work for baubles 1 of 4

WORK FOR BAUBLES

This article is in response to a comment I’ve gotten more than once, in essence telling me I need to go get a better job so that I might have the illusive ever sought after “better gun”.  There are so many issues with this statement that I just knew it would make great blog blather.  Let’s start out with proficiency in a martial profession.  Now, normally I don’t like using the military for any kind of lesson in survivalism, since you are better off doing the exact opposite. 

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( So many paranoid types looking for black helicopter tails completely miss the fact that Uncle Sam trains soldiers to die, not how to live.  George Washington was a elitist puke who felt a soldiers duty was to line up and bravely be shot, rather than skulking in the woods like a savage, and our government has barely changed its attitude towards poor cannon fodder since.  To get the job of war done right, most planning is done for victory through death.  Patton aside, military officers think they are Mars gift to the profession and enlisted men are brutish and uneducated cretins who literally deserve to die for their inferiority ).

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But in this case I think we can learn a thing or two on their training.  They are giving the plastic pipe dream of every prepper, the M-16 or derivative thereof, and they cannot do much with it unless they get a crap ton of training with it.  The gun itself?  It don’t mean much without training.  Now, let’s move away from American Imperial Troops, with all its hubris and technological blindness and quite plainly their worthlessness without a nuclear arsenal protecting its ass, and look at all of recorded history.  What have soldiers done for the last few thousand years?  They had a job of training every day. 

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Plenty of soldiers train by a politically correct manual, learning nothing.  Plenty only train as national policemen, an instrument of political suppression, and know little about military fighting.  Plenty are just part of a mass of spear holders, available as an impressive number but with no skill.  But the normal soldier mostly trains all day.  That is their job.  Even if it is only to hone discipline or fitness, if you aren’t training almost every day, you won’t be effective on the field of battle.  You could win, but you probably won’t. 

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As a potentially more relatable example, look at someone who cooks.  More than likely, you had some exposure as a child, an apprenticeship as it were, learning while doing grunt work,  and then practiced every day at least once if not more in your own kitchen.  You eventually got around to buying the best tools for the job, but they were not what made you a good cook.  Training and practice were.  The better tools HELPED you, but they did not make you better on their own.  And even with years of practice, you still incrementally improved all the time.  You can tell the difference between a life long cook who is a wizard and a decade long cook who is great but not yet magical.

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A soldier trained for a year or two has really only trained for one thing.  He has trained enough to increase his probabilities of surviving his first combat experience.  That is it.  Then of course things go much quicker, as your little Darwinist playground doesn’t grant the luxury of time.  Where does equipment come into play?  It increases your odds.  A better rifle that can hit your opponent from further away of course increases your odds of reducing the amount of firepower coming your way.  It is rather important, but like a cooks tools it is of secondary importance.

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An experienced hunter with a average rifle will still get game.  A poor hunter with a superior rifle still won’t get dingus, except by accident ( and speaking of hunting, I’ll remind you of a loyal minions comment that hunting is probably your best training for the apocalypse, as animals are far better at detecting your ass than a human is.  Close quarters hunting is going to serve you better than paying for a tactical course, more than likely.  And it is a lot cheaper and available on your schedule ).  A trained man with superior weapons is going to be a hard opponent to best.  Joe Blow with a superior weapon will eventually get there, IF he survives enough conflicts.

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Now, having said all that, I’m going to say that your average survivalist is all weapon and no training.  There are plenty more adventurous, daring and dedicated than I.  I’m more of an academic.  Analytical rather than experienced.  Ivory tower rather than hands-on.  But I don’t even think your average prepper even does THAT ( devotes a lot of brainpower to potential problems, identifies new problems, etc. ).  I think prepping for 95% is shopping.  They argue endlessly over the best equipment.  Any training mentioned at all is important, but very incomplete ( trigger control, shooting range time ).  If it is mentioned much past the performance of the rifle.

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And you know what?  I have no problem with that.  I think this is normal.  Survivalists are not soldiers.  What I have a problem with is unrealistic expectations after little or no training.  It is okay to not be an expert.  It really is.  The fact you are pulling a paycheck and raising kids is all the proof you need that you are good at SOME things.  Don’t be a dick and pretend to have mad skills in other endeavors you realistically know nothing about.  That is exactly the reason I despised officers in the military.  They were very competent bureaucrats and very little else.  But they were also trained to pretend ( or, trained to demand we pretend ) to be able to lead.  No big deal, right?  It is only my life you are humping with!

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In your case, pretending to be a super ninja warrior, you might only put yourself in danger.  But what if you are putting MY life in danger?  Far better to self assess your true abilities and NOT pretend.  I’d rather have someone who knows what they don’t know cover my back than a cocky ignoramus.  It is okay not to know how to fight, as long as you know that.  Much too often nowadays, everyone thinks acting assertive and confident is the same as acting that way because you’ve earned the right to be that way.  I contend that most survivalists don’t know dingus about fighting, and hence should try to avoid it as often as possible.  Continued tomorrow.

END ( today's related link https://amzn.to/2I9zUWn )

 

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