Fear Breeds Evil

A schneevie does not sprout into a scumbag through hatred alone.  First, he or she must fear.  

Fear begins with personal weakness.  One's perceived helplessness, real or imagined, drives them to cast aside basic virtues of empathy, justice, loyalty, and honesty in a fraudulent social contract.  In such a trade, weaklings pledge allegiance to killers to avoid being targeted.  The falseness in the schneevie's compromise stems from a complete lack of loyalty among scumbags.  If scumbags had any loyalty they would not terrorize their own.  

Still, the schneevie, clinging to a life without honor, reduced to base savagery, renounces more and more civilized virtues until they have become the same scumbags they feared through successive approximations.  

To pity these accessories to evil would be a profound mistake.  Their socialized mobilization toward violence and fraud begins through personal weakness, avoidance of responsibility, and fear.  They deserve every pain they sought to escape through appeasement of evil.  

The true warrior of civilized principles cannot defeat genocide or organized witchhunts.  They can choose only two options: escape or die.  However, in so dying they have a choice of death.  Scumbags seek to get their power for free.  It is the place of the warrior to raise the price of evil.  This can be done either through illumination of evil through the manner of one's death or the delivery of overwhelming and targeted violence against agents of death, preferably toward the decision makers.

One must decide what values they will serve in life and death.  One can be a scared soldier rounding up innocents for the firing line, a scared innocent willfully blindfolded and made to kneel, or an unafraid warrior who kills the commander, snatches his gun and goes down in a hail of bullets.  My choice is no choice at all, but a matter of duty to the greater good.  Fuck collaborators, fuck the scared.  If no one feared scumbags, the price of their evil would be too high.  Never compromise with evil or you will join its ranks.  And watch out.  Some of us don't fear you and will fight to an honorable death bathed in your tepid blood.

Teaching and Learning

Western culture in its infinite naivete, has all but abolished the fundamental character traits of civilized institutions.  Respect, patience, humility, and gratitude constitute foundational attributes which enable proper teaching and learning to occur.  In the absence of these traits, no teacher can lead a student, and no student will be led.

In the absence of these character traits, teachers teach because they possess some power or domination over students, who are students precisely because they are dominated.  The classroom, dojo, or gym thereby becomes a wrestling match of egos and wills where teachers unwilling to punish students cannot possibly succeed.  In this kind of culture, true teachers and visionaries simply vacate, as no obstinately defiant student is worth attempting to teach.

The classical martial arts present a different view of a teacher.  A teacher knows.  A student does not.
And a teacher only becomes a teacher by first being an exceptional student.  In this way there is no stratification on the basis of domination, but on the basis of what is known and mastered by each.  It is possible for a teacher to be a student in one area, yet still possess superior knowledge in another.  This author was once enrolled in a dojo which practiced mostly pushups and crunches while this author had trained in all bodyweight calisthenics across a vast set of progressions over approximately 3 years in addition to weight training and knew many superior ways of building full body strength and muscle.  This author was a student of the sensei's stance, fighting, and technique knowledge, and the sensei was a student of this author's calisthenics experience.  As a result, the sensei incorporated many formerly unknown techniques into his training which benefited the training of all students of the dojo.  Meanwhile, this author incorporated the philosophy and technique of the dojo to improve general movement and outlook.

An example of a bad learner was when this author trained in "practical self defense" with a self appointed expert who knew less than this author about nonviolent self defense techniques.  Instead of learning from this author, or at least admitting disinterest, the instructor ignored the validity of the alternative techniques and criticized them on the basis that they were nonviolent.  He then suggested that nonviolent redirection is for victims.

A more explicit example was when this author formerly free sparred once per week with a close friend.  In exchange for learning self defense and conflict assessment from this teacher of combat, this author taught proper form for bodyweight movements in addition to teaching basic kettlebell lifting and the concepts of mindfulness or presence, and amused mastery as exclusive traits of victors.  Both this author and his friend functioned as both learner and teacher.  As iron whets iron, strong people sharpen one another, but only when the principles of respect, patience, humility, and gratitude prevail.

Some telltale signs of students include superficial understanding of a deep subject matter, strong beliefs based on little evidence, impulsiveness, lack of empathy for others' positions, and a general inability to tie knowledge together coherently, such as failing to see the connection between calisthenics and self defense, or political conditions and opposition to another US war.  Signs of a teacher include superior performance with minimal explanation, the quiet appreciation and understanding of another's position, nonjudgmental correction of weak techniques for the primary benefit of the student, and preferring to avoid conflict rather than argue, thereby allowing the superiority of one's way to become evident through demonstration.

The reader is encouraged to meditate on becoming a better learner before teaching anything.  The role of teacher emerges without effort only after a long time being a learner.  Lastly, the reader should consider how to discriminate whether they are in the presence of a teacher or a student.  Here's a hint: a true teacher does not need to force their views on anyone, ever.  They lead by example in all things.  By striving to be a student of life, the reader will become a teacher of wisdom in time.

Martial Conditioning: Bridging

Intro: Bridging encompasses a variety of movements, all of which share the common elements of extending the head backwards behind the feet, contracting the muscles on the back of the body, and stretching the muscles along the front of the body.  Bridging is a comprehensive enough practice that each variation provides different benefits.

