rules built into the simulation. 

 

If we could communicate with these virtual people, how likely is it that they would be aware of their status as program sub-routines with no autonomy not mediated by their underlying program code?

How likely is it that these VR people would reject the truth, because their code tells them they are autonomous?

How likely is it that they would see us as God, if we were able to explain our own relationship to them?

How likely is it that they would create a religion based around attempting to understand our motives and actions towards them?

Now stop, and look up and ask yourself this: If this is true of us, if we are the Virtual Persons who only think they have free will, how likely is it that being we call God is a cosmic twelve year old boy playing a higher dimensional version of Sim City?

And how many times have you sent the Godzilla monster rampaging across your own Sim City just because it looks cool to watch the cities burn?

What is the Solstice and Equinox? How are they useful?

Answer:

The Winter Solstice generally marks the end of the lunisolar year. The Winter solstice occurs on the shortest day of the year. The Summer Solstice by contrast occurs on the longest day of the year and is generally used to mark the midpoint in the year. The Equinoxes, spring and autumn, are the two days of the year when the day and the night are of equal length.

The solstices and equinoxes are powerful time keeping devices for the year, and have been used for centuries are markers for when to plant (the Spring Equinox), and when to harvest (the Autumn Equinox). The Summer Solstice marks the midway point in the fertile part of the year, while the Winter Solstice marks the midway point across the dark and cold parts of the year.

Winter Solstice is generally a celebratory time, used to mark the turning point of winter and to bring light to a cold and dark time of the year. Likewise the Spring Equinox is generally used to celebrate the arrival of spring, and the Autumn Equinox is used to celebrate the good harvest.

Celebrating and following these year markers helps to tie a Freepather back into the natural rhythms of the land.

Another Path?

Instead of looking at the world around us as both a dangerous wild place and also as a giant piggy bank we can take as much from as we like, we should instead look at the world as a partner.

The world is not alien. We have made ourselves very alien, but the earth is not alien at all. The earth is our home and our parent and our partner in our continued existence.

We need to treat it like an equal. Take what we need, but never again become so gluttonously greedy. Give back to the earth when we take from it. Treat it, and by association ourselves and our children, with respect.

This lifestyle will necessitate adaptive cultures, and resilient cultures, because your become more capable and adaptive and resilient when you cannot simply throw money/energy at a problem and attempt to over power it. In such cases you must be creative and capable and - obviously- better at solving problems.

Our problem is that all that -very limited- high energy fuel has made us very lazy; and wealth has taken the place of ingenuity. We need to regain our ingenuity and our resilience. And that starts with changing our premises.

The earth is not a wilderness, full of disorder and dangers. It is our home and our workshop and out school. We do not need more energy to be more adaptive and resilient. We need more ingenuity, more mental flexibility and more competence to be adaptive and resilient.

We need to seek enough, not more. We need to work with our partners on this planet- the animals, the green plants, the fungi, the bacteria. We have been at war with 1.5 million species, as well as the ecosystem that makes our continued survival possible, and it is a war we cannot win.

We need a whole new world view, and we need it now.

What is the Lunisolar Year? And How do freepathers use it?

Answer:

The lunisolar year is a calendar system that bases the year around the solar year: using equinoxes and/or solstices to mark the year, and the lunar month: using the lunar cycle to mark the months.

Not all freepathers use the lunisolar year, and they do not all use the same one. that said, the lunisolar year is popular amongst feepathers for a number of reasons.

The Freepath recommends the idea of immersion as the goal rather than enlightment, embracing the physical world rather than transcending it. As such, a calendar that is self regulating based upon physical patterns that are directly and personally observable allows the freepather to put themselves in a direct and vibrant relationship with the planet, the sun, the moon, the seasons, and all the myriad of things touched by the changing seasons.

Just as the year ends for a third grader on last day of school before summer vacation, so does the year end with the cold of winter end the year for the gardener.

Using the lunisolar calendar requires nothing more than a view of the sky, and allows the freepather to tell the date in the same way that he would tell if it was raining, by looking outside. No intervening outside forces are required to make the knowledge understandable or useable.

What are the Unborn Elders?

Answer:

The unborn elders are the children of your tribe who have not yet been born, and the grandchildren of your tribe not yet born, and so on; marching into the future.

Freepathers frequently 'pray' to the unborn elders by making promises to these unborn generations, and by reaffirming their obligations to these unborn children and the impact that the actions of those of us currently alive will have on the later generations.

Freepathers do no impute any mystical power to the unborn elders, and understand that the unborn elders are a mental construct used to visualize people who do not yet exist, but who- when they do exist- will have to live with the consequences of the actions of those who do currently exist.

