I would only have to write this to a domesticated populace. Attack a bear at your peril- it WILL retaliate. Watch small children, if one transgresses the other- the injured party will inevitably respond. Watch the social life of wolves or chicken, the pecking order is not a metaphor.
Only the modern human is so domesticated, self-defense having become so alien, that not fighting back in the face of violence could be touted as a virtue.
Even the loyal and humble dog will snap at an abuser. Humans have domesticated animals precisely by breeding for docility, and in doing so the effectively breed out the ability for these animals to survive without human intervention.
What then, does that say about us and how those in power have shaped our modern domesticated human tendencies? If upset, we protest. That is to say, we beg those who have wronged us and ask that they make things better.
Violence is power, and the threat of violence is power. The rightness of the ability to meet oncoming violence with defensive violence is what underlies the laws allowing self-defense. Likewise the rightness of meeting oncoming violence with violence is what anyone who intervenes in an assault or a rape invokes. This is why they are lauded as heroes.
What does it say about us, when we vilify all uses of violence- including righteous ones? What does it say about the imbalance of power when we live in a society where the right violence is implicitly or explicitly granted to one group and not another? What do these things tell us about society?
Virtually every aristocracy in history has tried to limit the underclasses access to the means of violence. Swords or spears may only be wielded by certain groups. Certain elite are explicitly allowed to kill underclass members for any perceived slight. This imbalance is not an accident.
Some readers may be put off by my use of the word violence in a positive manner, rather than using a more polite and acceptable word like self-defense. Violence is a means of self-defense, as is charm, as is running, as is psychology and bribery, and so on. Self-defense is safely vague and politely allows the meek to talk around or about violence without ever having to address the honest nature of violence. This choice of words, unless used to include the whole array of self-defense possibilities, is cowardly.
And of course cowardice is good, meekness in the flock makes the sheep dog's duties easier- those chosen few allowed to wield the sword. But you only need a few sheepdogs. After all, you don't want sheep with sharp teeth in your flock.
Showing posts with label self-defense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-defense. Show all posts
Monday, September 29, 2014
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Clothing design for Homesteads and Small Tribes
Material
Leather will likely be the word of the day. Sturdy and workable into both clothing and armor, leather is easily available through hunting most wild game in British Columbia. Plant fibers are significantly more difficult to cultivate and most, like cotton, need warmer climates than we can provide. Cedar bark can be woven into certain garments, such as hats in the style of the Haida and Salish tribes. 
Animal fibers are more easily cultivated in this climate, but sheep generally only provide wool and no other essentials of life besides meat when they are finally butchered. Sheep produce milk, but this is rarely drunk, although it makes excellent cheese. Goats can produce cashmere- which is labor intensive and low yield although very soft- and angora with grows quickly and is easily harvested. Goats can also be used for dairy purposes and for meat at the end of life, and also for land clearing purposes. Angora rabbits will also produce angora fibers, but in smaller amounts than angora goats and they do not provide dairy and have no land clearing ability.
Thus the plan for clothing materials is as follows:
- Leather and fur from hunted game ranging from deer, elk and moose to rabbits, hares, beavers and similar.
- Goatskin and Angora fiber from Goats. We will keep a mix of fiber and dairy goats.
- Cedar bark strips from Cedar trees, spruce roots- and Cattails can also be used. These are used for hat weaving,
- Scavenged metal and hard plastic, these will be used for body armor.
- Greenery and dry vegetation will be used for Ghillie cloaks.
- Wax to waterproof hats and shoulder pads will come from bees kept by tribe.
Fashion Sense
Hats: We suggest stealing the hat design from the Haida, bark woven conical hats that will shed water well in the Rainy coastal weather, probably coated in beeswax to enhance the waterproofing. You may also employ a helmet version crafted out of water hardened leather as well.
Cloaks: We also suggest using cloaks, probably shoulder pads made of leather or fur to help shed water in the rain. In addition to a simple cloak for protection from cold and rain, we recommend using a Ghillie cloak covered in local flora as a hunting and war camoflage
Pants: Leather pants, probably wrap pants held in place with a leather thong, or native america style chaps will be the common type of leg covering.
Shirts: Shirt should be loose leather tops with water hardened leather plate brigandine over them in the summer, and angora and fur over shirts in the winter.
Shoes: Mocassins ought be the most common footwear, with furs added for winter wear.
Coats: Overcoats can be made of various materials based on needs and availability.
