There’s a lot to life. There’s much beauty in it as well as pain. Much good as well as evil. Most people tend to focus on one or the other, excluding part of life’s experience. This is not wise. We all see those that live every day as if the world is about to end, as if doomsday is right around the corner. They retreat from life and hide from it, I’ll admit that I can trend this way if I’m not careful to watch myself. To retreat from the world and life and the experience of it.
Then there are those that live as if the days are limited and pain is just an idea. They go hither and thither without a thought given to safety, pain, or what danger lurks across this world. This people often have fun lives, until they end up on the news. As they say ignorance is bliss…until its not. Obviously you want to strike some sort of balance between these two.
However when I look around at life and the majority of people I’d have to say that they trend far too over in the blissful ignorance side. Especially westerners, both males and females. They have this idea of life that just isn’t true. They think that human nature is something that it’s not or that everyone is basically good. And that the world works just like their upper class relatively homogeneous gated communities.
Not realizing that within every man is a bloody ape waiting to roar to life.
One Day…
There’s more to life than tactical preparation. There’s more to life than combat sports, small unit tactics, and survival skills. However with that being said these are all things that you don’t want to find yourself without. Because here’s the thing. Like Ralph Gracie said “One day, someone is going to try and take something from you.” and you’re going to have to address it. Words might be useless, appealing to morals certainly will be useless. so you have to ask yourself if you had to get primal with someone.
What would happen?
Be realistic. What would happen? Do you run from confrontation? That might work for a good chunk of life but I hope you don’t have anything you love or care about. Because what happens when you can’t run, when either you or other things you love and care about are being taken away from you. Will you look on in numbed shock as you become a victim? Or will you do something about it?
This isn’t a “Rah rah, be a tough guy” thing. It’s just a reality of the world we live in. And something that you need to prepare for. This doesn’t mean you have to become some combination of the Terminator and Rambo. It just means that you need to have prepared for this at least somewhat. To understand the realities of the world we live in and teach those realities to those that you care about.
Preparation For The Inevitable
Because here’s the thing. Eventually someone is going to push you and expect you to fold, eventually someone is going to try to take something from you and you have to be ready to it. We’ve all seen this play out in middle school or high school but it plays out in life as well. Humans are animals and the law of the jungle prevails more often then we’d like to think. This especially holds true if you lived a sheltered existence and frankly in the 21st century we all live a sheltered existance.
What are you doing to get ready? Some broad recommendations would be understand how the human predator works, awareness and avoidance are number one. Learn to defuse or not start the “monkey dance”, learn to identify dangerous situations, and how to not look like a target. “Soft” skills are really critical with all this. An idiot with decent firearm and hand to hand skills will still find himself in trouble. The key is to avoid trouble is possible and not be weak when not possible.
Then learn other things. Harden your body, if you’re super skinny and weak fix it. If you’re overweight then fix it. Learn the basics of how to defend yourself hand to hand and learn the basics of pistol and carrying if available in your country. Again I’m not saying you need to be SAS or anything. Just that you have a basic level of preparedness. You hopefully will not have to go against the baddest men in the world but just someone who used to getting their way through intimidation.
You’ll likely be dealing with a jackal not a grizzly, but regardless be prepared. Because not being prepared has dire consequences that we’d rather not think about.
It’s A Jungle Out There…
There’s poison in the very water that we drink, as the song goes. But it is a jungle out there and humans are “more devious apes” so you have to watch your back without becoming paranoid or an antisocial hermit. A very tough line to walk but one that we all must. To be part of the world but not in it and all of that. Just don’t go through life thinking bad things are things that happen to other people.
Because that mindset could very well get you killed, seriously hurt, or those you loved killed or seriously hurt. And that’s not something we want to risk.
So prepare for that day when someone is going to try to take something from you, and you’re going to have to address it.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
