New Blood: Don’t forget the Founding Alumni Discount! (+ Suarez Comment)

From the perception of safety comes the relaxation of standards, and then the rise of the acceptance of marginal performance as something adequate. Inevitably, the acceptance of mediocrity leads to its adherents defending their current state as normal and ridiculing those who do not wish to be held down by their low standards.

Profound? No, simply an observation from life. It happens in police/military circles as well as in any industry and in society as well. We see it in the gun world…perhaps especially now that the specters of Hillary and Obama have passed into unpleasant history. 

It is as if now, some have glomed on to the illusion of safety from magazine bans, and assault rifle bans. And being safe from such things, it is almost – in their minds, as if evil itself has been driven out from the country. And they no longer need to maintain skills or maintain top grade equipment.

Finally, they think, they can now be like “normal” people.

Point out that we are still at war with Jihadists, and that the Urban Terrorist Movement (Antifa, BLM, etc.) have joined the war against “normal people”, and they discount the entire discussion. It is as if being normal, now they are immune from all those evil possibilities that people like me consider when we leave the house in the morning.

But I would wonder what the motivation was in the first place. Excellence in all things, skill-at-arms being one of them, should be the driving force in life rather than a reaction to the perception of the presence or absence of danger.

Thus, if peace and love broke out everywhere, the martially-inclined individual would still purse his studies as if he was to face the fight of a lifetime in the next few days.

The hobbyist doesn’t hold such a position. They see themselves as “average guys” and hold the position that “civilians” don’t need to concern themselves with such things. Here is a short post from a few years ago. It bears repeating.

***

I want to introduce you to an imaginary man – John Smith. John Smith is a private citizen. That means that he is not hampered by political directives at federal, state or local levels. But John thinks he is “just a civilian”. John has sought mediocrity his entire life. It is what he was trained for since birth….don’t make waves…be a nice guy…you can’t do this…you can’t do that. And sadly, he believed it all and grew up to be…a good boy.

Then John realized he’d better buy a pistol and carry it because his neighbor was robbed, beaten, raped and brutalized, and the police did not come in time for anything but the report.

So he went to the local gunstore and allowed the over-sized cigar smoking salesman to patronize him into buying a double action only Smith and Wesson because it had several safeties and a real heavy and long trigger pull. “It was great for a mediocrity-seeking civilian like John”, announced the salesman as he wiped doughnut juice on his Police Revolver Club t-shirt.

John asked about the Glocks and M&Ps, and that SIG with the Red Dot on it that looked so modern and cool. “Oh no…those are for professionals son….you are a civilian…you don’t need anything like that”.
Money was not the issue, but being a mediocrity seeker, and not wanting to be guilty of the sin of arguing, or being presumptuos about his status as a man, he bought the Smith and Wesson and went home. He did go to a free handgun clinic at the local range after he passed his CCW class. But he was a civilian and did not need to go to one of those “commando schools”, or learn how to kill things like that ad said. And he certainly didn’t need to lift those intimidating weights which he read were bad for you anyway. He was a civilian and didn’t like carrying a gun in the first place. And he rarely did.

So John went on with his life doing his best to avoid bad things, bad places and bad people. But one day, as much as he tried, trouble came to him. He found himself at church when some crazy wild eyed bearded guy decided today was his jihad day and began shooting people as he yelled “Allah Akbar!”. The congregation was also full of mediocrity seekers and those that did not get shot outright, ran away like properly conditioned civilians should.

But John was torn about running with the rest of the herd, or fighting. He knew that he needed to do something, but that “something” was nothing he had any skill for. Still, he drew his pistol and tried to aim it but it felt strange in his hands….after all civilians did not need to train like Delta Force so John spent his free time playing tennis, and catching butterflies with his wife instead. Speakimng of his wife, at that moment a round from the terrorist caught his frozen wife in the face and dropped her…as he turned to see her fall three rounds hit him in the chest, two piercing his heart…..and the last thought that he had before he lapsed into blissfully unconscious death was,

“……but I am just a civilian”.

You want that for yourself? No? Look…you can be a warrior, or you can be a sissy. That is that. Remember when you were ten years old? What did you play? Did you play nice guy butterfly collector? Were you enthralled by Mister Rogers? Did you daydream about getting along with everyone?

NO!!

You played games where you were the hero….YOU killed the freaking dragon! YOU saved the maiden! YOU saved the day. Your games, like all normal little boys were filled with storming castles, sinking ships, and blowing up enemy planes.

So what happened to you? You became…..socialized and civilized. You suppressed yourself to fit in with lesser men…and the women that wanted them. You became domesticated because you thought that was what you were supposed to become.

Become the warrior your heritage calls you to be – whether your profession is an accountant or a dentist or a teacher…or a gunfighter. A man is a warrior because he says he is, and he lives it everyday. But that is not what we are supposed to be.

I would not consider life worth living, nor myself successful, if I had to pretend to be other than what I am for the approval and acceptance of lesser men.

Be the warrior in your heart. Live as a warrior. Watch how your life changes!

---