Kilts and Skirts and Dresses: Kilts and Skirts and Dresses are possible during warmer summer months for cooling purposes. Various materials will be used for these.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Idea: The Inverse Motte and Bailey Castle
The traditional Motte and Bailey castle is basically just a hill of earth (the motte) and a wooden castle surrounded by a timber wall around the castle (the bailey). The weakness of this design is that invaders can literally just run up the hill. And additionally, the bailey is the highest point on the landscape and therefore a tempting target to anyone who is looking for a target.
My suggestion as an alternative idea is what I call, the inverse Motte and Bailey.
The motte is a ring around the bailey, with a sharp vertical edge on the outside wall with large stones to support the motte. The inside edge of the motte should taper gently down so the defenders could easily run up the hill to defend the walls. Additionally, a trench or moat could easily be added and filled with thorn bushes such as blackberries, and surrounded by quick growing trees to hide the settlement from outside view.
The bailey, instead of being the focus of the whole setup, disappears in the Inverse Motte and Bailey. Instead of a tall bailey rising up above the rest of the landscape, the settlement should be low profile with sod roofing so that even from the air, the settlement disappears into the landscape.
Whereas the original Motte and Bailey was designed to be a tenth century stronghold for a warlord who intended it to command respect. The Inverse Motte and Bailey is intended to vanish from view and disappear into the landscape. The original is a statement of domination and power. The inverse is a whisper on the land designed to meld with the land and vanish into the place itself.
With the intended goal of disappearing, access to settlement creates a challenge, allowing for easy access to the settlement for those with permission to enter and access for those goods and services brought in from outside the settlement. Can a moose or bear brought down in a hunt be brought into the settlement? If larger goods are being brought in, logs and rock for construction as an example, can these be brought easily into the settlement.
Large doors invite attack. Is there a way to hide them, perhaps behind hanging moss or some other camouflage, or perhaps behind an antechamber of earth walls much like the curve in a public washroom that hides the room without closing access? Perhaps creating a tunnel through the wall that can be more easily blocked and hidden than a large set of castle style walls.
If there is trade taking place, can that trade be redirected to a trading post that is not near the settlement? Do food or crops needs to be brought in from outside the the wall? Can these crops be moved so that they are planted within the walls?
Can access be achieved covertly, perhaps through a concealed water access way? Can access be achieved easily without sacrificing security? Can defense be achieved without drawing attention to the settlement?
Since the settlement will be using earth sheltering, can the motte itself be uses as a building, perhaps barracks or cold cellars or other public buildings? The idea of building rooms into the walls that defend the people suggests symbolic meaning in whatever purpose the rooms in the motte are used.
Also important to consider is drainage, because the motte creates a basin. Without proper drainage, the bailey will drown in the center of the motte after heavy rain. These small technical problems must be addressed, otherwise the grand idea doesn't stand for much. The devil's in the details.
My suggestion as an alternative idea is what I call, the inverse Motte and Bailey.
The motte is a ring around the bailey, with a sharp vertical edge on the outside wall with large stones to support the motte. The inside edge of the motte should taper gently down so the defenders could easily run up the hill to defend the walls. Additionally, a trench or moat could easily be added and filled with thorn bushes such as blackberries, and surrounded by quick growing trees to hide the settlement from outside view.
The bailey, instead of being the focus of the whole setup, disappears in the Inverse Motte and Bailey. Instead of a tall bailey rising up above the rest of the landscape, the settlement should be low profile with sod roofing so that even from the air, the settlement disappears into the landscape.
Whereas the original Motte and Bailey was designed to be a tenth century stronghold for a warlord who intended it to command respect. The Inverse Motte and Bailey is intended to vanish from view and disappear into the landscape. The original is a statement of domination and power. The inverse is a whisper on the land designed to meld with the land and vanish into the place itself.
With the intended goal of disappearing, access to settlement creates a challenge, allowing for easy access to the settlement for those with permission to enter and access for those goods and services brought in from outside the settlement. Can a moose or bear brought down in a hunt be brought into the settlement? If larger goods are being brought in, logs and rock for construction as an example, can these be brought easily into the settlement.
Large doors invite attack. Is there a way to hide them, perhaps behind hanging moss or some other camouflage, or perhaps behind an antechamber of earth walls much like the curve in a public washroom that hides the room without closing access? Perhaps creating a tunnel through the wall that can be more easily blocked and hidden than a large set of castle style walls.
If there is trade taking place, can that trade be redirected to a trading post that is not near the settlement? Do food or crops needs to be brought in from outside the the wall? Can these crops be moved so that they are planted within the walls?
Can access be achieved covertly, perhaps through a concealed water access way? Can access be achieved easily without sacrificing security? Can defense be achieved without drawing attention to the settlement?