Prayer to the Unborn Elders is a method reminding us of our obligation to future generations.

Hence the freepath saying, "Do not pray for rain, when you can carry a bucket."

A Formal Objection

"Of Course, these are critical services, but energy's role in our lives is actually more fundamental, essential, and subtle. We extract energy from our environment to create order out of disorder and complexity out of simplicity. Put simply, societies with access to lots of energy are generally more adaptive, resilient, and better at solving problems."

(The Upside of Down, by Thomas Homer-Dixon, page 37)

The paragraph above exemplifies nearly everything destructive and self-defeating about our civilization. It articulates near perfectly almost the whole of the Industrialized Nation's philosophy.

"We extract energy from our environment to create order out of disorder..."

Let us start with this passage. It is, just to start, patently untrue. This statement implies that the natural world lies in disorder without us civilized humans. That the water cycle, and erosion and plate tectonics are disordered and without pattern. That natural selection and macro-evolution are just random events. That ecosystems are simply random collections of animals and plants. The ignorance in this statement is simply astounding.

The second half of the sentence is even worse however.

"...and complexity out of simplicity."

Tribal cultures have an incredible level of order- just to limit ourselves to humans for the moment. Pretending that there is a higher level of complexity in civilized society fails to take into account all the myriad of nuances of tribal society.

Beyond human affairs however, the passage says implicitly and explicitly that what civilized humans make is more complex than a leaf of lettuce or a grain of millet and the accompanying plant that produced it, and the accompanying ecosystem, food web/food chain that made that plant possible- tying together thousands of species and even more apparently inanimate forces such as the wind and the nitrogen cycle.

The arrogance in this statement, arrogance that is left as a premise and not even examined by its author, is almost beyond belief. Or at least, the arrogance would be beyond belief if it did not come from a culture with a ten thousand year history of such arrogance.

The next sentence is not as bad, but it has within it one of the key miss-assumptions of civilized humanity.

"We often use this order and complexity, in turn, to help us solve the problems we face- for instance, to shelter ourselves from our harsh environment and to protect ourselves from attack."

By assuming that the world is harsh, everything becomes an enemy or an attack. This basic belief in a hostile wilderness (the wilderness itself being an invention of civilized humanity) is what allows us to drive all species before us and destroy them whenever they resist or simply stand in the way of our expansion.

"Put simply, societies with access to lots of energy are generally more adaptive, resilient, and better at solving problems."

This statement is partially true on the surface. Such societies are rarely more adaptive and just as rarely better at solving problems. They don't need to be either, because they can simply pour energy into the problem. Much in the way a rich person can simply spend money to make most problems go away.

And this does not make the rich person more adaptive. They pay other people to be adaptive. All of this does make the society more resilient however- at least temporarily. The weakness of this statement is that such societies are thus dependent upon a mass of cheap and readily available energy.

In other words, such societies are addicted to energy. They are slaves to cheap fuel and act like junkies when they need another 'hit' of cheap energy to keep their economies and the accompanying systems running.

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.

-Edmund Burke

What is a Prayer Promise?

Answer:

A prayer promise is a promise written on paper or on a cloth flag, made to the generations of children yet unborn who will be affected by the actions of the person now alive. Paper prayer promises are referred to as prayer sheets. Cloth prayer promises are referred to as prayer flags.

Prayer sheets are traditionally burned in ceromonial fashion in a ritual of some sort. Prayer sheets, being more private, are generally used for personal commitments, or in public ceremonies where the ceremony itself acts as communal reinforcement.

Prayer flags are not burned as a general rule, but are displayed outside of a person's home or in another public place. Such prayers are displayed as a method of commitment, so that other members of the community can help to hold the freepather accountable to the unborn elders on the promise made. 

Prayer sheets and flags are not assumed to have any magical power, but are used to reinforce personal commitments and public responsibilities and promises. Not all Freepathers use Prayer sheets or flags, and those that do may call them by different names. The use of the word prayer is designed to draw a link to practices that new frepather's are likely to recognize, not to indicate any religious connection.


Common variations include written boards where public declarations can be made, whether online systems or physical are used. Audio and visual recording of oaths are also used. Written promises sealed with wax stamped with signets are used by some romantics amongst Freepathers.

Progress and Contentment

I am testing a theory. I have read many theories regarding why human beings did not 'progress' technologically in any significant way during the first ninety-nine percent of their time upon the planet. Real progress, as defined by modern civilization and its measure of success did not occur until roughly ten to fifteen thousand years ago- an eye blink in the eye of our history as a species. Why was this so?

