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It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you. – Henry Rollins from “The Iron”

While beginning to formulate my outline for this article, I realized I had a number of problems. First, I am far from an expert on the subject of Olympic weightlifting. I have next to no real formal training in it. Second, even if I felt completely comfortable outlining weightlifting technique to you, it would be a process far beyond the scope of this blog. It would take many videos and photographs to even begin to scratch the surface, something currently beyond this site’s capacity and my technical expertise. Third, most of us wouldn’t even know where to begin practicing O-lifting as it takes specialized equipment(although minimal) not available in most gyms and the actual practice of those lifts would swiftly get you tossed out anyway.

I think I solved all those problems with the format I came up with that follows…use the resources on the internet to provide a multimedia “roadmap” to start your journey toward greater mobility, strength, coordination and explosiveness, all hallmarks of trained Olympic lifters.

What is Olympic Lifting?

Skip this section if you find it too basic but I feel it necessary for the sake of completeness.

The following terms are interchangeable when we are talking about Olympic Weightlifting : O-lifting, Oly-lifting and even just straight “weightlifting”, which traditionally refers to training in Olympic-style lifting but has since come to mean any type of weight training exercise.

The two Olympic Lifts are the snatch(always done first in contests) and the clean and jerk. That is it. Competitive lifters get three attempts at each lift and total their best successful lift in each for their overall “score”. Weights are almost always designated in kilograms due to the international nature of weightlifting as a sport. As an aside, a kilogram equals 2.20462262 pounds should you be interested in making conversions with a calculator.

Videos are probably the best way to demonstrate the lifts so here they are:

For the snatch, here is one of the many world records posted by the famous “Pocket Hercules” Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syhVprXAAPI

For the clean and jerk, here is the heaviest lift in competition ever in world history, posted by Leonid Taranenko of the former Soviet Union in 1988(it still stands as of this writing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CANsGKdzPR8

As a purely historical note, there was a third lift, the clean and press or Olympic press, up until 1972 when it was removed because of judging difficulties and also safety concerns due to lifters going into extreme hyperextension to perform the equivalent of a standing bench press. Here is the titan of O-lifting, Vasily Alexeev performing that lift:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTYyi-AnWhY

Note that the feet are planted after the clean phase and no knee bend/leg drive were allowed to complete the lift(to differentiate from the jerk). Also, such spinal extension under heavy overhead load as practiced by Alexeev is an extremely risky practice.

Here is a link to the world records for both men and women in weightlifting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_Olympic_weightlifting

Any of you guys out there who want to feel weak, look at the 48kg weight class women’s world records…

Why Olympic Lifting?

Quite simply, O-lifting has a long established history, both in academic studies and real-world athletic training circles, of developing explosiveness, speed, mobility and neurological coordination to a high degree. This is due to the demanding technical nature of the two competition lifts which must be completed with a great rate of force production. While you can(and should) move explosively against the bar in exercises like the squat, deadlift and bench press, it is simply impossible to complete a snatch or clean and jerk without a rapid and forceful effort…much like the effort found in nearly every sport as well as in other endeavors such as self defense or the job demands of tactical athletes. While much of the canon of weight training knowledge has revolved around isolation, Olympic lifting does the opposite. It teaches you to use your entire body as a coordinated, powerful machine and most trainees experience a lot of carry-over to other similar whole body endeavors like sprinting, striking and throwing.

Another, lesser considered, benefit is the imparting of much healthier ranges of motion in the shoulder/upper thoracic complex and in the entire lower body from the lumbar region/hips down. Most athletes, weight trainers and run-of-the-mill desk jockeys are quite impaired in these areas due to a lifetime of compromised movement patterns.

Weightlifting will also do your body good.  Weightlifting improves bone density and connective tissue strength.  Also, anyone who has tried it will tell you that a few reps of the complex O-lifts or their training variants is quite an anaerobic workout in itself, leading to better cardiovascular function and better lean body composition(don’t be fooled by the girth of the superheavyweights who purposely put on as much weight as possible for strength and leverage advantages).

Lastly, the technical precision required in learning to O-lift is an intellectual endeavor unlike anything in the strength and conditioning field. It is another tool in your quest for greater total self-development.

How to get started

Obviously, weightlifting requires a place and some specialized equipment to practice. You have two formal options. The first is to find a club or coach through USA Weightlifting, the official body governing the sport in the US. This is their website:

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Weightlifting.aspx

If you find a club or coaching through that organization, you can rest assured you will get quality training as a result. If your intention is to compete in weightlifting as a sport, I would say that getting hooked up with USA Weightlifting and an affiliate club is required.

The second option is to find coaching in a sports performance center, crossfit box or maybe a regular commercial gym. Be warned that the quality of coaching and training can vary widely here(very widely). I would not simply walk in to one of these places totally green on lifting technique and put your fate in the hands of a potentially poor trainer. Some basic education on lifting will serve as an insurance policy against this.

The third option is the DIY one…set up some place to train in your house, study O-lifting and have at it. There is an old belief circulating around that Olympic lifting is too complex to learn on your own. This is simply not true if you accept a few things. One, it will take a very dedicated effort on your part to grasp the basic technical skills involved in weightlifting. This will be easier if you have a background in body mechanics, perhaps from other complex sporting endeavors like martial arts. However, make no mistake, the O-lifts and their accessory exercises are the most complex movements you can perform with a barbell. Plan to spend a great time reading, watching videos and discussing lifting technique with others, such as on internet forums. Two, I don’t believe you will reach your true genetic potential training alone or with a few partners of similar experience. Like I said above, if you want to maximize your potential, you will need experienced coaches with advanced knowledge and an environment of other stronger and more skilled lifters pushing you. Don’t let this dissuade you from pursuing lifting on your own, though, if you want to be a more explosive, more mobile, better rounded athlete. Three, you are going to have a pretty decent cash outlay up front to get started.

For most of us, the home gym can be an incredible asset, even if you also train in another facility. A home training setup can range from a few kettlebells to a full outbuilding training hall. Either way, being able to train at home is the ultimate in convenience and eliminates almost all of the self-sabotage that can go on in terms of lack of time etc.

To start O-lifting at home, you won’t need much.

You need a place to lift. At home, this means either the basement, the garage or in a detached building like a pole barn if you have one. Basement gyms can be great but the snatch and jerk require between 8 and 9 feet of overhead clearance depending on your height.

Once you have a space to lift, you will need a platform for the proper footing and to drop your barbell on. This is what they look like:

If you have piles of disposable cash, feel free to buy one. Realize though that they are very easy to make and require very minimal skill with tools. Here are the best plans for a home made lifting platform I have found:

http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Main/homesweathome6.html

Building your own will save you about 75%.

Next, you need a barbell. A quality bar for Olympic lifting will not be found at a sporting goods retailer or even most gym equipment stores. Good Olympic bars require sleeves that spin smoothly, specialized knurling and the ability to flex and “whip” while being strong enough to last through thousands of overhead drops while loaded with heavy weight.

Again, if you have unlimited funds, go with a competition set from Eleiko, York or Werksan. Those will cost as much as a used car. I think a better option is the lower grade training bars from those companies. They are still better quality than you will ever need most likely. Personally, I favor the Pendlay bars. They have been in heavy use in a lot of serious clubs for a while and have quite a following. They cost between $350 and $550, a downright bargain next to the high end companies. Check them out on Muscle Driver through the link on the right side of this site.

Barbells come in the standard 20 kg/45 pound weight that you are probably used to. 15 kg womens bars and 10kg juniors bars are also options.

You will also need bumper plates.

Bumper plates, if you are not aware, are rubber plates as opposed to the metal ones found in most gyms. Bumpers are all the same diameter…a 15 pound plate is the same diameter as a 55 pound bumper. They make them heavier by making them thicker. Due to their rubber composition and same diameter, bumper plates will withstand thousands upon thousands of drops without damaging your floor, platform, bar or plates themselves. There are a ton of manufacturers and I am hardly expert enough to tell you which is better than which. I would recommend buying them as a set to start and adding more as you need them. A 210 pound set with a few smaller iron plates for variability should be plenty for almost anyone new to O-lifting for a good time as it represents 255+ pounds when the bar is included. You can also add smaller diameter iron plates to a bar loaded with bumpers if you have them. Muscledriver is a great source for bumpers too.

The only other piece of gear to get started would probably be a set of squat stands. They look like this:

You can easily put those on your platform or take them off and they are required for back squatting, front squatting weights heavier than your max clean and for setting up push presses and jerks without lifting the bar from the floor. While you can get started without them, realize that purely lifting from the floor has some limitations. There virtually isn’t a truly strong athlete on this planet who hasn’t done a lot of back squatting. You can also use a power rack if you have one or can obtain one. The ideal setup with those is to have it directly in front of or attached to your platform so you can use the front of the cage to setup overhead presses. I have bother a power rack and squat stands and this offers the most versatility for your training.

All things considered, a home beginner weightlifting setup will cost $1200 to $1500 for decent gear. Not bad for starting on the road to beasthood especially when you consider people spend double that for treadmills and ellipticals for their home. Soon, you will be using those dweebs to perform cleans. Save the money and do your walking, running and sprinting outside like we are intended to. Or spend it on more real equipment like kettlebells, ropes, chin-up brackets and so forth.

I have a few suggestions for studying the art of O-lifting.

The first is the website Catalyst Athletics. Hands down, it is the best Olympic weightlifting site I am aware of. The amount of technique videos on it is staggering(found in “exercises” link in top banner of page) If you pay attention closely to what is being demonstrated, you will get most of the idea. There are also a lot of training and other instructional videos that are very valuable. They also have produced the book Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches and it is the most straightforward technique tome out there for weightlifting.  Its in the Valhalla bookstore if you are interested.

Catalyst also sells instructional DVDs, including a companion to the book.

http://www.catalystathletics.com/

Dan John has produced a number of DVDs on lifting and his coaching style is very straight forward and down to earth. There is much to learn from him. This is his website:

http://danjohn.net/

The link below is for the videos page of California Strength, the club run by Glen Pendlay(the barbell inventor) who was trained as a coach by Alexeev himself. While there aren’t as many videos here as on Catalyst, Pendlay’s 3 phase breakdown of learning the snatch and the clean are worth watching dozens of times:

http://californiastrength.com/videos

Lastly, I would really recommend getting your hands on the videos by Jim Schmitz, coach for team USA at 3 Olympic games. The video is old and was recorded with a home VHS recorder, but the information he imparts therein is the best one-stop source for an intro to training in the Olympic style.

http://ironmind-store.com/Olympic-Style-Weightlifting-Beg-Int-Lifters-DVD/productinfo/1204/

I want to end by adding a few quick tips from my own experience that may be helpful.