Since the settlement will be using earth sheltering, can the motte itself be uses as a building, perhaps barracks or cold cellars or other public buildings? The idea of building rooms into the walls that defend the people suggests symbolic meaning in whatever purpose the rooms in the motte are used.
Also important to consider is drainage, because the motte creates a basin. Without proper drainage, the bailey will drown in the center of the motte after heavy rain. These small technical problems must be addressed, otherwise the grand idea doesn't stand for much. The devil's in the details.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Saturday Thoughts: Professional Fighting VS. Actual Fighting
I was reading the paper recently, something that I do only occasionally, and I stumbled upon an article arguing the pros and cons of different scoring systems for mixed martial arts sporting competitions. This struck me as reaching to a central problem in our culture- we want somebody else to decide.
Of the mixed martial arts competitions out there, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is arguably the biggest. It uses a complicated judge run scoring system to determine what happens whenever there is no clear winner- which is often in recent years. This, however, was not always the case.
In the first several UFC competitions, there were no judges and- in fact- the competition trumpeted this as a positive thing. A doctor was at ringside and could stop the fight to prevent permanent injury. A refereee was in the ring to prevent illegal blows. A corner could throw in the towel for the fighter if they feared for his ability to defend himself. That was it. The fight went until a fighter was knocked out, tapped out, or the fight was stopped by one of the afformentioned officials for safety's sake.
The argument for judges, derives from the desire by TV producers to put a time limit on fights so as to prevent a fight from running outside the time alloted for the television slot. Once a time limit is added, there seems to be no way to avoid judges. And once judges are added, fighters can begin to work the clock and act aggressive rather than fight effectively in order to please the judges.
A simple solution would be to add the time limit; and then score both fights with a loss on their record if the fight goes the distance without a clear winner. The problem with this is that, domesticated culture wants a winner and doesn't like systems that are self-running. Domesticated culture needs to see oversight and managers and judges- these things validate our view that world needs to be managed and ruled.
Because after all, if things can manage themselves, "Oh my gosh, what will our Kings and Priests do?"
Of the mixed martial arts competitions out there, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is arguably the biggest. It uses a complicated judge run scoring system to determine what happens whenever there is no clear winner- which is often in recent years. This, however, was not always the case.
In the first several UFC competitions, there were no judges and- in fact- the competition trumpeted this as a positive thing. A doctor was at ringside and could stop the fight to prevent permanent injury. A refereee was in the ring to prevent illegal blows. A corner could throw in the towel for the fighter if they feared for his ability to defend himself. That was it. The fight went until a fighter was knocked out, tapped out, or the fight was stopped by one of the afformentioned officials for safety's sake.
The argument for judges, derives from the desire by TV producers to put a time limit on fights so as to prevent a fight from running outside the time alloted for the television slot. Once a time limit is added, there seems to be no way to avoid judges. And once judges are added, fighters can begin to work the clock and act aggressive rather than fight effectively in order to please the judges.
A simple solution would be to add the time limit; and then score both fights with a loss on their record if the fight goes the distance without a clear winner. The problem with this is that, domesticated culture wants a winner and doesn't like systems that are self-running. Domesticated culture needs to see oversight and managers and judges- these things validate our view that world needs to be managed and ruled.
Because after all, if things can manage themselves, "Oh my gosh, what will our Kings and Priests do?"
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Thoughts on Training
Human life traditionally followed a three stage progression.
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.
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.
- 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.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Bad Ass of the Week (Mild Language Warning on these links)
I am a regular reader of Bad Ass of the Week dot com. The site is over the top and hilarious, but also inspirational. Although the author includes a number of fictional characters, the number of real people included is awesome and enough to humble the most pompous of windbags.
By Way of Example I have included some of my favorite articles here:
There are other great entries in the list, and I may highlight a few later, but this is a start. Here to remind of the amazing things that people are capable of when they decide that they will.
Added Late (because I couldn't find it when I first posted this):
By Way of Example I have included some of my favorite articles here:
- Mas Oyama: The Martial Artrist known as Godhand, who used to bullfight with his bare hands... and win!
- Leo Major: The Canadian Soldier who single handedly liberated a whole city in World War 2 and earn a commendation in The Korean War, all with only one eye! ("God gave me two of them sir, I'm still good to fight!")
- Tom Wanyandie: The 78 year old man who fought off an angry mother bear.
There are other great entries in the list, and I may highlight a few later, but this is a start. Here to remind of the amazing things that people are capable of when they decide that they will.
Added Late (because I couldn't find it when I first posted this):
- Daniel M'Mburugu: The 73 year old man who ripped out the TONGUE of the leopard that was trying to turn Daniel into lunchmeat.
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