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.