© COPYRIGHT 2010 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – August 2010 Issue
[Reprinted With Permission]
www.americancombato.com
www.seattlecombatives.com
ONE of the most annoying and irritating things that we recall from the "classical/traditional" aspects of our martial arts training many years ago was the interminable "philosophical mouthings" of people who were essentially horses‘ asses trying to sound profound, "deep", and important.
Americans pretending that they are Chinese, Japanese, or Korean sages, and affecting (or doing a miserable acting job in their attempts to perfect) the mannerisms and idiosyncrasies of "ancient Asian martial arts masters" is of course laughable bullshit — to rational, mature, serious-minded adults. Unfortunately, there are some people in the martial arts who are, ahem, somewhat removed from that desirable position on the evolutionary scale. The more bullshit you present to them, the more they believe that they are initiates into some "secret world of fighting mysteries".
We were thinking about this the other day and realized that there are a lot of sensible, practical, justice- and life-serving concepts — reasonable concepts, and lucid, intelligible concepts — that we routinely espouse and remind our personal pupils of, and that visitors to this site might find worth considering, themselves. Most of these would be regarded as politically incorrect, or "socially unpalatable", etc. About that we could not care less. What we do care about is that we know from well over four decades of teaching that these ideas are RIGHT, that they help people who come to understand, accept, and live by them to live more effectively and securely, and that they amount to a refreshing breath of clean, wholesome fresh air where, unfortunately, there is more often than not, a huge deluge of psychologically toxic crap.
Consider the thoughts and precepts that we live, and teach, by:
• I do not believe in using non-injurious force, because violent offenders do not concern themselves with trying not to injure those whom they choose to attack.
• I do not believe in mercy because violent offenders do not demonstrate mercy.
• I will not hesitate to use a weapon to defend myself or those I love, because violent offenders use weapons. And I shall always endeavor to be better armed than the violent filth who would prey upon me.
• I do not care at all about how badly my attacker is injured, because my attacker does not care about how badly he injures me.
• I do not have any respect for my attacker‘s life since, by attacking me, he has demonstrated that he has no respect for mine. AND MY LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS!
• I do not care at all about the age of my attacker; whether he is very young, or very old. If he is young, then he is agile, lithe, without a fully formed mind, and hence deadly dangerous. If he is old, then he has experience, knowledge, guile, and cunning. And, he ought to know better. So he is deadly dangerous. But in all cases, when he attacks he is merely "an enemy to be stopped", and nothing more, regardless of his age.
• I fear only that "post traumatic stress disorder" that might come from losing a desperate battle with a deadly enemy. To my way of thinking, anyone who experiences stress after neutralizing a felon, because he has neutralized that felon — perhaps lethally — has rocks in his head.
• I will offer no violent home invader the opportunity to surrender. Any criminal offender violently breaking into my home will be met with deadly force. The only way that one or more home invaders will leave my home is in a body bag.
• If I am armed with a handgun or shoulder weapon I will fire "warning shots" into the kill zone of my attacker. I will waste no ammunition firing into the ground or into space — nor do I wish to “warn” anyone bent upon my murder or the murder of those I love. And ammunition is too expensive to waste.
• I will ALWAYS call the police if it is feasible to do so, and let them handle any violent situation. However, realistically, I do not expect to be given the opportunity to call 911 in a street attack, home invasion, mugging, gang assault, attempted kidnapping, rape, or other atrocious act of violence that I may one day need to confront. So I remain prepared always to decisively neutralize whomever I must, whenever I must, and however I must.
• My loved ones constitute my top priority. Threaten them with injury, harm, or death, and I will die killing you, if need be, in order to stop you.
• My "rule book" is very short. It‘s single page upon which appears but one word: WIN.
• I am not dismayed at the prospect of killing someone or of maiming someone who needs to be killed or maimed in order to stop him from carrying out his horrific course of action. Some people need to be maimed or killed or they will maim and kill others.
• I believe only in the rights of the VICTIM. The moment another person begins to act as a predator he has signed his resignation from the human race, has NO rights as far as I am concerned; and will be treated with the same mercy afforded an infectious disease.
• I believe only in compassion for the VICTIM. History has proven that the greatest aid civilized man can give the dangerous, predatory psychopath and similar types is to treat him with "understanding", "compassion", and "mercy". To bloody hell with that!
• Do not speak to me of of how much force I "may" use in defending myself. I will be the judge of what I need to do when I am forced to defend myself, and the last thing I need is someone or some system stepping in after the fact and prattling to me about how I hurt the poor bastard who intended to kill me, "too much".
• It is the violent bully, troublemaker, mugger, terrorist, home invader, tough guy, kidnapper, rapist, or you-name-it who is responsible for whatever damage occurs as a result of his actions — including whatever damage HE may suffer, himself!
• My children have my permission — my encouragement — to defend themselves if set upon and bullied. Your school policy of "zero tolerance for violence" will bring a lawsuit against you, the school, and every stinking administrator in the city, if my child is expelled or reprimanded for defending himself. (Attitude to be expressed to any school teacher in one of the modern public prison centers where the law requires children to remain for indoctrination and weakening of their characters and souls, until age eighteen).
• Save your bullshit, your words, your speeches, your damn lectures and all of your stinking social theories. I WILL NOT BE ANOTHER’S VICTIM. Period.
Now we are certainly not suggesting that the foregoing will be accepted by (or acceptable to) the majority of those who fancy themselves “martial artists”. Remember: we are concerned only with rational students of the combat arts, who live in the modern, 21st century. This certainly eliminates the vast majority of those who are present-day participants in one or another of the numerous "martial arts" that are out there — whether these individuals be participants at the student, teacher, or professional level. It also eliminates the sporting/competitive people — not because sportsmen and competitors wouldn‘t "get it", but because within the parameters of sport and competition that which we present is irrelevant.
Nor is it our intention to suggest or to imply that we believe in, advocate, espouse, or otherwise condone anything that is questionable from the standpoint of the law. We always advocate obedience to the law. We are simply presenting that which, in our humble opinion, constitutes what we regard as a sensible or "ideal" creed for the modern proponent and teacher of those so-called martial arts that are geared solely to the demands of close combat and self-defense.
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