• Only use the hook grip.  Yes, it hurts bad at first.  If you stop practicing with it, you will never develop the flexibility and callouses needed to lift comfortably with the hook grip and you can’t hold onto heavy weights without it.
• Consider starting with just the front squat, overhead squat and pushpress.  These are simpler movements than the full lifts but develop both strength and more importantly, the flexibility that O-lifting demands.  Very few people will have the shoulder flexibility needed at first due to poor posture(often job caused by sitting too much in front of computers, driving etc) or due to being a jacked-up meathead who bench pressed too much for too long.  Women will often take to O-lifting better because they don’t have the bench press fixation men do.
• The best $3.00 you will ever spend is for a 6 foot long piece of 1 1/4″ PVC pipe in Home Depot.  With it, you can practice most of the movement patterns(cleans are weird because the PVC is to light to force you into a proper “rack” position).  PVC is also hugely useful for doing shoulder dislocates which is a mobility exercise everyone needs to be doing a lot of.
• Completely forget about piling on weight.  Maybe lift heavy in the squats and pulls but the main lifts require a focus on technical development before all else.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts. – Abraham Lincoln

My last article series on countering the active shooter threat seemed to generate a lot of interest. After part 2 was posted, there were over 10,000 page views in the following two weeks. Hopefully, that means that information got out to hundreds of people and may save a life someday. That is a powerful thought and it reinforces one of the key ideas I am trying to get across here…the revolution in thought and culture that is taking place is happening at the individual level. The old paradigms in health, in performance, in preparedness/readiness and in our conception of liberty, are all falling and being remade even as the storm clouds gather. Perhaps it is more correct to say that many are rediscovering old knowledge, be it in ancestral health or in the philosophy of the Founding Fathers, much to the dismay of some who are wed to the perpetuation of “the system”.

Try to find a way to be a part of this.

In regards to that last article, I added a link to the latest Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines released by the military. It can be found in the first aid section. It will take some background in emergency medicine to make sense out of most of it but I know some of you have that training.  Soldiers and police officers please review it carefully.

Here are some thoughts on other issues.

On developing true physical strength…

Ask any grappler or cop who the strongest people they have wrestled with are and you will surely get some that tell you the answer is those who do hard labor for a living. Whether we are talking about farmers, masons or tree cutters, these people are usually very strong in a way that is hard to duplicate with traditional gym exercises. Grip and hand strength is a particular advantage held by these men(and women). I have also known some who displayed well-developed overall conditioning and had quite good endurance provided they had not harmed themselves with smoking, alcohol abuse and overall poor lifestyle, demons which tend to plague laborers at a high rate. This type of fitness can be very applicable to combat sports, self-defense and survival readiness. If you are already in a labor trade, make sure you are eating well and managing your recovery smartly. Working a hard physical job and then trying to strength train or train martial arts in your off-hours can quickly lead to burnout. Don’t let poor lifestyle choices sabotage the unique opportunity to develop physically that your job provides you (I bet nobody ever put your carrying building materials all day in that light…). On the other hand, many of us have highly sedentary jobs in very cushy environments. My advice to you is to never pass up the opportunity to do some hard work if it presents itself, even if you are on point with your traditional athletic development protocols in gyms, dojos and academies. It can be a summer landscape job or working around your property or that of a friend. Some hard work out in the natural world will do wonders to develop ruggedness and that famous “farm boy” strength.

If you really don’t have any opportunity to engage in some labor, another option is to “simulate” it with some simple implements like sandbags, sledge hammers and rocks. Carrying rocks, lifting sandbags and swinging sledge hammers are a fun change from the gym grind and also develop real physical prowess.

On self defense…

The legal nuances of self defense is a topic very much on the national stage right now due to the incident in Florida that took place at the end of February. I wanted to touch on two related subjects quickly in regards to that incident. First, if you have followed it at all, you saw the national media get caught time and again distorting the situation, almost to a criminal degree. Just take that as another piece of evidence that you should always engage in healthy skepticism and be aware of attempts to manipulate your thinking. Hence the Abraham Lincoln quote above…

More importantly, there is a take home lesson there about understanding your legal rights and responsibilities when it comes to defending yourself. Trainer Tony Blauer references three fights that take place when you have to use morally justified violence to defend yourself. The first fight is the actual physical confrontation. The second fight is the internal, psychological struggle that takes place within you during the event. The third fight is the one involving the resulting aftermath and this fight can take place in a hospital or a courtroom. To be prepared for the third fight requires being schooled in the laws governing self defense in your jurisdiction. As many of my readers are in New Jersey, I have linked below the relevant chapters from the NJ criminal code that spell out your legal obligations when it comes to using force to defend yourself.

http://law.onecle.com/new-jersey/2c-the-new-jersey-code-of-criminal-justice/3-4.html

The relevant chapters are 2C:3-4 to 2C:3-6.  2C:3-7 details the use of force requirements for police officers if that interests you.

If you live in another state or country, you should seek out the similar legal code there. If you travel extensively, you have your work cut out for you but if I was you, I would get a basic idea of what was required of me under the law in all of the places I frequent. I have often witnessed a severe deficiency in self defense training programs and that is a steeping in the legal framework that guides your actions should you need to resort to the employment of force to defend yourself or others. If you are interested in rounding out your skill set in self protection, don’t ignore the legal requirements.  If you teach self defense on any level, you have an obligation to understand the legal framework.

On eating red meat…

Recently, Harvard’s school of public health released a study that concluded that the consumption of red meat is associated with increased mortality from cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Here is a link to the press release:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/red-meat-cardiovascular-cancer-mortality.html

This immediately set off a firestorm in the paleo community. While I have included links to a number of the thoughtful rebuttals from paleo theorists, the information I have been able to gather on the methods of this study seems to indicate it is so invalid it is almost unworthy of comment. It’s suspect conclusions were reached by analyzing SELF-REPORTED questionnaires every four years and then correlating that historically highly inaccurate information with death and illness rates. There was no actual scientific analysis to determine the mechanisms by which meat can cause cancer and heart disease. The press release references nebulous theories such as high iron, saturated fat, sodium, nitrates and carcinogenic substances released during cooking. While iron and sodium may be a concern in some limited cases and burning/charring ANY food increases carcinogenic agents, those issues can be raised about many other foods. It also raises concerns about saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, both of which have been nearly totally debunked as mortality risks. The bottom line is no biomedical correlation exists between eating red meat and disease processes. Whole grains, on the other hand, now have a mountain of very specific data on them showing actual mechanisms(intestinal permeability, insulin resistance etc) by which they damage the body in various ways and contribute massively to a host of disease processes. Despite this, the study recommends consuming whole grains instead of red meat…

The higher red meat eaters also seemed to more often share the traits of carrying a high degree of bodyfat, smoking and not being physically active. Does that describe us? Couldn’t be that those other factors caused the mortality risk now could it?

Also remember that this questionable study did not take into consideration food quality. If you take nothing away from this discussion, remember this…no where is food quality more important than in red meat. Grass fed beef from naturally raised cows and bison is a completely and totally different substance than the stuff coming from feedlot animals. The Harvard study’s complete ignoring of this critical distinction indicates to me that there was no real interest in reaching an honest conclusion. Robb Wolf makes the point in an article I linked below that the grass fed counter argument shouldn’t even be brought up. He says that the study is so bad it is not even worthy of that basic level of discussion.  He is probably right.

The campaign against beef and other animal products by certain institutions is a fascinating subject that reads like an espionage novel. It can be tied to vegan propoganda, moronic PETA nonsense , big government interests like grain subsidies and even the phony global warming racket.

This seems to be nothing more than troublemakers trying to manipulate minds. Tsk. Tsk. Every time you pick up a rock, you find these loathsome creatures.

Keep eating meat. Humanity evolved on it and cancer, heart disease and diabetes did not show up until grain was introduced. Some ancestral peoples existed entirely on animal products and suffered from no diseases of civilization.  You could do the same and have robust health for it.  That is a testament to the nutritional density of animal products.

Just try to get the highest quality stuff you can find. Opt for grass fed, pastured, hormone and anti-biotic free animals wherever possible and just don’t burn it to death on a grill (medium is the most you should cook beef with no charring if you can manage). I see no reason to shy away from bacon, pork or sausage either frankly, particularly if you can find high quality stuff where the animals have been raised properly. Even if you can’t always get 100% grass fed beef, the regular grocery store stuff is 100 times better than eating wheat and other grains.

Let the emaciated pencil necks like Dr. Oz keep eating wheat germ and trying to scare the public. No viking or valkyrie would be without their meat and for good reason.

Here are some of the better counter articles from the paleo community:

Robb Wolf’s succinct and entertaining retort:

http://robbwolf.com/2012/03/14/red-meat-part-healthy-diet/

Chris Kresser’s podcast and corresponding transcript on the subject:

http://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-increase-your-risk-of-death

And lastly, Gary Taubes very extensive rebuttal eviscerating the methodology of the Harvard “study”:

http://garytaubes.com/2012/03/science-pseudoscience-nutritional-epidemiology-and-meat/

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me, and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye and see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. -  Frank Herbert, Dune.

After having read part 1, you should have a decent understanding of the history and general nature of active shooter threats. In this article, I will be discussing particular strategies and tactics for the individual to survive and possibly even counter these criminals. I will be doing so from the perspective of the private person, not a law enforcement officer. My law enforcement brethren should already be bringing to the table a good idea of what to do with these murderers. Still, any of you LEO’s out there may be able to pick up a few useful ideas here to further increase your readiness.

I have a few reasons for writing this piece. First and foremost is to increase awareness of this threat and begin stimulating thought in regards to a response. When one keeps in mind the race against the “death clock” – the period of time in which an active shooter will kill his prey before being stopped – the only logical solution is to have as many people ready to respond as possible in any given public place. We should have learned from Israel. Here is what happened in that country:

The Ma’alot Massacre and Israel’s solution

In May of 1974, Palestinian terrorists initiated a series of attacks over two days in the town of Ma’alot. It culminated in the takeover of an elementary school which was subsequently stormed by IDF commandos in a rescue attempt. The terrorists turned on the school children and killed 22 with machinegun fire and grenades before being sent to find out if the 72 virgins are real. This despicable tactic should sound familiar (Beslan) and it is one often employed by Islamic fundamentalist terrorists who know the effect attacking young children will have on a society. Israel did not engage in the type of hand-wringing hoplophobic debate that I fear would happen in many parts of the US (particularly the  havens of central planning). Instead they instituted a program of encouraging armed civilian volunteers (quite often parents, obviously) in the schools. The government publicized this program as a warning to would-be murdering thugs.