Muscles Worked: Literally every muscle along the back of the body and many in front coordinate to complete a bridge.  The calves, hamstrings, glutes, lower back, lats, and traps primarily maintain the bridge position while the deep abdominal muscles, shoulder muscles, and quadriceps stabilize the position, acting like the struts above and below a suspension bridge.

Why Bridge?  The benefits of the bridge are wide reaching.  Few exercises can approximate the holistic benefits to all muscular, skeletal, and organ systems.  Proper bridging can prevent and rehabilitate back injuries, increase spinal flexibility, improve digestion, stretch the abdomen, chest, and hip flexors, extend the hips, and even increase the libido.  The bridge is a fundamental power exercise.

The Matt Furey Bridge: What I call the Matt Furey bridge consists of touching, or attempting to touch, one's nose to the ground in a bridge hold for time while deep breathing.  Furey refers to this form of bridging practice as the king of bodyweight exercises.  The incorporation of deep nasal breathing in this position, also known as bridging chi kung, leads to better flexibility, pain tolerance, focus, and relaxation under physical/mental stress.  A trainee should strive for 32 slow breaths (2 second inhale, 2 second exhale) in the bridge position, with nose touching the ground.  One can use hands for assistance depending on strength.  In order to extract maximum benefit from the hold, the trainee must strive to stretch as fully as possible and extend the hips and back by actively tensing the glutes and pushing out the chest.  It is also critically important to hold the pose long past the point of discomfort to the point where pain subsides to numbness, then relax in that state.  A proper workout with this hold results in shaky legs, sore glutes, and a feeling of depletion throughout the spine and neck.
 

The Convict Conditioning Bridge:  The bridge taught in Convict Conditioning, also known as the gymnastic bridge, consists of dynamically pushing up into the bridge position on the hands and feet from the ground.  For numerous reasons, this method is not recommended by this author, as dynamic bridging requires less tension and therefore confers less strength benefits.  The one exception to this rule regards wall walking and falling backwards into an arms extended bridge.  This variation greatly conditions the strength and flexibility of the back and shoulders.  For those who want to train this movement, try it as a finisher for the Matt Furey bridge for a couple sets of 10-15 slow reps.



Advanced Variations:  The one armed, one legged, and one arm/one leg bridges constitute the pinnacle of bridging strength.  From a combat perspective they serve little use, but may help to break the monotony of training.

 

Likely Results of Bridging:  The benefits of bridging are less physically apparent than those of other exercises.  A variety of body types can practice and benefit from the bridge.  One can conceive of bridging as a body type amplifier.  Smaller individuals are likely to be made more compact, limber, and flexible by the bridge.  Larger individuals are likely to grow more muscular and powerful from the bridge.  One's absolute body mass will determine which results are likely.  Unlike many bodyweight exercises, heavier individuals are not disadvantaged in the bridge and may actually gain more absolute strength than relative strength through its practice.  Lighter individuals will gain proportionally less absolute strength benefit, but will nevertheless increase relative strength and flexibility.

Bridging will thicken the muscles along the upper back and spine, resulting in a more durable, injury resistant back and neck.  Strengthening the spine also removes an important weak link in full body strength allowing for greater strength in all bodyweight and weighted movements.

Signs of Healthy Masculinity

Our culture suffers from an underestimation of masculinity, both in its present state and in its potential.  The following are some situations indicating that one has achieved a balanced masculine presence.

*When insulted, one's first impulse is to laugh, joke, or artfully reverse the insult with the offender.

This situation shows that one's ego has not grown to dangerous levels.  Attackers will often attempt to unbalance opponents with insults, particularly if they cannot hope to physically defeat them.  No insult, no matter how grievous, warrants physical attack.  All insults are indicative of weakness and insecurity.  This admonition does not apply to threats, which may be parried with a joke, but must always be treated seriously.

*One can urinate readily and easily in a crowded public bathroom without anxiety.

Every man is born with a reflexive aversion to urination in front of others due to its evolutionary associations with territoriality.  If this aversion is missing from a man, he is confident in his territory and does not accept the claims of others over his physical space.  The reader should note that civilization has all but eliminated the necessity of physical territorial contests.  Only in war and savagery is territoriality an important trait.

*One has fought/wrestled with bare fists to the point of injury without fear.

This sort of contest is increasingly rare in modern civilization.  As good men have abandoned the study of combat, evil men have grown more emboldened in the use of violence as a tool of control and amusement.  Therefore, good men have a civilizational responsibility to train in combat.

*One is immune to shame.

Shamelessness is an important prerequisite for opposing arbitrary social control.  A man with no shame has no master.

*One tends toward silence rather than complaint when angered, disappointed, or depressed.

This trait indicates a disavowal of social relationships based on common complaint.  One's pain cannot ever be shared and has no worth in directing one's decisions.

*One does not apologize to anyone, for any reason.

Apology is a submissive act which communicates one's inability to solve a problem.  A healthy man skips the apology and fixes the problem.

*One does not pine for women or require their approval to find happiness.

This trait enables a man to sidestep sexual manipulation and judge people of all sexes by their character.

*One can easily meet all his financial, nutritional, shelter, and mobility needs autonomously, if necessary.

A man who can care for himself entirely alone is less susceptible to manipulation and more able to respond to the actual limitations of his environment in place of the artificial limitations imposed by acquaintances.

*One can say anything worth saying in a single sentence.

Laconic, unhurried speech indicates one's control of a situation.  Very little speech is necessary for a man to communicate effectively.