Were humans not yet 'fully evolved', as has been many times suggested. Anthropology seems to be constantly discovering evidence, such as Neanderthal flutes and stone tools used by the so called Hobbit that place doubt upon this theory.

Were humans so desperate and taxed by the quest for food as hunter-gatherers that they did not have the time for such innovation? Studies repeatedly show that the hunter-gatherer lifestyle takes fewer calories and leaves more time for rest. So this seems unlikely.

Were humans not yet properly using division of labor, a societal technology which allows greater specialization and greater productivity? In fact humans were not, but given that they had greater leisure time that civilized humans, they certainly could have made up at least some of the difference very easily. Thus, this seems unlikely to be a decisive factor.

Perhaps the key answer lies in what humans were, rather than what they were not. Hunter-gatherer cultures, where they are still able to practice their lifestyle undisturbed, are well adjusted and generally content. Modern civilized humans suffer from chronic stress and anxiety and depression and all the resulting side effects that these things produce upon society. Hunter-gatherer cultures do just fine. The are happy, they are content, they are not worried about the future most of the time. They are confident in their ability to face the future. They are not the neurotic wrecks that modern humans are.

When you have a pebble in your shoe, you shift your weight or remove your shoe and get rid of the pebble. When you have an itch, you scratch it. If you cannot reach it, you grab something that will enable you to reach and scratch the itch. When you are placed in an uncomfortable place, you try to fix the situation. When you are placed in an intolerable situation, you fight back.

Perhaps the problem is that we are approaching the situation from the wrong viewpoint. Perhaps, because we civilized humans are constantly feeling as though we are trapped in an intolerable situation, we assume that all humans must be. Perhaps, hunter-gatherer humans did not invent all the things that we invented, because they did not feel the itch that we feel. Perhaps it is only civilized humans trapped in an intolerable situation, and those humans who are not trapped inside with us do no feel the itch. Perhaps, early humans did not 'innovate', not because they were less able than us- but because they were less bothered than us. We are trapped in a prison, and do not understand why our free neighbors next door are not trying to escape as we are. The answer is simple- we are in prison, not they.

Building to Your Landbase: An Example (the Pacific Northwest Coast)

The Pacific Northwest is wet from the Warm tropical winds that blow in from the ocean. In order to build in the PNW, the dampness must be taken into account.  

If you are planning to build and earth sheltered building, then avoiding water trapped in the ground will be important. Drainage can be achieved by digging out the foundation and putting large rocks under the basement which would enable water to pass underneath the building without flooding in most cases. An interior moat could also be effected, by digging trenches around the interior basement wall allowing water that does enter to exit without damaging the building. Shaping of the ground in front of buildings to lead water away from the buildings is also a viable possibility. Drainage can also be achieved by using the black house model of double stone walls with gravel between and extending that wall down into the ground. 

Local cultures tended to use above ground long houses built of timber, likely because they built on the water's edge and thus had to build on rocky ground, and also likely to avoid having to address the matter of the damp soil. Nonetheless, the local eco-village movement has had good success building cob buildings and earth sheltered buildings in this damp climate, so the challenges can be met.

PNW winters are not as cold as those of the land east of the Coast Mountains, however the dampness in the air can make them just as unpleasant. Remaining warm is still important. Earth sheltering will allow for the thermal mass of mother earth to help the temperatures. Small rooms will allow body heat to be used as an effective heating mechanism. 


PNW summers can get quite hot, and again earth sheltering and the thermal mass provided by this technique will keep the temperatures reasonable, while a solar chimney can aid in cooling and ventilating the structures. 

Change and Ritual

Ritual purification can help start change

Humans do what is in their routine and do what is pleasurable and what will, in their own mind, allow them to avoid pain. Human's are habitual and do not stray from their usual course without outside force in most cases.

Rituals can initiate newcomers into new ideas

Change is therefore difficult for an outsider to achieve upon a group. In the first case, something newly introduced must be fun, and the person should get an endorphin connection with the new thing right away. New things must be fun, and enjoyable right off the start in order to hook people. They  must meet some need inside the person right off the starting line.

Exercise regimes are better designed as games and league based competitions. Rituals should make people feel valued and respected and not be long or boring.

Rituals can look silly if you are not careful

Consistency is critical, but so is value. Rituals must be valued to continue.

Also, Rituals must start small and build in formality or else the formality must seem genuine right from the start. Too much formal rituals with a group that is itself not built on formal structure and rules will seem ridiculous.

Rituals can show gratitude

On Armor

-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"A brigandine is a form of body armour from the Middle Ages. It is a cloth garment, generally canvas or leather, lined with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric."