In 2002, a terrorist opened fire in an Israeli school but with very different results. He was promptly shot dead by armed grandparents who had volunteered to stand guard while their grandchildren were educated.

There has not been an Israeli child killed in a shooting attack at a school since Ma’alot.

There exists some confusion about Israeli gun laws in the West but a very large percentage of Israeli citizens will qualify for permits, which include the right to carry nearly everywhere. This has resulted in many instances of private persons engaging terrorists. In one highly publicized case, an Israeli housewife shot dead a jihadi in the middle of a crowded street as he was attempting to detonate a suicide bomb on his person.

While I support concealed carry among the law-abiding citizenry, I am not so naive as to think that alone is a solution…far from it. Knowledge, skills and motivation are all essential parts of a response plan. This piece is a humble attempt at furthering those components.

Secondarily, much of the list of preparations and strategies that follows is not limited to only active shooter situations. They can certainly apply to other scenarios in which you may need to defend lives, be they yours or others.

The anatomy of an Active Shooter Event

Historically, active shooter events have had a number of common features. The shooter selects an environment that is “target rich”(ie. a heavily populated place with many potential victims). These places are typically soft targets and “gun free zones”. By soft targets I mean there are very few physical security procedures in place. That means pedestrians are generally free to enter and move about at will and there is little or nothing in the way of screening prior to entrance(shopping malls, schools, etc.). These same places are often “gun free zones” where the carrying of arms concealed by private people is largely forbidden. A school is your classic example. Be on guard even more so in these facilities.

Unfortunately, in nearly every case, the first indication that an active shooter event is underway is the shooter opening fire. There is very little in the way of direct pre-attack indicators. That means you will be behind in the decision making cycle in the extreme due to the tremendous stress of the event. I would imagine the stress level/shock is directly related to your proximity to the shooter too.

As all hell breaks loose, some people will begin getting on the phone to 9-1-1. That will in turn mobilize a huge amount of resources(fire departments, medical services, SWAT teams) but the primary line of responding forces will be the closest city, county or state police officers.

The tactics developed and taught to police officers after Columbine center around what is know as Immediate Action Rapid Deployment(IARD). So as not to disclose any information that is not already public, you can read a wikipedia article on the subject below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immediate_Action_Rapid_Deployment

Basically, the police will be forming up in teams upon their arrival and assaulting the structure as quickly as practical to locate the shooter or shooters and stop them. This obviously takes a highly aggressive mindset and these early responders are tasked with stopping the killing. If you read between the lines, that very likely means you are on your own in terms of rescue or first aid. At best, the police can direct you to what they feel is the safest exit but then you are on your own. Do not impede them in any way as you will get more people killed. The police will also not be providing you with first aid as they don’t have time. Even if your injury is critical, do what you can to manage it and try to escape. Your job at that point is to get yourself, your immediate family group and any one else you can help out of the combat zone as quickly as possible. Once outside, you may again be encountered by police and maybe even searched. Realize that this measure is taken to ensure that a shooter does not manage to slip away should they not have the intention of dying in a fight with the authorities. Provide the emergency responders with any information you have once you are in a safe area or if they ask you for it. This includes information about your injuries, any other injured parties and very importantly, a description of the shooter if you have it. If you happen to make it through on a phone call to a police dispatcher(often the circuits crash in such a critical incident), the most important information you can give them is as detailed a description of the shooter that you can manage. It is preferred that you have this information first hand as you reporting something you got second or third hand may only add to the confusion. Some active shooter incidents have involved the employment of improvised explosive devices such as pipe bombs or bombs made using propane tanks. It goes without saying that you should steer as clear of anything like this as you can. Then report them in as detailed a way as you can (primarily appearance and location) to the police at the first opportunity.

All of the above was directed to someone who solely had a goal of getting themselves and their family far away from the perpetrator as quickly as possible. I can’t answer for you if you should actively seek to engage such a criminal to try and stop their rampage before the police are on scene. Keep in mind that their will always be this pre-police time period.

Here are a few thoughts on that:

- If you are with other loved ones, such as a spouse or children, should your priority be attacking the shooter or getting your tribe to safety? No one can answer this question for you. Spend some time now thinking about it. On one hand, if you miss an opportunity to stop a shooter, many more innocents may die. On the other hand, purposely trying to draw the aggression of the shooter may lead to your people being killed. These are the horrific choices such incidents can place on a person.
- The physical logistics of your actual location may dictate the answer to you. For example, I don’t think there was much of a choice for the passengers during the LIRR shooting…on a crowded train safety was only going to be found by directly assaulting the shooter. A huge structure like a shopping mall where you are only hearing gunshots and screams but are not directly in the kill zone presents another situation entirely.
- How capable are you of engaging a shooter? Are you former military, an off-duty cop or a really well trained citizen carrying a concealed pistol or are you an unarmed person with no experience or training in the ways of violence? Again, you may not be left a choice and the only chance you have of seeing another day is going straight through the perpetrator. Do so with berserker ferocity.

I am going to go over specific recommendations below to develop your ability to react effectively to the AS threat. I have broken them down into tips purely in the mental realm and tips for more tangible physical preparations.

Mental preps

First off, denial is what will kill you when faced with a threat to your life, be it criminal violence or some other survival situation. Every human decision cycle goes through the following template:

Observe
Orient
Decide
Act

This can be shortened to the OODA loop or Boyd’s loop, named after the fighter pilot who codified this idea. When denial takes place, you are purposely mucking with the orientation phase most likely. Even though your senses have provided you with a stimulus that should be putting you on high alert with physical action following quickly thereafter, you get frozen trying to orient or you orient incorrectly. A number of survivors of active shooter attacks have been quoted as saying “I thought this was a movie.”. That is pure denial.

Human violence in particular can be so traumatic that it is paralyzing to some people. That is largely going to be a result of innate personality, lifelong thought patterns and life experiences. One thing we do know is that exposure to a stimulus decreases our arousal response to it. I am not suggesting that you sign up to go fight overseas tomorrow or become a street cop, but there are some things you can do.

One step you can take to counteract denial and its life threatening effects is to actively study crimes of violence. When active shooter events happen, read up on them. Read books like Terror at Beslan and Columbine. If you are the type of person who shrinks from any knowledge of the dark side of humanity, you are at greatest risk of being paralyzed by denial. I can’t imagine someone typically described as highly trusting, a “bleeding heart”, a “follower” etc. being very capable when facing down a murderous demon. Everyone has the power to remake their thinking though, and exposure to the reality of human violence is an important component of your survival plan. A good exercise is to write down on paper everything a killer would take from you if they were successful. Don’t just think about it. Write everything down on paper, even if you throw it out later, but concretely burn it into your brain before doing so. Whenever you aren’t sure if you have the strength to defend yourself, think of that list and the consequences of failure.

Another important step is to change your level of alertness when in public places. Col. Jeff Cooper invented the following chart many years ago and I think it is just as relevant now:

You should not be in a public place in condition white…that is only for the safest of places, like your home(hopefully). In public places, you should be existing in condition yellow…calm but very aware of your surroundings and somewhat expecting danger to arise. Very few people that are halfway well off in Western society live this way anymore, a dangerous byproduct of our success at creating a stable society. Watch people. Pick out behaviors that cause you some concern and monitor those individuals. Try not to let anyone into your personal space unchecked (a deadly mistake often made by crime victims). Here is another exercise: When entering a public place sometimes decide to observe everything possible about the people inside or around. Notice everything they are doing, practice giving a full description of them to yourself. Gas stations and convenience stores are a favorite place of mine to engage in this game. Your awareness will increase greatly as a result. None of us are machines and everyone’s readiness and alertness waxes and wanes due to a huge host of factors. The goal is to shrink our periods of inattentiveness as much as possible.

Related to that last practice is another exercise, this one involving visualization. It is a favorite of good cops and soldiers. As you go about your life, use your imagination to create scenarios where you would have to defend yourself. It even helps to use real world people that you are looking at as “actors” and “bad guys” in your scenarios. Make your visualization as realistic as you can, so much so that you even start to experience a minor stress response. See your reaction to violent assault as both appropriate and decisive. If your defense plans involve firearms, feel your draw or your mount. See where you would index your sights. In this way, you can experience 1000 gun battles without firing a shot.  Just don’t sacrifice condition yellow to do it…engage in this game in an appropriate place.

There is a tremendous amount of material out there on managing critical incident stress. The specific methods are outside the scope of this article but I plan a future one on that very topic. As a start, reading everything ever published by Col. Dave Grossman is a far better education on this topic than I could ever give you.

Physical Preps

Get Fit. Specifically, get fit in the way you would to survive a battlefield encounter. This means being strong, being able to run, having good mobility and so on. I have written on this before so I won’t belabor my definition of fitness and how I feel most people should be training.  Here is a link to a previous post in which I discuss that topic:

http://valhallastrong.com/topic-5-strength-and-conditioning/

Be armed. If you can carry a pistol in your state, go through whatever process is required and start doing so. If you are already able to carry already, make sure you are armed EVERYWHERE you go. I am mostly speaking to cops here. Yes, I know carrying concealed can be a hassle and sometimes uncomfortable. Remember, you took an oath. We aren’t always going to be able to turn the tide against an evil person for many reasons but at least always give yourself the option to try. Like Jeff Cooper said: “The only thing an unarmed man can do in the face of evil is flee and as a general thing, evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.”. If you carry a pistol, always, always, always carry at least one reload(if not more). I also am pretty down on revolvers and lower capacity pistols. I don’t see any reason to be carrying anything that holds less than 10 rounds today unless you are in a situation that absolutely demands clothing that prevents it. If a pistol is out of consideration because of a warped political climate, you may have other options. Next best would be a substantial fighting knife, probably a folder for convenience but fixed blades are a little better. Anyone carrying a gun should also have a knife as a backup defensive tool. Far behind the pistol are the runner ups. OC (pepper) spray is better than nothing I guess but its value, particularly against a motivated deadly threat like an active shooter, is supremely limited. One tool that few people consider is a sturdy belt with a heavy metal buckle. The nylon tactical belts with heavy machined buckles that “tacticool” wannabes favor actually will make a very effective improvised flail in a pinch. Also, it would not hurt to become proficient in the use of the short stick/club. You probably would never carry such a thing on your person for logistical and legal reasons, but you really don’t have to. There is a reason the club is mankind’s oldest weapon…if you look around in your environment, you will find plenty of them.

