This book is included in the Self Reliance Self Defense section.
Contents
Introduction
What is Martialism?
Why Pacifism is Wrong
Criticisms and Defenses of Martialism
The Moral Authority of Self-Defense: The Individual Right
How to Pursue Martialism
Assertive Living as a Martialist
The Principles of Martialism
The Liabilities of Martialism
Your Journey as a Martialist
Introduction
We live in a violent world. Not a day passes that our news media do
not relate some new horror, some new act of violence against our
fellow citizens. This isn’t paranoia; it’s simply the truth. To deny that
this occurs you’d have to ignore everything going on in the world
around you. We must face reality even when it is unpleasant.
You are surrounded by predators. Most of the time, they won’t
bother you and you won’t notice them. Most of us will go through life
never being victims of violent crime. Most of us, who conduct ourselves sensibly and
avoid high-crime, high-risk venues, don’t expect to be confronted with violence – and
for the most part, our expectations our correct. The problem is that the risk exists
regardless of your expectations and your perceptions. Violent crime occurs and could
find you at any moment in any circumstances, for it is by its nature often random and
unpredictable. Unless you wish to live with the risk and do nothing about it, your choice
is clear: you must take responsibility for the defense of your family and yourself. You
must learn self-defense and take precautions against violent crime. Does this mean
you must live in fear? No. Taking responsibility for self-defense frees you from
unreasoning fear and places risk in its proper context.
Simply put, you must pay attention to your personal security. Failure to do so may result in total tragedy for you or your family. If you don't pay at least nominal attention to your personal security, then you deserve what comes your way.
The crime rate right now (1999) is lower than it's been since the mid 1960s. However, the incidence of violence in those crimes is much higher – less crime, more violence. The FBI has amassed statistics that tell us a person generally stands a six percent chance in his or her lifetime of being victimized in some way. Of course, all statistics are capable of manipulation and don't normally reflect the reality of any given situation. The fact is that if your experience in that six percent includes a stabbing which results in your requiring a colostomy, that mere six percent becomes pretty life altering. If it includes a non-confrontational property crime – your mailbox gets destroyed by vandals, for example – you got off easy.
This is not melodramatic, just truthful, prudent, and appropriately concerned.
– Street Smarts, Firearms, and Personal Security, Jim Grover
Recognizing that there are people who will prey on you if given the opportunity – and
that there are people who seek to make those opportunities – is not paranoid hysteria. It is merely realistic. Preparing to meet emergencies that have not yet occurred is not
paranoid or mentally unbalanced. It is prudent.
Have you ever purchased life insurance? You don't actually think you're going to die
soon, do you? Have you ever purchased a handgun and obtained a license to carry it?
You don't actually think there are home invaders hiding in your shrubbery right now, do
you?
I tell you now that it is very possible you'll get through your entire life never being
confronted by someone who means you harm or who seeks to take what you have
earned. I hope you do. Unfortunately, the possibility that you won't is also real. It is
measurable. You should not expect to face rampaging barbarian hordes the second
you leave the relative safety of your home – but neither should you think, “It can't
happen to me.”
Those who understand the risks life entails also understand that they must hedge their
bets and be prepared for possible dangers. They do not stockpile illegal weapons.
They do not dig foxholes in their flowerbeds. They do not sit at home sweating bullets
and aiming firearms at passing cars from beneath ghillie suits knitted from their living room
curtains. They do, however, think carrying firearms or other weapons suitable for
personal protection is a reasonable action. They understand that a society increasingly
hostile to individual self-defense, regardless of whatever lip service that society pays to
recognizing your right to preserve your life, may indeed punish them should they make
the choice to use force – no matter how justified they might believe themselves to be.
The legal penalties for one's actions cannot be ignored. Learn them. Know them.
Remember them. Make informed choices.
Where preparation is concerned, however, err on the side of caution. No doubt the
grasshopper considered the ant “paranoid,” too. Charges of “paranoia” and “hysteria”
are very common when those who are not prepared face those who are. This is
understandable. We are uncomfortable when confronted with others' superior abilities
to cope. We rationalize our own lack of effort or lack of ability in order to evade the
cognitive dissonance we feel.
In my opinion, neither money nor greed (cupiditas) is the root of all evil. The root of all evil is envy. The non-coper hates the coper, and thus the non-shooter hates the shooter. I see no other explanation for the pointless and irrational activism of the gun grabbers on the political scene. They know that their machinations can have no effect upon crime. Guns have no effect upon crime, but they do make all men equal, as the saying goes. This puts the coper on top, and infuriates the non-coper.
– Jeff Cooper
Cooper wrote a book called Principles of Personal Defense that belongs on your bookshelf next to this one. In 44 concise pages, he describes the principles that best embody personal defense. As it happens, these concepts also embody the idea of martialism. They are:
“Violent crime,” writes Cooper, “is feasible only if its victims are cowards. A victim who fights back makes the whole business impractical. It is true that a victim who fights back
may suffer for it, but one who does not almost certainly will suffer for it.”
To be a martialist means to approach life with these principles of personal defense in
mind. It is to be assertive, capable, prepared, and willing to take action in defense of
yourself and your family. It is to possess and use the combative mindset – a mental
outlook that accepts the reality of violence and leaves you aware and prepared for it.
A lot of people who don't possess the combative mindset fail to understand it and –
worse – harbor serious misconceptions about it. This mindset is not about paranoia, not
about fear, and not about anger. Those who possess it are not sitting at home stroking a
shotgun or endlessly polishing a .45 with a lace handkerchief, muttering under their
breaths about the enemies among us.
The combative mindset is the mindset of preparedness. It is the recognition that by
preparing for emergencies – utilitarian and combative – you can stack the odds in your
favor when something you cannot predict occurs.
I've read some accounts by would-be martial artists and self-defense advocates who
actually claim such a mindset is a “waste of mental energy.” If that's true, such people
must not have a much “mental energy” to spare. To successfully defend yourself, you
must recognize and embrace reality. Evading or dismissing it does us all a disservice.
Martialism is the recognition of reality – the reality of our dangerous world and the
measures that best help you prepare for and achieve success in self-defense. That
self-defense could be against human aggressors; it could also be against natural
disasters, civil unrest, isolated emergencies, and other matters of utility in which
forethought and planning help you cope with the unexpected.
This booklet explains the concept of martialism as a philosophy. It explains how you,
too, can become a martialist. It describes why this is the best means of living a full,
gratifying, and dynamic life – for as long as humanly possible.
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