"Lamellar armour was one of three early body armour types made from armour plates. The other two types are scale armour and laminar armour."

"Lamellar armour consists of hundreds of small rectangular iron, leather, or bronze plates (scales or lamellae) which are pierced in various locations and laced together into horizontal rows to the proper length needed to construct a particular armour item.[1] The rows of Lamellar armour evolved from scale armour,[2] from which it differs by not needing a backing for the scales. When the lames are made of leather they can be hardened by a process such as cuir bouilli or lacquering."

For a small tribe or homestead community, defensive armor will need to be light and mobile ad not require intensive preparation methods. This will likely limit the armor's effectiveness against small arms fire, but in the event of resource shortages, this will become less of an issue as time goes on. 

For small scale war, protection from hand held weapons such as blunt instruments and bladed cutting or piercing weapons will be invaluable. Obtaining armor capable of defending against firearms would be more a matter of scavenging, or preparation ahead of time, than a matter of crafting.


Leather stands out as a good alternative, as it is lighter, easier to obtain and replace and work, and quieter than metal. Metal, if used would be well served to be used in a manner similar to a Jack of Plate or Brigandine. 


Bulletproofing works by using multiple layers of kevlar to slow and stop a bullet. The Chinese did this successfully with layers of paper armor against early firearms, and the Mongolians used layered silk shirts to similar effect against arrow fire. But obtaining silk or paper in large amounts could be tricky for a small community and neither technique proved effective against modern fire arms. 

And depending upon the type of conflict anticipated and the weaponry expected, forgoing armor altogether may be a wise decision. This would lighten the load of the warrior and improve mobility dramatically.


A small community might have better results relying upon stealth, foot speed, mobility and unconventional warfare tactics than armor that cannot stop a bullet. 


On a different note, structures can be used as cover if they are sturdy enough. Think of heavy structures as a kind of non-mobile armor. For a small community that is thinking defensively, having reinforced structures placed strategically to provide cover in a defensive battle, but not for the attacking for the attacking force could serve as a kind of armor replacement. 


Just as castles had arrow slits that protected the archer and allowed the archer a range of targets but did not do the same for the attacker, a clever tribe or homestead community could potentially build defensive cover structures to do the same, or perhaps even mobile defensive structures, or collapse-able structures that could be hidden when the defender was forced to retreat to deny the attacker access to them. 

Also, do not forget to think of camouflage as armor in its own way. A warrior is hard pressed to attack what is unseen, or that of which the warrior is not aware. Being unseen, unnoticed or unregarded can be as useful as being armored.


In the movie 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves", several of Robin's men act as decoys to lure the knights guarding a caravan away. As the knights chase down the men, they quickly dart around a bend in the path and slide under burlap sheets that have been propped up with single sticks which the men kick over as the slide. This causes the burlap to fall over the men revealing that the top of each burlap sheet is covered with leaves and moss and earth and even a few plants, making the men appear to vanish into slight rises in the earth beside the road. The knights gallop past, assuming the men are just ahead of them on the trail.

Mythbusters have shown the water is tremendously effective against gunfire, suggesting that local bodies of water can be used as camouflage, armor and transportation all together in one easy package. Likewise, if the tribe or homestead community is making use of earth sheltering for their homes, then they have a ready made set of bunkers that will defend well against small arms fire. Bear in mind that if the opposing force has access to military grade equipment, the standard practice against bunkers and pill boxes was to use a flamethrower. 


Using predominantly natural material will render a homestead community or tribe vulnerable to fire to a certain extent. Stone and earth will not be as vulnerable, but if plant matter such as wood or thatch or sod is used in the construction of the roofing, then fire damage could expose the defenders in short order. In such cases, where one is using cover as opposed to armor, defenders should prepare to evacuate by building escape hatches into all defensive structures ahead of time.


The Tunnels of the Vietcong and the Japanese and Iwo Jima are excellent of examples of this strategy at work. When faced with an opponent that is dramatically superior in one or more areas of strategic value, attempt to change the game so as to render those advantages unusable or even transform the enemy's advantages into liabilities. 


If the enemy outnumbers you, lay out your defensive structures to nullify the advantage of large groups. If the enemy out guns you, lay out your defensive structures to prevent the use of their superior weapons as much as possible. If the enemy is better supplied than you, lay out your defensive structures to tax and expose supply lines.

A small tribe or homestead community must rely upon and be intimately familiar with their landbase in order to live with that landbase without damaging it. As such they should consider the whole of their landbase as potential armor against attacks and prepare that landbase appropriately.