While on the subject of weaponry, another underrated defensive tool are sturdy, athletic boots or shoes. Don’t wear sandals or high heels to public places…you can’t run in them and you cant kick somebody effectively with them on. Overall, you should try to dress in clothing that you can perform athletic movements in when you are in public. This may be a bit of a sacrifice for some (anyone who knows me is aware it wouldn’t be an issue for me…) but fashion always takes a back seat to survivability in my book.

Get real training in combatives. Having real combat martial arts skills are of tremendous importance. Please reread my post …

http://valhallastrong.com/topic-2-finding-the-essence-of-martial-arts/

… for my take on martial arts training. One must learn to hit very hard, maintain your balance when someone is trying to take it from your, explosively take the enemy off their feet and fight on the ground as a last resort. Also, get professional training in the employment of firearms. This is a completely non-exhaustive list of tactical skills that I think need to be emphasized for active shooter response:

1.Be able to shoot your handgun at long distances. It is certainly in the realm of possibility that you may have a shot at an extended distance, 50 yards and beyond, at an active shooter. That is a very attainable skill to develop but it takes some serious training.
2.Be able to differentiate between concealment and real ballistic cover. As you go about your life, learn to identify places of cover. Make it a game like a few of my suggestions in the mental preps section above.
3.Learn to use as many weapons as possible should you manage to “commandeer” a weapon from a criminal who is operating in a pack. Never pass up an opportunity to learn how to manipulate a new gun.
4.Bridge the gap between combatives and gunfighting. An effective gunfighter is an athlete, particularly when we are talking about fighting in close proximity. You need to be able to move dynamically, change positions quickly, and know how to use and retain your weapons in that most deadly of scenarios where you are physically wrestling with the enemy.
5.Assure that your regular travel partners (significant other, mainly) knows how to operate your weapon should you become unable to do so.
6.Have a post-shooting plan. If you succeed in stopping an active shooter, you still have another serious problem…the responding police. The information available to authorities, especially in the early minutes of an event, will be scarce. You do not want to be standing over the suspect with a gun in your hand as the police burst onto the scene in a combat-amped state. Have a plan to surrender to the authorities safely. If you can safely get your weapon out of your hands before the police come in, do so. Comply fully with their instructions. I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this link-up point can be for a person who took steps to stop a shooter. This also-applies to off-duty cops. Be ready for it.
7.Extensive research and real world experience in law enforcement and military circles has proven time and again that the most meaningful way to prepare for shooting encounters is to engage in force-on-force (FOF) training. This involves having participants work through various force situations against live actors who are playing different roles, including criminal or the opposing force. Numerous options exist for the types of training firearms utilized, with the vast majority favoring either simmunitions or airsoft weapons. This allows the trainee to experience combat stress, make force decisions and engage in simulated firefights with no one getting hurt. Cops and soldiers who have a good amount of time doing FOF far outperform their peers when placed in a real situation. Right now, there are very limited opportunities for the self-defense minded civilian to engage in this type of training although some organized shooting schools do conduct it. I feel this needs to change as FOF training not only makes you vastly more capable at responding to a threat but it also greatly increases correct decision making thus saving lives.

Learn some basic trauma medicine and self rescue. The priority here is to stop bleeding from a gunshot, explosive blast or blade wound. Exsanguination (“bleeding out”) is a major cause of death after being shot or stabbed. Knowing something about the vascular system, how to improvise tourniquets/staunch major bleeding and generally treat yourself or others for shock greatly contributes to your survival chances. You may even wish to carry a trauma kit in your vehicle if you know how to use one. CPR is a good skill to have too. If you have no formal emergency medical training (obviously best) there are a lot of options out there in terms of books and DVDS, even youtube videos.

For those of you with more advanced medical training, here is a link to the military’s Tactical Combat Casualty Care guidelines (“T” triple “C”).  The information contained in this document is priceless.

http://www.health.mil/Libraries/110808_TCCC_Course_Materials/TCCC-Guidelines-110808.pdf

There is one last thing I want you to consider before wrapping this up. Most of you probably work in an environment that is very vulnerable to an active shooter attack. Think about it. If you work in an office building, a retail establishment of any type, a medical facility, a school or any place really where a number of people are concentrated in a structure, the shooter threat should be addressed. There aren’t that many of us making a living as farmers or loggers.

By “addressed”, I mean two things. The first is your own personal assessment of your work setting. Can you be armed while you are there? If not, spend some time thinking about improvising weapons from what is around you. How well do you know your building? Are you aware of all of the exits, backhallways and potential hiding places? Who do you work with that could potentially be of help in stopping an assailant? Here is another one of those exercises again…mentally roleplay an active shooter attack in your workplace. Plan your reaction and use this time to break down the structure itself. It will be immensely helpful.

The other thing you should do is speak with your security department, or if you don’t have one, your facilities manager. Ask some questions as to what the response plan or Emergency Action Plan(EAP) is. If you get a blank look from somebody who should have answers, they are not doing their job. That would be unacceptable to me and I would make sure this issue is taken more seriously in the future.

While it is pretty deficient in its advice for individuals, this DHS document is a good place to start if you need something “official” to get the people in charge of your workplace security more motivated.

http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/active_shooter_booklet.pdf

There are a lot of big facilities that have conducted very serious and large scale drills involving all types of emergency response assets up to full SWAT teams. This is the best way to train your personnel on how to respond but much more modest steps, such as “tabletop” exercises, are still a good shift in thinking in the right direction. Find out what your EAP as soon as possible and familiarize yourself with it.

The odds of you ever being involved in something as chaotic and dangerous as an active shooter event are very, very low. However, completely ignoring this threat, when it has the potential to wipe out entire families, is denial at its most tragic. Let someone else suffer with the consequences of living a life unprepared.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto.

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Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. – Steve Jobs

I have been asked a number of times to post a reading list on the topics that we discuss here. Anyone who is interested can find such a list in the amazon.com bookstore link at the top of the page or through the banner on the bottom of the page. In it, you will find almost 150 books and DVD’s relevant to the unique blend of material that you come here to read (firearms, self-defense, martial arts, physical development, diet, philosophy, warrior history and so on) . I also update the bookstore from time to time.

What you will know, and even who you will be, five years from now is going to be influenced very heavily by the books and other publications that you read. I did not throw all of these books up there haphazardly or by accident. If it is on there, it is because I believe in the value of the material. Browse through them if you are interested in learning more.

I am also always open to suggestions and feel free to post your own reading list in comments.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends… and all fear to be our enemies. – Alexander the Great.

This will be the first article I have written for this site specifically dealing with a preparedness and self defense topic…surviving the active shooter. Most of you will be at least passingly familiar with the term but hopefully, by the end of this two part series, you will have a fairly precise understanding of this threat. I also sincerely hope that some of the concepts discussed here lead to more individual preparedness to counter such violent and malicious perpetrators.

Be warned, this is grim stuff.

When we talk of preparedness, the “mundane” crises really should be our concern first and foremost. Obviously, you are much more likely to have to render emergency first aid to a loved one or run your household without power for a few days after a storm than shoot it out with an SKS wielding maniac in a shopping mall. However, I don’t solely live my life by statistical odds and you should not either.

I have suggested investigating the philosophy of Nassim Taleb before but I would recommend it again to anyone interested in expanding their thinking out of the normal mental “prison” most of us have been placed in. His books, Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, will forever break you out of normalcy bias thinking and placing too much faith in the predictions and statistics of “experts”. One of the understated themes of his work (there are many) is to be prepared where you can because there is no way to know for certain what the next moment may bring.

Putting the active shooter threat on your radar screen is a step in that direction.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, an active shooter is defined as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area. In most cases, active shooters use firearms(s) and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims.”. This is generally a very good description although it is mildly misleading in that active shooters could be operating in pairs (Columbine) or even in teams (The Mumbai massacre).  There is also some evidence in certain cases that they are in fact selective in their victims. Still, it is a good starting point.

I am going to do my best to summarize some of the most influential active shooter incidents in a timeline format. Obviously, I have to leave out a lot of details for the sake of brevity.

August 1st 1966 – The Texas Tower Shooter: 25 year old former Marine Charles Whitman ascended a tower on the University of Texas at Austin campus with a number of weapons including a scoped Remington 700 rifle. He began shooting people at random and would continue until being shot to death by Austin Police officers who stormed the tower with the help of a civilian. Texas being Texas, it is worth noting that numerous civilians retrieved rifles from their trucks and exchanged fire with Whitman. Whitman’s rampage took 16 lives in total, including his mother and wife who he stabbed to death the night before. An autopsy discovered an undiagnosed brain tumor which has often been cited as the cause of Whitman’s rampage (I believe this to be highly debatable, fyi). This incident would later be listed by Daryl Gates, the famous chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, as one of the primary motivators for his development of the concept of SWAT teams within police departments to respond to high risk situations.

October 16th 1991 – The Luby’s Cafeteria Rampage: 35 year old George Hennard drove his pickup truck into the crowded Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen Texas and opened fire at random, first with a Glock 17 pistol and then a Ruger P89 pistol. His rampage would cost 23 lives before he committed suicide after being cornered by police. The Luby’s massacre was the most lethal active shooter event on US soil until Virginia Tech. Hennard was often described as an extremely angry person who expressed disdain for everyone around him and felt aggrieved by all of society, a common feature among active shooters.

December 7th 1993 – The Long Island Railroad Shooting: 35 year old Colin Ferguson opened fire in a LIRR train in Garden City, New York, ultimately resulting in the deaths of six people. He was eventually restrained by passengers until being arrested by the police. Ferguson would be sentenced to over 300 years in prison after a bizarre trial in which he tried to represent himself. In terms of his motivation for the attack, Ferguson had a long history of expressing anger toward Caucasians and even fantasized about an apocalyptic future in which all white people are slaughtered by black people. His hatred was not limited to whites, however, and his behavior included outbursts and rambling against nearly every racial and ethnic group.

