Strength And Freedom

Weakness As A Political Tool

An old saying:

Bad times create strong men.

Strong men create good times.

Good times create weak men.

Weak men create bad times.

No doubt true for women as well.

Anyone wishing to be a free person in any form must seek to be as strong as possible since strength confers freedom, at least to some extent. This pertains to personal freedom, freedom from coercion and political freedom. Here I'm using strength in the most general sense, physical strength, strength of purpose and also externals that give one strength in terms of life in the world at large.

The type of strength that most people seem to pursue is that of financial strength, but one should concentrate on all forms of strength that one can think of and practically work to improve. Strength training in a gym, of course, but if not practical one may do exercises at home. If it's an option, choose a job that has at least a certain amount of manual labor and lifting. (Farmers don’t need gyms.) Being physically strong gives one options that do not exist otherwise. Sports give physical strength as well as agility.

Willpower is an important type of strength, allowing one to accomplish things that are otherwise impossible. Anyone may work to increase his willpower by striving to do things that require it, and just realizing that one may work to improve it, and that it is important to do so, is a big part of the battle. As an example, if you work out with weights, doing as many repetitions as possible rather than a fixed number will help improve your willpower. (Theory says that you should pick a weight such that you can do between eight and twelve repetitions. When you can do twelve, increase the weight such that you can do at least eight. I used that technique for years.)

"Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear." ~ Dan Millman"

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory." ~ George S. Patton

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Courage is another form of strength. I'm fond of saying that if you take the cowardly path you become cowardly, and if you take the courageous path you become courageous. (But don't take foolish chances.) With increasing willpower comes an increasing ability to take the courageous path, and an increasing ability to gain physical strength.

Knowledge and wisdom give one a type of strength in that solutions to life's problems become evident, giving one a type of freedom. The solutions thus discovered may require the application of willpower, courage and physical strength, so these things all tie into each other. Learning to put logic over emotions in your thinking is part of it. The knowledge of how to live with less money and survival skills is a type of strength.

Knowledge of and experience with weapons is a type of strength, one which great efforts are currently being made to curtail. This is not limited to the usual modern weapon such as firearms, knives or even bows. The sling is an ancient and powerful weapon that I suggest learning to make and use yourself. It can be carried in a pocket, won't be detected by a metal detector, and ammunition is everywhere. (Cut an oval out of a piece of leather five inches by three inches. Punch two small holes ½ inch from each end for the cords. Should have a small oval hole in the center.) Yawara sticks, bos, atlatls, bolos, boomerangs; the list goes on. Martial arts in general, including eithout weapons.

Those who don't have a belief in God are at a great disadvantage in strength, as are those without strong family connections, since the feeling of purposefulness derived therefrom makes people weaker. They often try to make up for it with belief in creating a secular utopia, which will usually bring on a totalitarian nightmare.

All of these ideas for increasing strength play off of each other so that improving one helps in improving another. Strength training improves willpower, which improves knowledge, improving wisdom. The important thing is to try to have an attitude of increasing strength in all area, so the first goal is to imbue such an attitude in yourself. See my essay on The Rudder Of Destiny.

It's always striking the extent to which “proper and moral conduct,” as preached to us by the Powers That Be and the Main Stream Media, often seems to come down to things that make people weaker. Weaker in spirit, weaker in resources, weaker in options and weaker in willpower. Weak people are easier to control, so the powerful have a vested interest in weakening those that they wish to rule.

It's probably inevitable that those with authority will see themselves as nobly shaping the lives of those that they see as beneath themselves. They may even be be trying to do good, and think that if they can just control everyone life would be so much better. Company towns may have been set up by paternalistic company owners seeing themselves as doing good for their workers, but the company towns became oppressive. The workers themselves were not weak, but the situation that they were in put them in a weak position.

At one time airline pilots were required to carry handguns if there was U.S. mail on board, so in effect they always did. (Most pilots were ex military anyway, and they simply had them in their carry on bags, not on their hips.) Rules slowly changed, going to optional until, not too long before 9/11 they were completely banned. After 9/11 there was great resistance to allowing pilots to be armed, and was done only with great regulation. What does this have to do with weakness as control? It's evidence showing that any proposed solution must be one that diminishes the power of the individual and increases that of the State.

Much evil is done in the world that would not occur if people had more of these various forms of strength. People will do evil because they are intimidated into doing it. Evil is done by those by those frightened by circumstances into doing it, perhaps because they did not have the wisdom to see what else to do, or because they lacked the skills to deal with a situation otherwise. (When the political environment began demanding that we have female police officers on patrol it was found that, since they usually did not have the physicality to engage miscreants hand to hand, they were much more likely to shoot. I don’t think that has been highlighted by the MSM.)

There’s an old saying that if you want to change the world change yourself since that’s the only thing you can change, so if you want to make the world a better place work to increase your strength in all areas.

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." ~ Albert Einstein

Stay Brave, Stay Free, Be Strong