Red Cloud made excellent use of this principle in his war against the Americans, known as the Powder River War by some, and Red Cloud's war by others. Knowing that he was outnumbered and out gunned and out supplied, Red Cloud harried the US military with guerrilla strikes at homesteaders who had illegally settled on Lakota land in violation of the current treaty (and with tacit US approval), and struck at extended and exposed supply lines. He also took advantage of the military's lack of respect for his forces by sending small groups in apparent suicide attacks that would quickly turn into apparent routs with the US military in hot pursuit of the apparently beaten Lakota warriors. This would then be quickly reversed as the Lakota led the Military into ambushes such as the Battle of the 100 Slain. 


Another form of armor is to not need a supply line at all. By being intimately familiar with their landbase, a tribe or homestead community should be able to abandon their settlement and still live confidently off the land and continue to harry and strike at the invaders from their pre-planned defensive structures. Both Bruce Lee and Sun Tzu spoke of the the military and combat advantage of being formless with no place for the enemy to strike at, no place to insert a sword, nothing the enemy can grab.


Another form of armor is being modular. With a central basic strategy, but no central command; the enemy has no way to end the battle quickly and decisively, and the enemy further cannot gain an advantage by capturing and interrogating a tribes warriors. A warrior cannot give up another battalions battle plans if the warrior does not know it, or expose the location of the central command if there is none.

The Future

I want to talk to you today and I want to let you know that you are the most important generation in history. And that because of that, history will remember people like you and me as history's greatest villains. 

The world is in danger on multiple levels.

The evidence has been obvious for years. But only now are people starting to accept the evidence in large numbers. As a result, this generation- you and I will be blamed for the collapse that is likely coming. This is not fair, but this is how it is.

The previous generation- your parents and mine- will claim ignorance. They will say that the signs weren't clear. They are lying, of course, to save their guilty souls. The signs were clear. Our parents simply stuck their heads into the sand and passed the buck to us.  Well, unfortunately for us- the buck seems to have stopped here. Our parents are busy playing denial or pass the blame or both. So we are all that's left.

And based on our performance so far- history will remember us as villains and cowards- as world breakers. In the time it has taken to say this. Another species is likely extinct, 15 will be extinct by the end of this hour, over 300 by the end of the day. Between 300 and 600 acres of rain forest will have been deforested permanently. Almost 300 people will have been born, onto a planet whose population has gone from 1.5 billion to 6.7 billion is roughly 100 years.

Species extinction, deforestation and associated ecosystem destruction, overpopulation.

Why do we allow this?

Because its too big? Because we need to make a living? Because we have bills to pay and assignments to hand in? Because time spent saving the world means an F in biology or not paying the cable bill?

How dare we.

Warp Weighted Loom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp-weighted_loom

The 3%: The Reality of the Warrior Class

Berserkers were likely among the 3%

Most people are not born fighters or natural killers. 97% of us  will react to the possibility of physical violence in the same  way that we would react to an open flame thrust at our face. This  is self-defense hard coded into our brains, with only a 3% margin  seeking danger instead of running from it. 

This reaction to violence is natural and wise, but also dangerous  and limiting. This aversion to violence places the 97% at the  mercy of the 3% not averse to the use or threat of violence. Wise  cultures throughout history have honored the 3% and given them a  place in the group where their unique perspective on violence can  be used to defend the group from outside members of the 3%.

But 3% is not a large number. Cultures have, throughout history,  also found ways of forcing the 97% into violence and have  discovered ways of coercing the 97% to commit violence on others.  This coercion normally leaves the 97% emotionally scarred and  broken, but that does not concern the people who make the  decisions in most cases. And a larger better funded group with a  coerced army of the 97%, supported by that group's 3%, can easily  overwhelm smaller groups that simply rely upon their own 3% with  no back up.

The Need for More Warriors

So smaller tribes and nations therefore need a method of training  their 97% to become warriors, but to do so in a way that does not  leave those warriors emotionally crippled and useless in normal  societal life after the war is over.

The Minutemen- Warriors not likely to be part of the 3%

A warrior needs several things to act effectively in a war. They  need social sanction from the people they are fighting for, from  their comrades, and from the people directing them. They need as  much separation as possible between their warrior self and their  regular self, and a way of switching between them. They need a  purification ritual before and after combat, or some other way of  cleansing them of their sins. They need to be able to dehumanize  their opponents. They need all this in order to able to do what  must be done and also to be able to return to regular life  afterword.