April 20th 1999 – Columbine High School, Littleton Colorado:  At 11:19 AM on April 20th,1999, 18 year old Eric Harris and his 17 year old partner, Dylan Klebold, initiated a 45 minute assault against their classmates utilizing shotguns, carbines and improvised explosives. 12 students and a teacher would be killed and nearly two dozen others were seriously wounded. After committing the bulk of their murders in the school library where panicked students had fled for refuge, the pair committed suicide. The perpetrators’ motivations for this horrifying incident have been debated hotly ever since. Heavy metal music, violent video games, psychiatric drugs, goth culture and a number of other potential causes have been cited but the killers left little concrete evidence of exact reasons. Some of their writings and postings on the internet evidence the “usual” rage with society at large that active shooters almost universally express. Diaries and tapes(the tapes have been sealed by authorities for fear of them inspiring other maniacs) found after the massacre indicate that the pair conducted shockingly extensive planning for months prior to the assault. Columbine was the game changer for US law enforcement. After an exchange of gunfire between responding patrol officers and the killers, the police resorted to forming a perimeter and awaiting the arrival of SWAT, which was the playbook in law enforcement at the time. Sadly, this was a mistake in tactics and the pair had finished their murderous work by the time tactical units were on scene.

September 1, 2004 – The Beslan School Seige: September 1st is Knowledge Day in Russia to signify the start of the school year. On that day in 2004, dozens of Islamic Chechen militants stormed school number 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia (Russian Federation) and took approximately 1200 students, parents and teachers hostage after shooting the lone armed security guard. After killing a number of the adult males they considered most threatening, the terrorist thugs set about fortifying the school. Most of the hostages were moved to the gymnasium which was ringed with explosives. The school was quickly surrounded by heavily-armed townspeople and local authorities who were then relieved by Russian military forces, including elite Spetsnaz (special forces) and KGB commandos from units Alpha and Vympel. Three days of hell would follow for the hostages who endured deteriorating conditions, assaults and occasional murdering of their fellows. On September 3rd, there was an explosion in the gymnasium. The cause is unknown and in fact, will never be discovered. Some of the terrorists, thinking security forces were assaulting, immediately began killing the hostages. The Russian commandos responded by launching a full scale assault on the compound. Despite claims by Russian officials that the school was secured within two hours, gun battles continued for 12 hours after the explosion. One militant was captured trying to escape and another was killed by a mob of townspeople. An exact death toll has never been established but the official numbers include 334 hostages dead from fire, gunshots and explosions, 11 military operators and 31 terrorists. However, as many as 200 missing people were not accounted for.  The motivations for this attack are rooted in centuries old ethnic violence between the Chechens and their neighbors.  However, an attack against a Russian theater in Moscow in 2002 orchestrated by Chechen separatists did not feature the wanton violence against innocents that the Beslan siege did.  What changed?  It is believed that the increasing influence of Al Qaeda and radical Islam in Chechnya directly contributed to the tactic of attacking school children for maximum terrorizing effect, something that Islamic terrorists have done for decades in Israel and other parts of the world.

April 16th, 2007 – Virginia Tech School Massacre: 23 year old Seung-Hoi Cho conducted this attack at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in two separate stages on April 16th, 2007. Cho had a long history of treatment for various mental illnesses. It was once court ordered that he be placed in inpatient treatment as he seemed to pose a severe danger to himself and society at large although he had no criminal past. A judge overturned his commitment and allowed him to instead attend an outpatient mental health center. From his early teens on, he expressed a morbid fascination with extreme violence and incidents like the Columbine massacre. He initiated the attacks at 7:15 AM by shooting two students to death in a dormitory. He returned to his room where he prepared a package including photos and a rambling video expressing the familiar rage of active shooters against the rest of society. He then mailed this package off to NBC news and proceeded with his assault at a lecture hall. After chaining the lecture hall doors, Cho would use a Glock 19 and Walther P22 to shoot 30 people to death. His rampage was stopped when he took his own life as police stormed the building.

November 26th, 2008 – The Mumbai Attacks: On the evening of November 26th, 2008, 10 terrorists from the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba came ashore in the Indian city of Mumbai using inflatable rafts launched from a hijacked fishing trawler. They split up into heavily-armed two-man “buddy teams” and proceeded to cause chaos throughout the city. They assaulted a cafe and a train station, set off explosives, engaged in running gun battles with disorganized police forces, and later laid siege to a Jewish Center and two high-end luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi Trident. When the last of the terrorists was killed by Indian special forces on November 29th in the Taj Mahal hotel, 164 people lay dead and hundreds were wounded. Although these types of “commando” terrorist attacks had taken place before in the world (notably in Israel and Europe), the scale of the Mumbai attacks shocked the world. The 10 assailants, all impoverished men from Pakistan in there 20′s, spent months training at a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp for the carefully planned attack. They were schooled on small arms and military tactics and were even given anabolic steroids to improve their physical strength. It is believed that their support network was very extensive, even worldwide, and some of their cell phone equipment was purchased in New Jersey. 9 of the 10 would be killed fighting security forces with 1 being captured alive (awaiting a death sentence currently and the subject in the photo above). He is the primary source of information on the attacks along with intercepted cell phone transmissions from the attackers’ handlers in Pakistan. India has always suspected that the attacks were supported by members of Pakistan’s government. Intelligence captured by the US military in Iraq indicates that similar type attacks have been in planning phases involving targets in the United States.

November 5th, 2009 – The Fort Hood Massacre: This horrific event was perpetrated by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Utilizing the FN 5.7 pistol, Hasan murdered 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded 29 inside and around the Soldier Readiness Processing Center…a building where he worked, as it is used to provide pre and post deployment counseling. He purposely avoided killing civilian personnel on base and instead focused on assassinating servicemen and women. Although it is somewhat shocking to consider, no on-duty military personnel were armed to provide resistance to Hasan…he was eventually shot and paralyzed by responding civilian law enforcement. Hasan is an interesting case study in active shooters as there is evidence that he displayed paranoia and extreme rage at times reminiscent of most of these perpetrators. However, he also engaged in correspondence with radical Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a known agent of Al Qaeda. Despite this, the FBI did not classify the Fort Hood shootings as a terrorist attack. Hasan is waiting to be court martialed as of this writing.

July 22, 2011 – The Norway Massacre: This attack took place in two phases and was perpetrated by Anders Behring Breivik, classified by Norwegian authorities as a right wing extremist. The first phase of the attack involved the detonation of a car bomb in the government quarter of Oslo. Eight were killed. Two hours later, Breivik, disguised as a police officer, assaulted a Labor Party summer camp on the island of Utoya utilizing a Ruger Mini 14 carbine and a Glock 17 pistol. He killed sixty nine camp attendees before anti-terror police forces reached the island over an hour later (the authorities ran into severe difficulty securing transport to the island). Uncharacteristic of active shooters, Breivik surrendered immediately to police. The investigation later revealed that Breivik authored a rambling document online entitled 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. In it, he calls for a return to extreme European nationalism and patriarchy. He also blames Islam and mass immigration for European decline. Although a Norwegian court declared him criminally insane and psychotic at the time of the attacks, the extensive planning he went through prior needs to be considered as a counter to this diagnosis. Elements of his attack were hatched a decade prior and he went through the most extensive known preparation period (2 years) of any active shooter in history, including completing exhaustive Norwegian requirements to purchase firearms and even the acquisition of a farm to disguise his large purchases of ammonium nitrate fertilizer(used in the car bomb). He is still waiting to stand trial.

What could motivate men to commit such carnage? Before attempting to answer that question, it is worth noting that active shooters are overwhelmingly males. In fact, outside of terrorist incidents overseas, I am aware of only one female active shooter case in the US…Amy Bishop, a professor who opened fire at the University of Alabama in Huntsville after being denied tenure in 2010.

Generally, there are two motivation “sets”…the “ideological” (ie. Terrorism) and the psychological.

The US State Department defines terrorism as:

“premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.”

A true terrorist attack, by its nature, will involve extensive planning and organization. The most high profile terrorist active shooter-type attacks were perpetrated by heavily armed teams(Beslan and Mumbai). Terrorism is a topic largely outside the scope of this article so we will instead focus on the psychological condition believed to be behind most active shooter attacks…psychopathy.

Psychopathy, not to be confused with psychosis as active shooters are not experiencing delusions or a break with reality in most cases, is a condition related to the classical anti-social personality disorder or sociopath. However, where anti-social personality disorder is diagnosed by behavioral patterns, a diagnosis of psychopathy is achieved by an analysis of personality judgements and patterns of thinking. Psychopaths display extreme narcissism to the point of grandiosity, a severe lack of empathy for other human beings, scheming and manipulative behavior and at times, aggression. They also have little ability to contemplate the future ramifications of their actions. Most concerning, they are usually fearless, a feature related to their lack of ability to consider the consequences of their actions. Although no psychiatric organization has recognized psychopathy as a diagnosis, numerous law enforcement and mental health professionals, including some members of the FBI’s renowned Behavioral Science Unit have pointed to psychopathy as the key psychological condition present in most active shooters. There are neurological, genetic, evolutionary and developmental theories of the manifestation of psychopathy within the individual but as with most things in the mental health field, there is no definitive answer.

Most people believed to meet the definition of psychopath will not display serious violence in their lives. The active shooters are the ones who cross the line. When one considers the nature of psychopathy, the pieces of the puzzle all fall into place. With their sense of self warped by grandiosity, the rage of the active shooter builds over time with each perceived slight by various members of society. The psychopaths penchant for plotting takes over and the plans for an attack begin to take shape. This scheme will be refined in detail, often using earlier famous active shooter attacks to modify their plans(a good example is the Virginia Tech shooter mailing off his video to the news so as to avoid the fate that the Columbine shooters videos had – being sealed by law enforcement upon discovery). Shooters go as far as to consider themselves fated avengers, turned loose on the inferior members of society. Eric Harris wore a t-shirt with the phrase “Natural Selection” printed on it during the Columbine assault.

Active shooters may select their targets entirely at random, such as in the Luby’s Cafeteria Massacre.  However, there are plenty of examples of more refined target selection driven by their own internal motivation.  The Columbine shooters let a number of students go who they had been friendly with.  Nidal Hasan shot only military personnel.

I can’t really do justice to such a complicated psychological topic so here is the take home message should you ever find yourself up against this type of person be they psychopath or terrorist. They have planned for this day, have no regard for your right to exist whatsoever and will act fearlessly to carry out their atrocities until stopped or forced to take their own lives.

In part 2 of this series, we will see what we can do about it.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto.

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In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk. – Teddy Roosevelt

As we start this supplement discussion, I just wanted to point out that the shocking physical power and herculean physiques of men like Arthur Saxon (pictured above) were built long before Superpump-Mass-Gainer-Mega-Creatine-Volumizer 30000 was ever around…

Just saying.

What is the deal with supplementation?

