By the way - in his reply the first man wrote "There's evil in the world. But, I choose to not spend time on that. "
I suspected what his attitudes are from past conversations. Again, I had hoped it was just a matter of his needing more information. But this email exchange cleared up that misconception.
Must be nice. I wish I was 12 years old without any grasp of the world just like he still is. How can you seriously respect yourself when you take a worldview like that? Does he not have a responsibility to anyone around him at all?
Rhetorical, I know the answers. They're sad and ineffective. Just irkes me.
Semper Gumby, Always Flexible
I guess I have a little bit of a different take on this.
We've all got a limited amount of brainpower to devote to things to worry about. Being a responsible gun owner and preparing yourself mentally to use a firearm the way many people on this board do is expensive in time, money, and mental effort. On the other hand, being the victim of violence is, in many parts of the country, a black swan type of event. So, a lot of effort to prepare for a possibly unlikely event. Not a big deal if this is also your hobby, but it is a big deal if not.
If my friends/relatives/acquaintances have different priorities than I do - I try to cut them a bit of slack. Their reluctance to prioritize things in their life the same way I do is understandable.
I know people who feel that being prepared to defend against a violent attack somehow invites trouble.
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
I've been a traditional Okinawan martial arts instructor for a long time and I've seen more than a few decent martial artists who I really didn't think had the ability to "flip the switch" even when they advanced to somewhat senior ranks. They performed the techniques properly with power and focus, trained hard, and were in good shape but just didn't "get it" when it came to actual fighting. They also tended not to be in it for the long haul though. There are ways to try to teach it, but people are not all equally receptive or even interested in going beyond theory.
same here. My wife is currently active duty (officer) in the AF. I am often looked at for being weird when people notice I carry a flashlight and a knife...not sure how they would feel to realize I am carrying a gun. I have given up trying to explain to them why I do certain things and now I just refer to it as "habit". Some people don't want to know what they don't know, and it no longer bothers me. My main priority is my growing family and their well being, that is what keeps my "warrior mindset" sharp. What does bother me is these individuals are ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY, it drives me crazy but I realize I come from a different branch/background.Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
Ah yes, The Law of Attraction. I know it well - certain family members enabled my bike to get stolen when I was a little kid because they semiconsciously subscribe to that stupid idea and so let my bike sit out unattended while they thought positive things. Then it got stolen, duh.
Technical excellence supports tactical preparedness
Lord of the Food Court
http://www.gabewhitetraining.com
It does take an investment of time, money, effort, etc. to equip and train oneself to skillfully resist a criminal attack. Avoid doing stupid things with stupid people in stupid places, or however that saying goes, and your exposure to such events decreases. Maybe he's done the math and made an educated choice to spend his time on other things. Or maybe he's chosen bury his head in the sand rather than recognize that bad things can happen to good people even in the nice areas of town. Could make a case either way, or maybe it's a bit of both.
I think each of us has our own reasons for taking the steps we take to protect ourselves and those close to us, our own path that led us to where we are now (or where we are working to be). For me it was gradual thing later in life. If 15 years ago you'd sent me what you sent him, I probably would've thought wow, that's nuts, I'll be a bit more vigilant. While I wouldn't have complained about such things being brought to my attention, I also wouldn't really have changed anything, perceiving my actual risk to be low. Some years ago after my grandfather passed away, my family came across a pistol while going through his things (sadly, it was long neglected). That sparked my interest in buying a gun and learning to shoot -- I'd enjoyed air guns as a kid but had never shot an actual firearm. After casually shooting for a few years (casually in terms of not being focused on defensive or competitive applications, not casual in terms of safety or anything like that), it was kind of nagging at me that I have some measure of shooting skill but if I'm out around town and some asshole starts shooting up the place, there's not much I can do about it without a gun. A while later I got my permit to carry...a while after that I really started carrying consistently. Didn't take long to realize the gun wasn't a magic solution, which led me to ECQC. And I'm still working on things from there.
It's an interesting topic to think of how to (or if you can) advance someone's warrior mindset, protective drive, or whatever you want to call it. I do believe some people would be fundamentally unwilling to change or incapable of changing (some unless it "happened to them"...others even then). Myself, I think I was open to it all along, and I wish someone had given me a nudge in that direction earlier in life. Who knows, perhaps all it would've taken is for my father or grandfather to take me shooting, or maybe enroll me in a martial arts class, and that would've kicked off this whole process a lot sooner. If I could do it all over, having the perspective I have now, I'd do just about everything differently from the beginning of high school onward and join the military after graduation (one of my greatest regrets now is that I didn't serve). Sometimes it's easy for me to get frustrated at what could have been if only I'd had my head on straight earlier in life (not that I floundered, just had different priorities). Above anything else now, my goal is to set a good example for my young daughter. She's free to choose her own path, but I'd like her to have a head start on things it took me a long time to learn.
Out of curiosity re: the OP...did you only send these articles to the adult men in your family, or did it just happen that only the response from the men was notable?
@EricM - yes I only sent the email to some of the men in the family. I actually thought it might encourage a discussion and perhaps the desire to seek further training, that we might have been able to attend together. So far, the other three men that I sent the email to havent responded.
In matters of physical defense, the women seem to defer to their husbands in our family.
I can only cut able bodied males so much slack in this area.
Here is one of finest essays I've ever seen on the topic. http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/0...f-masculinity/
“Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais
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