Step by Step

Dehumanizing your opponent is not a popular idea in modern  society. The idea screams of bigotry, and sets of social alarm  bells ringing. The problem is that the more a warrior empathizes  with their opponent, the more the opponent becomes human in the  warrior's mind; the more that opponent's death will injure the  warrior. Necessary steps must be taken to make the nature of the  dehumanization of the enemy potentially temporary and create a  method of removing the dehumanizing mask. Much in the way that  members of rival religions could be baptized or otherwise sworn  in to the new religion, a society that uses dehumanizing mask for  their enemies needs an official method of removing that mask from  a former opponent once the conflict is over.

Purifying the warrior before and after is important to create  psychological barriers. A purification before violence sanctifies  the violence as condoned and necessary and honorable, helping the  warrior take necessary action. Purification afterword acts like  confession, literally cleansing the warrior of sins committed in  the name of the community. Purification provides sanction and  absolution, allowing the warrior to say that what has been done  was just even if the actions required to do so were horrible.

Separation between the world of the warrior and the world of  society is important to minimize overflow between the two, such  as warriors being unable to reintegrate during peace time.  Delineations need to be strong and clear. However, the  purification and transformation rituals are needed to help the  warrior cross that line back and forth in health. A strong divide  with no ritual to move a warrior through that divide will result  in dis-integrated warriors living in society unable to live as  other do.

Social sanction is critical, the warrior needs to feel that the  actions taken are for the group and for something greater than  the self. This belief imparts an honor and nobility on the  violence that cannot be justified when the actions are taken  solely for the self. A withdrawl of social sanction is a betrayal  of contract between society and its warriors, and can cripple  warriors or turn them against their own people.

The Militia and the Minute Men

Not everyone needs to be dedicated warriors within a society, but  as children in school all practise fire drills, every able bodied  member of a small nation or tribe or community should practise  for the evenutality of interpersonal violence and the possibility  of war, and they should practise so that they will minimize their  chances of personal physical and emotional trauma, and maximize  their chances of success.

A small tribe should plan to prevent hostages from existing.  Every member past puberty should strive to be a warrior and every  member younger than this should know how to support the warriors  and when and how to flee so as to avoid being used as hostages or  leverage or ransomed for concessions.

Weapons should be chosen for effectiveness, portability, and  because they are easy to learn and use effectively. Armor chosen  should be light and offer good mobility. Strategy should be based  on the principles of unconventional warfare, as they are almost  certainly going to outnumbered, and outgunned. Equipment,  everything from weapons to tools, should be as low tech as is  reasonably feasible, so as to facilitate ease of repair,  maintenance and replacement.

Practice Makes Normal

Procedures in the event of various violent events should be clear  and well practised, and responses should be compartmental, so  that different groups have different duties that they know how to  perform in the even of that particular violent event.

As an example, in the event the home base is attacked, there  should be a dedicated force of defenders that immediately begin  suiting up for heavy defensive combat, and another quick start  unit of light skirmishers to buy the heavy defenders time to suit  up, and evacuation units to get non-combatants to safety quickly.  OPtionally, another unit could be charged with sabotaging the  base and destroying valuable items that cannot be removed by the  defenders.

Repetition and practice render the frightening into something  routine, and make the difficult into something normal. These  drills and plans and duties should not be hidden from citizens  and certainly not hidden from children, but rendered normal  duties through practise and repetition.

The Power of Games

As much as possible, games and league play should simulate as  many parts of the warrior life as possible. Games should be   physical training that trains the warriors for the particular  rigors and stresses combat will create. Games should be designed  to teach and practise applicable strategy and tactics necessary  for unconventional warfare.

This injunction applies to all types of games. Physical games are  obvious targets for such design work, but intellectual games and  story games and card games and similar can all be sharpened and  shaped to teach greater or lesser portions of the necessary  skill, procedures, responses or attitude to survive a violent  confrontation.

A small nation or tribe survives only as long as it can think for  itself as a unique separate entity, that it can provide for the  phsycial needs of it's people, and that it can defend all of that  from outside forces. Survival starts and ends with our ability to  deal with violence from competitors, rivals and enemies.

The Bone Game

Slahal, or the Bone game is a Coast Salish sleight of hand game. There are two 'bones' one marked with a red stripe. A player on one team take turns passing the bones between hands, and the other team's player must choose the hand that does not have the red striped bone. 

The game is also called the bloodless war game.

Why would a culture use a game of open deception as such an important practice that it would earn such a name? 

Why would sleight of hand be so central in a culture's games?

I submit that this game is useful to the culture because it teaches critical thinking. It teaches awareness of deception, and it makes deception an open element thus making deceivers less able to hide unseen in the group.