Supplements have been the hot topic in gyms for many decades. Look in any bodybuilding, fitness or “health” magazine and you will probably find something like a third or more of the pages dedicated to peddling supplements. After having tried many, many brands of supplements, I’m now a supplement minimalist. That is because:

-Nearly every supplement peddled to the bodybuilding crowd is worthless or even harmful to health. The marketing strategy behind these products is brilliant in its simplicity and also quite deceptive. Did you really think all of those monster bodybuilders and ultra-lean fitness models got that way because of the supplement du jour? Try instead some combination of steroids, plastic surgery, genetics and photoshop. The marketing appeals to the psychological desire for instant success-in-a-jar to be a reality.  Many of these fly-by-night supplement outfits are run by ex-cons too.
-A healthy paleo-type diet should eliminate the need for almost any supplemental products, if not all of them if you are really on top of it.
-Even with health-oriented supplements of good origin and quality, it can be difficult for the individual to know specifically what they need to address certain health challenges.

So, which supplements should everyone be taking?

There are three that are most likely of value to every single person. They are fish oil/cod liver oil, Vitamin D and Magnesium. Modern diets tend to be deficient in anti-inflammatory Omega 3 fats and the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 is usually far out of the optimal range (between 1:1 and 1:4). A quality fish oil supplement helps in this regard. Cod liver oil is potentially even more valuable because it supplies animal-form vitamin A as retinol and some vitamin D. I take a teaspoon of both every day.

Vitamin D is hugely important for cardiovascular health, bone health, immune function, combating inflammation, metabolism, cancer prevention, and even mood. Make sure you are taking the D3 form.

Magnesium is a crucial mineral for the sustaining of human life as it is required for energy production at the cellular level. It is also known as the “relaxation mineral” due to its ability to cause smooth muscle tissue to relax thus aiding digestion and cardiovascular function. Adequate magnesium intake significantly reduces mortality risk. Avoid magnesium oxide as it is not reliably absorbed by the body. Opt instead for the glycinate, malate or citrate forms.

Do I have to use these supplements?

The short answer is “no” but it is highly qualified.

The primary source of high EPA/DHA omega 3 fats are healthy animal meat. That means wild game, wild caught fish, grass fed beef and pastured chicken. If you eat any significant percentage at all of your animal protein outside of these categories, and most of us do, fish oil supplementation would be wise.

You can also get plenty of Vitamin D for free. Your body synthesizes it with sun exposure to skin. If you can spend most every day exposing a good percentage of your skin to bright sun for at least 20 minutes or more, there is probably no need for D3 supplementation. Virtually no one can do that, though, unless you live in South Florida or Hawaii.

The issue with magnesium, like with omega 3 fats, is commercial food production practices. The bottom line is industrial food production has stripped most of the magnesium from our soil and very little produce contains significant amounts anymore. If you grow 75%+ of your own produce or buy it from local farms with quality soil and farming practices, you probably get enough magnesium. Otherwise, you will need to supplement.

How much of these three supplements should I take?

Fish oil: Between 2 – 6 grams per day

Vitamin D: It is best to get blood levels checked and supplement up to a level of 60 to 80 ng/ml. Barring that, 6000 to 10,000 iu daily get most people to that range. Keep in mind that some recommendations of 400 to 600 iu are out there (as in the USRDA…thanks big brother). This will do nothing for you.

Magnesium: 400 to 600 mg per day.

How do I know that the supplements I am buying are high quality?

This is the $64,000 question. Much of supplement marketing centers around deceiving the consumer with claims of higher potency, purity and so forth. I would suggest investigating yourself. .

Remember, no FDA exists to regulate and test supplements. I don’t know how much this really matters because the US food supply, while very safe from parasites generally, is hardly healthy in the big picture, and there have also been quite a number of disturbing medication approvals. Big government can only do so much.

Instead, use a free market approach. (Are you really surprised I said that?)

Consumerlab.com is a great option but there is a monthly charge

Spend your time investigating the supplements you are going to buy on the internet. Since you will hopefully not be buying a huge variety of supplements, it is worth investing the time to figure out which are quality. I tend to go with large, time honored brands that have a reputation for passing quality tests so you are getting what is on the label. These include Nordic Naturals, Carlsons, Solgar and Life Extension. You will have a hard time ( impossible actually) finding quality supplements in Walmart. Quality magnesium and Vitamin D is only marginally more expensive than Walmart junk anyway. You will see a difference in fish oil price for sure, but the purity levels between a Calsons or Nordic Natural supplement and a Walmart fish oil pill are so vast, it is worth it.

Should I be using a protein powder?

Protein supplements are an interesting subject. If you ever get the chance, read up on how soy protein powder came to be a product marketed to a health and bodybuilding crowd. Its not pretty…the stuff was considered a waste product of industrial food production until somebody came up with the idea of making money off of it.

Bodybuilding magazines have very successfully pitched the idea to us long ago that you can’t build muscle without protein powders. This is nonsense. Whole food gives us everything we need and if you don’t want to use a protein powder, don’t let any supplement company convince you otherwise. Grass fed beef will win every time. I see two real advantages to protein powders…1.)convenience and 2.) maximizing nutrient delivery in the post training window(although I must admit to being skeptical at how much more effective protein supplements are over whole food in this regard).

So which protein powder to use? I’m not going to recommend brands but I have a few suggestions.

Never use a soy, pea, or rice based protein. They are worthless and harmful in some regards.

If you are still consuming dairy, make it whey only. Casein is the other milk protein and it can be nasty stuff for a lot of people in terms of causing “leaky gut” issues. Whey seems to be a quite healthy substance and can bolster immunity. It is also the most biologically efficient protein. Whey is hands down the most popular in the industry and every company puts their spin on why their product is superior. Frankly, I believe the hype around highly priced whey from grass fed cows is exactly that…hype. Whey isolate, if produced properly, is going to be almost entirely protein. The real difference in grass fed animal products is found in the fat and there is none or next to none in whey powders. Grass fed whey looks to be a waste of money to me.

The other two options are beef isolate and egg white protein. Be warned that while, in theory, both would be spectacular protein sources, beef isolate tastes horrible and egg upsets a lot of people’s stomachs. The holy grail of protein powders in my opinion would be a combination of beef isolate and egg yolk that actually mixed well and tasted good. No such animal exists.

You most likely will choose whey if you decide to use a protein powder at all. One other word of caution would be this…do your dead level best to avoid artificial sweeteners, flavorings or colors in your protein powder. I do not trust these substances at all. Be warned that this will really limit your choices. Anything sweetened with stevia is fine as this is a plant, not something created in a lab.

What about prohormones/testosterone boosters?

Most of what I have seen points to them being somewhere between marginally effective (mostly for over 40 men) to worthless. If you want, try something like tribulus for a bit and see if you notice any real change. You can even have pre and post testosterone numbers done if you really want to be scientific. In truth, there are a lot more effective things you can do to get your test in order.

What about fat burners?

Steer clear of these entirely. Most are CNS(Central Nervous System) stimulants and almost everybody in modern society has a chronically overly active CNS to begin with. The overuse of caffeine and even more potent stuff like ephedra is a discussion for another time. I understand the desire to burn bodyfat but I can say from experience that a grain free paleo diet, good recovery and some smart use of intense training is the holy grail for maximizing your genetics in this area. In fact, the stress of fat burner use has the potential to make matters worse as it can up the release of the stress hormone cortisol which will make you fatter in the long run.

What about a multivitamin/multimineral?

I tend to think a multivitamin is not the required daily item it is made out to be. First off, you can get every single vitamin you need from food, especially if you are following a paleo/primal/ancestral diet which means you are eating tons of different fresh or frozen produce and lots of high quality animal products. The one exception is Vitamin D which can come from either the sun or the supplemental form. Second, and maybe more importantly, there is increasing evidence that supra-physiological levels of vitamins ( levels many times higher than would ever naturally be found in the diet) may actually be harmful long term. This is not to say that there are not appropriate therapeutic uses for high doses of vitamins but you are better served doing so under learned guidance.

I am much more positive on minerals and multimineral blends as modern agriculture has depleted minerals from the soil alarmingly. The main concern here is magnesium (hence my recommendation above), but there are other immensely important minerals to consider like selenium and zinc, both of which I take.

Are there any other specific supplements I should be taking?

Most likely, the answer is yes. Examples could include an athlete interested in the benefits of creatine, a substance that has just about the best track record of all bodybuilding supplements (a dubious honor albeit) or someone taking statin drugs who requires CoQ10 supplementation. These supplements are very specific to individual needs and health conditions.  I feel that the fish oil/vitamin D/magnesium protocol is applicable to virtually everyone.  It is also cost effective.  What is not cost effective is walking into your favorite supplement shop and throwing down $300 worth of random supplements per week expecting this shotgun approach to yield either physical improvement or the alleviation of a health condition.  Would you break into a pharmacy and do that with a bunch of drugs off the shelf that you really know nothing about?  The supplements at least will not kill you, but they could make you ill or more likely, have you producing very expensive urine at no real benefit.

There are two ways to go about figuring out what else to include in your supplement regimen.  The best is to find a highly trained professional, such as a real high level athletic trainer or natropathic doctor, and have them guide you, maybe even after taking blood work.  This is not cheap, however.

The other more realistic option is to just spend a lot of time researching whatever it is you are going to put into your body.  The internet will provide you answers and you can find references to the most credible sources out there throughout my blog posts.

Feel free to comment with anything you wish to add to the discussion or hope to clarify.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. – Samuel Adams

Hopefully, you have all been busy settings your brushfires. There is much work to be done.

On that note, I was quite proud to see the massive upswell of resistance to the tyrannical SOPA/PIPA legislation last week which would have threatened to eviscerate the internet, mankind’s greatest bastion of freedom and learning. The entire paradigm in terms of intellectual property and media content has shifted in a cataclysmic way. Media producers need to learn to evolve their business model and they better do it quickly. Paying off government to take a sledge hammer to the internet was met with the response that any freedom-minded person could have hoped for…massive, peaceful, thoughtful outrage. Be ever vigilant though, as the bill was only shelved and this historically has meant that sneaky antics could very well ensue at a later date once everyone has gone back to sleep.

I would suggest you spend some time reading up on internet freedom and privacy issues here:

https://www.eff.org/

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is cutting edge in this area and should be a regular stop for you during your browsing. When you look back at humanity’s history, it should become apparent that our level of technology is accelerating at an exponential rate. This is being caused by both giant leaps forward in computing technology year after year and the engine of human social and intellectual evolution that is the internet. Staying up on technological freedom issues is a must for anyone concerned about liberty.

In terms of personal development, I have reprinted below Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues (8 personal and 5 social). Franklin believed these 13 areas of human development needed to be worked on daily. In fact, he carried a written copy with him and was said to look at it each day. If you know anything about Ben Franklin, you are aware that he quite often fell short but I guess that doesn’t matter so much. What is important is the struggle:

Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversations
Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing
Industry: Lose not time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty
Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think you deserve
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles or accidents common or unavoidable
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates

In the area of strength and conditioning, I wanted to introduce anyone that isn’t familiar with them to two variations of high intensity interval training(HIIT) as I feel they will be quite beneficial for improving your ability to respond to sudden anaerobic and cardiovascular demands.

To start off, I need to explain the Rate of Perceived Exertion scale(RPE hereafter). It is pretty simple actually. The RPE is a self-determined measurement of anaerobic and cardio vascular exercise. Most often it is ranked from 1 to 10 with 1 being extremely minor exertion (a deliberate, slow walk) and 10 being a “red line” effort…your maximum output which can only be sustained for a short period of time such as an all-out sprint.

The first variation is the Tabata interval, named for Japanese researcher Izuma Tabata. This protocol is quite simple:

20 seconds exercise at a 9-10ish RPE
10 seconds of total rest or a 1 RPE

This pattern is repeated for 8 rounds or 4 minutes total time. Many people will scoff at the notion of a conditioning workout that takes 4 minutes but they probably haven’t tried it or are doing it wrong. At the end of a Tabata interval, you should be seeing the white elephant you are working so hard. 10 seconds is no where near enough time to recover from maximal effort as long as it is a true maximal effort.

If you are in pretty high level condition, you can jump right into a Tabata interval and this is a great way to prepare for unexpected and sudden cardiovascular demands. Cops, soldiers and security personal pay close attention as this is a useful ability to have for your profession. Being able to get up to a hard cruising speed instantly and relatively safely is a massive survival advantage.

If you aren’t as concerned with developing that capability or you are not quite healthy and conditioned enough to attempt it, then do your Tabata interval after a warm up that includes a few minutes at 5 to 6 on the RPE.

Timing a Tabata requires either a partner or a specialized timer like the “Gymboss” – see sidebar – or one of the programmable timers available for smart phones.

In terms of exercise selection, you want to choose exercises that allow you to continue working hard and fast nonstop for the whole 4 minutes. That means pushups and chinups are usually out if you really want to improve your wind…those become much more of a muscular endurance and lactate threshold effort.

Here are some ideas:

-Rowing or cross-country skiing ergometer
-Stationary Bike
-Treadmill or sprinting on open ground (you just need a lot of space or a track as you can cover a lot of real estate during a 20 second sprint)
-Versaclimber
-Airdyne

-Burpees (a real nightmare if you push hard)
-Sledge hammer swings
-Body weight squats
-Front squats with a light weight – the bar to 95 pounds
-Thrusters (Front squat to a push press) with a light weight as above
-Cuban drill or jab-cross on a heavy bag

Just remember that the exercise needs to be able to be done at close to the same pace for all 8 rounds with just a little bit of degradation toward the end. You can use reps or distance for each round to measure the output during the 20 seconds periods. During the 10 second periods with running or the cardio machines listed above, I like to keep moving just a little as opposed to just resting totally. With exercises like burpees and thrusters, I will usually just try to catch my breath for the 10 seconds.

The Tabata protocol, like any anaerobic effort, also has a “stoking” effect on you metabolism causing you to mobilize bodyfat stores for hours after your training. HIIT used right is the surest way to lean out.

I’ll just briefly mention the second HIIT method as I covered a lot of basics above. It is known as the Taku interval and it is much more organized than the Tabata in terms of progression. It is much more demanding time wise though and ultimately, quite a but more total volume so watch recovery. Here it is:

Always begin each workout with a 5-minute warm-up at a level of 3-4 on your R.P.E. scale. Follow this with 5 minutes at a steady pace that is just starting to get hard by the end, level 5-6 on your R.P.E. scale. And then reduce the intensity and do 5 more minutes, back to level 3-4 on your R.P.E. scale. This 15 minutes remains the same throughout the first three phases of your H.I.I.T. protocol. After this 15 minute period proceed immediately to the high intensity intervals, which will be described below. During the intervals you should be pushing hard, striving for about a level 7-10 on your R.P.E. scale. Always finish your session with a 5-minute cool-down, another level 3-4 on the R.P.E. scale.

Phase 1:
Weeks 1 & 2: 4 X 90 seconds work + 90 seconds recovery.
Weeks 3 & 4: 5 X 60 seconds work + 60 seconds recovery.

Phase 2:
Weeks 1 & 2: 6 X 45 seconds work + 30 seconds recovery.
Weeks 3 & 4: 7 X 30 Seconds work + 20 seconds recovery.

Phase 3:
Weeks 1 & 2: 8 X 20 seconds work + 10 seconds recovery.
Weeks 3 & 4: 10 X 20 seconds work + 10 seconds recovery.

This 12 week progression is great leading up to a fight, tournament or something like that. Depending on your time, recovery ability, lifestyle and other training, Taku intervals can be done up to 5 times a week although as little as 2 will give excellent results.

Taku intervals really should be done on the hard-core “cardio” machines I mentioned above.

Aside from the physical benefits, high intensity anaerobic conditioning can help you to create psychological toughness and gameness. Sometimes you may induce panic breathing, a nasty combination of actually coming close to your physiologic limit and then getting scared enough about to make it much worse. You can tell this is happening in lesser prepared individuals as they will start desperately saying “I can’t breath” or “I can’t catch my breath”. This is most likely not true(be careful please as with everything I teach) so embrace the suck and smile through it. Work on your positive self-talk and try to ramp your system down as efficiently as possible. This will really allow you to break down your opponents and it is also a lesson in mindset management.

Now go burn it down.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto.

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IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Since the essay on hormesis and kaizen was so well received, I figured I would share a discussion I was having with a friend of mine recently. It touches on elements of both my last article on mindset and the overarching theme of freedom running through this blog. Hopefully, some will find it useful.

In discussing martial arts in general, the subject of the master-follower relationship came up. Anyone with long term experience in martial arts will be familiar with this dynamic although the healthy trend toward MMA/combat oriented training has decreased this problem somewhat. I am referring specifically to the almost cult like following that some martial arts guys, particularly in the “traditional” styles, sometimes attract. It lead to me articulating some observations about human nature in general.

I think it is fair to say that we humans have an instinct toward tribalism. Our closest animal “relative” – the chimpanzee – displays this trait. They form social groups and establish a hierarchy with most in the group relegated to follower status. This is the birth of the social instinct of our “monkey brain”(as opposed to the more primitive, survive-and-procreate reptillian brain). If you think about it, humans take on the same dynamic quite quickly when pushed together through various circumstances.

Its an oversimplification of this subject to an extent, but humanity can be divided into three groups. By far, the largest is the “follower”. Followers spend their lives looking for a guru, a master or a tribal leader. If they find one, they attach themselves to him or her, often with inappropriate fervor. The master’s every word becomes gospel, even if he doesn’t intend for it to be this way. The monkey brain’s innate desire to be accepted and protected has lead to blindly following the group and its dominant ape. Followers are usually not aware of this structure and simply see it as the way life is to be lived…some one else is there to protect me, think for me, rule my life.

The second, much smaller group is the “manipulator”. This person is usually aware of the follower dynamic and actively seeks to exploit it. The manipulator will try and twist the follower to his will for some type of gain, most often power or money. They will use promises of status, safety and acceptance to do so. They may also “gift” the follower with everything from actual wealth to “secret knowledge” – a joke of a term. As a good sheepdog friend of mine has been quoted as saying: “The truth belongs to everyone.”

Sometimes, the same person will seemingly flip roles depending on their current needs or wants. This most often involves a manipulator acting as a very servile follower in the presence of a person of higher status. Still, this too is manipulative behavior as it hopefully leads to the greater accumulation of their desires.

This doesn’t have to manifest itself in something as extreme as WACO or Jonestown. If you think for a few minutes, you will probably be able to identify many people in your life who follow one path or the other in their interpersonal relationships. Please also be aware that all of history’s great tyrants have been acutely aware of these concepts and maximized them on a grand and often horrific scale.

I don’t know if I have a real name for the third archetype so I will simply refer to him or her as “The Monk” (Dramatic, I know). This archetype is acutely aware of the manipulator-follower dynamic as well. The Monk walks the middle way and tries earnestly to respect all people as equals. The Monk is not impressed with the famous or powerful and does not disdain the lowly. The Monk is a relentless seeker of truth and true knowledge. To seek the truth means to be humble and listen to those better schooled in an area than you. All monks have mentors but never masters. It also means to be wise so as to ferret out manipulators who are trying to lure you with false promises.

The Monk is aware of his personal beliefs and tries hard to live up to them, all the while working on their refinement.

When a Monk encounters someone who is struggling or fallen, she will pull them up and expect nothing for it, in stark contrast to the selfish aid of the manipulator.

The monk will feel at home among other well-intentioned people but will never fear walking the path alone if that is what is required.

And the monk is distrustful of unchecked power and a believer in the liberty of thought and body. Manipulators will naturally fear the fierce independence of the Monk as he threatens their dominance of the follower.

All of this operates regardless of such human constructs such as a business or a military. You will find all three archetypes in every position in any human created organization. Don’t confuse what I am saying with such artificial constructions. Your CEO may in fact be closest to the follower personality and there are janitors who are monks.

Sometimes monks wind up as leaders or teachers. They need to be that much more mindful at this point to respect those in their charge and ultimately should be helping them to find their own path as a monk. I am reminded of the Indian philosopher Krishnamurti who disbanded his organization as they began to promote him as a messianic figure. He made this simple statement:

“The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.”

Men like Socrates and George Washington were Monks.

The promise of America was to be a nation of monks, living out their lives in peaceful self-interest but also working towards common goals.

Be aware that right now, someone is working hard to make you a blind, unaware follower. These manipulators may be in Hollywood, the news, “big-pharma” or some other massive, corrupt entity. They will use fear, disinformation or your desire to be accepted against you. Work hard to be informed and aware of their schemes, even if it means you have to do it alone.

The good news is that you can choose your path, no matter what the patterns of your life have been up until this point.

Take the red pill and be a monk.