The game also implicitly shows that diplomacy is deceptive and that there are things the other group is trying to conceal. In an abusive family, the family knows that talking about the abuse is taboo, and so the abuse becomes immortal. The bone game plays openly with the problem of deception and so removes the taboo and at the same time steals it's power by making light of it through the game.

The game serves as a practice for catching cheats and tricksters and watching for dirty tricks from opponents. The game trains the eye against theft and the mind against misdirection.

This idea of training through play and through games is widespread amongst tribal and traditional cultures. The Rarámuri of New Mexico train the  legendary distance running prowess with a long distance game a little like soccer using a hard wooden ball. In this way child practice a trademark and life essential skill of the tribe by playing and having fun. In such interesting and inclusive way, even skills long considered tedious or boring are learnable without pain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slahal

Thoughts on Training

Human life traditionally followed a three stage progression.

• First you learn
• Then you do
• Then you teach

In other words, we move from dependence to independence to interdependence. We move from needing others to get by, to being able to get by on our own, to helping others get by so that everyone can prosper. To stop early is to never learn how to be human, and never learn how to properly be an animal, and how to properly live upon the earth.

Dependence

You were born a child, helpless, in need of protection, instruction and nourishment. You were cared for and taught and fed and sheltered. This is the way of the child, and those of us who still cannot make our own way without the resources of others are here still, and thus still children.

Independence

Your mission, your task, your purpose as a child is to learn. You must learn to be an adult. To be an adult you must know how to think for yourself- to spot deceptions, to reason things through, to ponder, and think creatively. These are the marks of an adult- an active intellectual life. To be an adult you must be able provide for yourself, food, and shelter and clothing and tools that you will need. The mark of an adult it the ability to make or find what one needs to live alone.  To be an adult you must also be able defend yourself and your home. What good is the ability to grow food, if a man with a sword shows up each day to take your food from you and eat it himself? What good is the ability to think great thoughts if a man with a sword can force you to turn you mind to making him a more effective conqueror? Thus you must defend.

Interdependence

As essential as those three things are, they do not make you fully an adult yet. Until you have used your skills to contribute to your community and connect into that web of interdependence- teaching and providing willingly to continue the community into tomorrow, you are only an adolescent. The skills are essential, giving those skills back is what completes the transformation from child to adult.

Some Simple Training Guidelines

Read books all the time. Read challenging books, especially non-fiction- and avoid Junk Reading. Read outside your comfort zone. Read books that disagree with your ideas and ask the three questions of it and yourself.

Seek out mentors. Seek to be around people smarter than you. Seek to be around forward looking people. Seek to be around people who are happy outside their comfort zone. Seek debate and for those willing to disagree with you. When somebody challenges you, thank them and ask them to elaborate. Seek out friends who are willing to call your bullsh**. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Shut off the 'I know instinct'. Ask questions to draw out more information.

Take classes, and seek to Constantly expand your skill set. John Maxwell's 'ACT' Note Taking System can be really useful here. Just add and ‘A’, a ‘C’, or  a ‘T’ when taking notes: A= Apply this (Apply this to my own life), C= Change this (stop doing what I was doing and start doing this), and, T= Teach this (Teach my group this thing).

Remember the need for quiet time. Without quiet time you can't evaluate what you are exposed to. Without quiet time you are easily bullied and overwhelmed. Without quiet time you can't reflect and recharge. Reflect on who you are. Quiet time allows you to decide what you agree with and what you disagree with. Quiet time allows you to build your identity. Quiet time allows you grow and change who you are. Reflect on what you believe. Quiet time allows you to evaluate what you've read, heard and learned. Quiet time allows you to decide what you can prove and what you simply believe.

Use quiet time to center. Quiet time allows you to recharge your emotions and your mental capacity. Quiet time allows you to calm down and regain focus. Use quiet time to sort information. Quiet time allows you to evaluate what you know. Quiet time allows you to make connections between different things that you know. Quiet time allows you create new information by combining different things you have learned.

And finally, get out and try things. Glory in Doing something difficult that you can screw up.  Glory in being outside your comfort zone. And glory in Making Mistakes.

The Problem

The basic ‘dependence to independence to interdependence’ structure of human community life has been broken. We begin in a state of dependence, because its pretty hard to be McGuyver when we still think technology ends with the hanging mobile and food production ends with the warm bottle. The problem is that we rarely progress anymore.

These days, culture is not set up to support us in our instinctual quest for independence. Bureaucratic systems from schools to corporations consistently punish creativity and critical thinking. Questions are not encouraged, and authority is unappreciative in the face of such questions.