I think I will be going back to less abstract, more technical posts for a while after this. I hope these philosophical essays were of some use.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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“No, do not try.  Do or do not, there is no try.” – Yoda

First, a disclaimer:

Motivational, self-help pieces often irritate me for some reason. Perhaps it is because they usually come off as condescending and you quickly form the thought: “Who is this guy/gal to be telling me how to live?”. I’m going to try my best here to not give you that classic combination of screaming gym coach fused with finger-wagging, holier-than-thou preacher. I am also certainly not telling you how to live. Anyone who has been as influenced as I have by the libertarian school of thought would hardly be interested in doing that. Instead, look at this article as a view inside my mind as I continue to stumble along the road to self-mastery. Hopefully, one or two concepts covered in here will strike you and maybe even motivate you to great things, however you define them.

As a new year is upon us, the customary practice in our all too decadent Western World is to form one or more throw away resolutions and make the slightest attempt to follow through on them. In fact, the breaking of new year’s resolutions has become a running joke for us to the point that the actual expected outcome is for them to fall by the wayside in short order. The practice of assigning a rather arbitrary start date to what I can only presume is a more desirable pattern of behavior should be abolished altogether. The end date is far more important. Afterall, everybody’s time runs out eventually. Maybe thinking in those somewhat desperate terms rather than in the neutered January 1st nonsense is what we need to turn the corner as individuals and ultimately, as a society.

We humans are now evolving at a blinding pace to become the supreme masters of our environment. We can transmit all of our collected knowledge across the globe in seconds. We can travel to anywhere in our world in few hours. And we could destroy much of what we have built in minutes.

Don’t confuse me for a primitivist as I am quite enamored of our modern world and have no intention of going back to living in a cave. However, I am painfully cognizant of this fact: our drive to master the world around us has been at the cost of mastering ourselves. All animals, the human is no different, are motivated to achieve greater comfort and run away from fear and pain. Our superior intellects have allowed us to do something no other animal ever could…overcome our fear and discomfort with inventiveness. I am speaking particularly of the Western World, America first and foremost, when I say that a means of countering our every discomfort exists. There is a dark side to such success though and it is creeping upon us more every day.

You see, there exists schools of thought that believe we as humans cannot develop or exist without a proper amount of stress and discomfort. In ancient Greece and Rome, such people were called “Stoics”…the philosophers Seneca and Marcus Aureilius foremost among them. The world’s great religions, such as Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism also encourage adherents to embrace the the struggle that is life. In more modern scientific terms, the concept has been dubbed “hormesis”.  Hormesis is a simple idea…organisms exhibit favorable developments and adaptations when exposed to stressors and toxins (albeit in proper amounts and types…a somewhat off-topic but still crucial distinction). The weightlifter is well acquainted with this effect…put under the right amount of stress he develops into a stronger being.

In fact, there is much to be said for the practice of willingly enduring discomfort when you get the chance to in your daily life, a practice borrowed from the classical age stoic thinkers.

It seems that hormesis effects us on every level, down to our individual cells. Hundreds of physiological processes have been identified as potentially involving hormesis. It is as if our very DNA is coded in such a way that requires us to be exposed to stressors for continued function. It also means we are very well suited down to our mitochondria to overcome struggle. Hormetic theory can even be applied to our psychological and mental states.

But, as I said before, so much of our modern society steers us away from hormesis and the use of “healthy” stressors to develop ourselves. Pain, challenge and discomfort on every level are avoided at all costs. We have been strangled by our success. Worse yet, we replace the healthy stressors that should be present with unhealthy ones like toxic food and chronic, sub-acute workplace stress. Human beings were never meant to be exposed to these things.

Talking about hormetic concept on the cellular level is one thing but how to we induce hormesis on the “big picture” level to evolve ourselves?

The Land of the Rising Sun offers some insight.

To be a member of the Samurai class was to be desperate. This desperation was brought on by a very concrete understanding of the cost of failure. If you failed in the service of your lord or somehow dishonored yourself in some way, the samurai would commit Seppuku (ritual suicide). This explains why they could be such fierce opponents on the battlefield…the alternative, losing honor and the co-occurrence of Seppuku, created tremendous drive to succeed that bordered on desperation. Various “tricks” were adapted by warrior-cult societies throughout history to motivate their members but few came anywhere near the intensely personal and almost psychotic drive to succeed and preserve honor adopted by the Samurai class.

So what does that mean for us? The takeaway lesson is this…you need to stop leaving yourself a way out. That is where Samurai desperation really came from…there was no exit strategy.

Do or do not.

I’m certainly not talking about eviscerating yourself if you don’t get a promotion or something like that. I used a rather extreme example to illustrate the psychological techniques needed to force improvement( or induce hormesis if you prefer).

First figure out what it is you need to accomplish. It could be as lofty as winning a world championship in a sport or it could be as “mundane” as finally defeating a negative personality trait.

Once you have your goal defined, direct your focus toward it with Samurai desperation. Guide all of your self talk in such a way that the successful end is a foregone conclusion. For example, instead of saying “I would like to do xyz…” change it to “I will do xyz…”. Definitive terms with no compromise.

From this point forward, everything that you value improvement in will be couched in terms that don’t allow for the usual resolution-breaking cycle silliness.

This is who I will be…

This is what I will do…

Failure should lead to tremendous personal dissatisfaction and a greater drive to improve. Truthfully, most people are entirely too satisfied with themselves and have no real drive to ride the wave of hormesis to something better.

Find your desperation, just make sure it is a worthwhile cause. It is also important to have a code of behavior(dare I say honor?) before embarking on any of this. The Samurai knew this too and their code was Bushido, a strict set of rules of conduct . Without turning this into a moralizing piece, let me just say that a march to any goal needs to be governed by inviolable principles.

While the proper mental motivational environment is the foundation of self-mastery, you also need to focus your energy in the right direction.

Fortunately, we live in the greatest period of learning in human history. You can find all of mankind’s collected knowledge on the internet. You can have any book ever published on any subject shipped to you in a few hours if you are willing to pay for it. You can connect with any mentor or subject matter expert in the world through dozens of means. If you want to be good at anything, even if it is just being good at not smoking, the means are available to you. You just need to be desperate enough to hunt them down.

Don’t be overwhelmed by all of this. It is impossible for you to achieve most worthwhile goals overnight. That leads us to our last technique, also borrowed from the Japanese.

Kaizen.

Kaizen is a philosophy that sprung up during Japan’s rebuilding after WWII. In essence, it means “to improve by small measure every day”. Kaizen can be applied to large organizations of it can apply to the individual. In organizational theory, even the lowest rung employee is encouraged to identify areas of improvement, no matter how small, and follow through on them. That way, small, steady measures of work eventually manifest giant change. As an individual, you can do the same. When your goals have been identified, make every attempt to advance them a little at a time but do it every day. Kaizen is all about the patient discipline to continually seek improvement day-by-day while recognizing that the end result may take quite some time to accomplish. It is also about carefully examining all of your behaviors and patterns of living and adjusting them toward the furtherance of your goals. Like Musashi told us: “Do nothing which is of no use.”

There it is.

Identify specific, achievable, but challenging, goals.

Commit to them with a touch of desperation.

Find the most effective methods to pursue them.

Employ Kaizen.

Now, grab your katana and rush headlong at life.

Be safe.

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto

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 ”Labor was prior to capital but property is the fruit of labor.  Property is desirable and is a positive good to the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another but let him work dilligently and build one for himself”

Advice From Abraham Lincoln

Mankind’s oldest tool is the knife.  It can be argued that civilization began with two discoveries…how to make fire and how to make edged tools/weapons.  As such, I believe everyone should always have access to the most ancient of tools everywhere you go.  Much like with firearms, knives come in a million different flavors and range from pure garbage to sublime pieces of (expensive) engineering.  When selecting a carry knife, you will most likely settle on a pocket folder although there are a lot of options for fixed blade knives.  The pocket folding knife is just so easy and convenient to carry, it is hard to find a reason not to have one (barring draconian laws in a few limited places that would see you toothless).  In a folding knife, I look for a few things.  They are:

1.Blade Robustness – I’m hardly an expert on the latest designer steels and alloys but you can be assured that most of the reputable manufacturers(Benchmade, Spyderco, CRKT, Cold Steel etc) are at least using a grade of steel that will hold up long term.  By robustness, I am generally referring to blade design.  For all around solidity, it is hard to beat a Japanese Tanto style blade as they are essentially sharpened chisels.  Tanto blades also tend to be quite thick which lends to all-around functional use.  This is not to preclude other blade styles however, just make sure the blade is quite heavy so it holds up to abuse.  I also am a big fan of at least partial serrations (the saw-tooth like projections on some knife blades).  Serrated knives go through cloth and other tough materials like nylon much better than standard edges.  Serrated knives also give you a bit of a force option should your folder be pressed into service as a self-defense weapon.  Cuts from serrations are far more painful than from a plain edge (I have tested this unwittingly and its true).  Perhaps an assailants mind can be changed by a cut from a serrated blade more easily so no further damage has to be done.

2.A very solid locking mechanism – This should be a no-brainer.  A folding knife closing on your fingers is a very bad thing.  This is the most convincing argument for fixed blade knives but locking technology in folders has come a long way.  Liner locks tend to be the most solid in my opinion and a double locking system is even better.

3.Reasonably priced – You are going to carry this thing everywhere.  That means it is going to get roughed up, maybe wet and maybe even wind up getting lost.  While there are some awesome custom folding knives out there, a $400 knife won’t do much more for you than some of the better $60 ones.  Better yet, you won’t be afraid to make real use of the $60 one and if it does one day get lost, a replacement will be a lot less painful.

4. Quick and easy to open – The action of your folding knife needs to be very smooth as you may need to one day get it out in a hurry.  The best advice I can give here is test the different knives out before buying.  Personally, I haven’t found many thumbstud knives that I open quickly.  I prefer a disc mounted on top of the spine of the blade or a lever like in the knife below.

After having carried a lot of pocket folders, I have really settled on the M16 series from Columbia River Knife and Tool.

This knife fits all of my requirements.  The blade is sturdy as hell with nasty partial serrations.  The lever opening set-up makes it lighting fast to deploy.  It has two locks for maximum strength.  Best of all, you can pick the different variations of this knife up cheap…I’ve seen them around $40 even.  That is real everyday carry knife material right there.

Of course, no matter how hard your blade’s steel is, it will dull after use.  Traditional knife sharpening is quite a skill and getting the angle right on whetstones and honing straps is not easy.  This sharpening unit from Spyderco allows anyone to put either a utility or even a razor edge on any knife in a few minutes.

The instructions it comes with make it easy to learn how to use and the perfect sharpening angles are already set up for you.  This thing even sharpens serrations and of course can be used on everything from kitchen knives to scissors (Has anyone ever had success with the round sharpeners that come with kitchen knife sets?)

Be Safe

Aut cum scuto, aut in scuto