We face a barrage of social conditioning, bent on making us discontent, impatient and certain of our own innate specialness. We are told not to create something of value, or to have the patience to work hard and earn what we want. We are told 'Go ahead", "You deserve a break" "Because you're worth it". And after a while, we start to believe it.

We are bombarded with information, and not given a chance to have alone time or privacy- and so (as with cult conditioning, which does similar)- we do not have time to develop our own fully formed views and ideas. Instead we are reduced to merely reacting to the views others tell us. 'Yes, I agree' or 'No, that's wrong'.

Very little of this happened intentionally. Most of the changes were made with the best of intentions. But complex systems often breed surprising results.

And so here we are: generation after generation of shallow, impatient, unfulfilled, egotistical, self-conscious, easily led sheeple. Calling us adults would be a joke.

The fact that most of our so-called adults mark their transition into adulthood by drinking until they risk alcohol poisoning should be a warning sign.

Most of us, around the point we are told we are adults, start to feel cheated. Often we don't know why we feel cheated, but life seems less than we were expecting. We should feel cheated. We used to become adults at puberty, we were expected to stand up and take our place.

Admiral David Farragut received his first command (a captured British Whaling Ship) at the age of twelve. At fifteen Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice printer and authored several popular articles under a pseudonym. By fifteen you could be a squire in the middle ages (or even a knight). We are told that the world is more complex and that it takes more time to learn about.

Do we really think that it takes less maturity to command a vessel in war time than it does to flip burgers? Do we really think that it takes less skill to author articles in a commercial newspaper than to text message incessantly? Are we really supposed to believe that they training of a knight was somehow less difficult than modern P.E. class?

The void that exists in modern life is an absence of adulthood. We have never been allowed to grow up- to become Men and Women. When we leave school we are helpless and adrift in a world that we are helpless to hold our own within. We must indenture ourselves to employers to survive. Skills that would allow us to stand apart from this are not taught to us.

We are not taught proper critical thinking skills in most cases. We are almost never taught useful survival or defense skills. We are left- deliberately I think- at the mercy of the world we have all created. Because, after all, who would flip burgers or or stock toy store shelves or fit shoes or man the technical help desk at 3am if they had another option.

We are a society of parasites, feeding collectively off of each other.

I am tired of being a child. I want to grow up. Peter Pan was a liar! You don't forget to fly when you grow up, you learn to fly when you grow up! The only reason we don't know this is because virtually nobody has grown up since the Second World War.

Genus Rex exists to help people help each other grow up. We need to regain the ability to stand alone. Because until we can stand alone, we cannot honestly stand together.

So your first job is to study and train and prep yourself as much as possible. This book will provide you with a guideline on how to train and what to study.

I need to learn arithmetic and calculations, but do I need to learn it in a classroom over twelve years and including things such as calculus and quadratic equations that very few people need to understand and fewer actually use?

I need to learn to read and write, but do I need to learn the difference between a Shakespearian or Petrarchan sonnet? I need to know the history of our culture and the changes and context that it will provide for understanding current events, but do I need to know who the commanders were at the battle of Leningrad?

I remember being tested on all of these things and I know that I answered most of them correctly on the test. I do not remember the answers to these questions now, although I remember that I was asked them.

Accounting, however, was an optional class and I was never given any lessons on the laws and paperwork that I have encountered as a adult. I was never taught, despite five years of career planning classes, how to deal with my taxes or my health insurance or any things that I would actually need.

There is a distinct benefit to schooling, but that benefit is for those people who wield the whips. When we emerge from schooling, we lack basic knowledge of how to manage in the adult world, and because of the increased work load and the need to do extra-curricular activities to earn scholarships and be accepted into post-secondary education- parents have very little mentoring that they have allowed to add. And thus the domesticated adult emerges from the womb of high school blind and hairless. He lacks the teeth and claws that are used by modern society and the knowledge of how best to defend himself with them. He is unable to hunt for himself and so is relegated to a subservient role within the pack- begging from scraps from more the alpha and other successful hunters.

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor

is the mind of the oppressed."

Steve Biko- Activist

For twelve years, the developing mind of the young domesticated human is engaged in challenging and intellectually stimulating tasks- such as organic chemistry, the politics of Shakespeare's Macbeth, trigonometry, the history of the Russian Revolution, and how to dissect an earthworm. These tasks are deliberately challenging and seem very important. In this way, the mind of the young domesticated human is distracted.

Once they have grown out of their most active period of learning, the young can be discharged into the wild where they are easily captured and roped into the existing herds. They are domesticated humans now, and not wild humans. But when the wild submits to domestication- it also sacrifices its freedom.