Warrior Culture

Throughout history, we have recognized many cultures as “warrior cultures”. The Spartans, the Mongols, Feudal Japan, the Norse/Danes, and the ‘Warring States” period in China, to name a few.

But even within non-warrior cultures as a whole, there was usually a “warrior class” who espoused a warrior culture. Most of rural Europe was composed of farmers and laborers, but there was still a professional warrior class who served their Lords in exchange for food and shelter. These eventually became the Knights and Crusaders we know from history. After Korea was unified, they created the Hwa Rang, an educated warrior class who produced the Sul-Sa, who could give the Ninja of Japan a run for their money.

In early America, during the colonial period, we had a professional warrior class, but they functioned mostly as private military companies, offering their services to Crown Governors and settlement “companies” (a lot of colonies were established as business ventures) to ward off raids by Natives or opposing forces. Most famously, Roger’s Rangers served settlements early on fighting the French and Native tribes and was absorbed into the British Army during the Seven Year’s War and the French and Indian War. We get Roger’s Rules for Ranging, still used around the world today, from this warrior culture. We keep it alive at the Ranger School and the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leader’s Course.

The early pioneers and frontier farmers retained a warrior culture, always ready to gear up and defend the frontier farms together. That same attitude went west with American expansion but fell off as we created a Standing Army. In the post-World War 2 society, the general assumption was that the military was the only place we needed a Warrior Culture.

In the last 30 years, we’ve seen American Law Enforcement grasp onto Warrior Culture, and not necessarily always in a good way. The culture does indeed help them protect the flock, don’t get me wrong, but some have embraced it into an “Us vs Them’ mentality instead of a “Protect those who need protecting” one. Most haven’t, but enough have that it is noticeable.

Neither I nor my brothers nor my men nor the guards with me took off our clothes; each had his weapon, even when he went for water.

Nehemiah 4:23

We see Warrior Culture embraced in the Bible. The best books describing a warrior culture are Nehemiah and Maccabees. Nehemiah and Judas Maccabeus embraced and demonstrated a warrior culture to the betterment of their societies.

But what does that have to do with us, right? Well, we are fast approaching a time in history when the need for a broader warrior culture will be urgent. We, as people into preparedness, need to embrace that concept. Now, I know, I’ll get a comment like “But I don’t want to be a soldier – I just want to farm, survive, and be left alone”. Fair enough, and I’d love that too. How’s that working out for South African farmers? And, before you say “but that’s South Africa” – compare the cultural rhetorical in South Africa to the rhetoric here. Not very different.

Also, while our geography protected us from invasion in the 20th century, it will NOT in the 21st. We have unfettered illegal immigration crossing our southern border and among the folks seeking a better life are Chinese, Iranian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and Cuban soldiers and agents. Should a broader war break out, and it looks more and more likely every day, we can expect widespread irregular attacks, terrorism, grid attacks, and ground action at US installation WITHIN THE HOMELAND. If you think I’m exaggerating, the Marine Corps ran ground defense drills at their bases last month because they expect these very things to happen. Fort Riley did a weekend drill on operating their base without power.

Coming without warning, he would set fire to towns and villages. He captured strategic positions and put to flight not a few of the enemy.  He found the nights most advantageous for such attacks. And talk of his valor spread everywhere.

2 Maccabees 8:6-7

We need to embrace the warrior culture, but how do we do that?

Training. The first thing that comes to mind is Martial Arts training. Martial Arts teaches discipline and military bearing, as well as awareness. Unarmed self-defense skills give you self-confidence. Heck, even knowing that you have mastered your bodily movement to the point that you can land a roundhouse kick builds confidence.

The other area is going to tactical training like that offered by Brushbeater, Clay Martin Defense, Warlizard Tactical, Interpid Tactics, Tremis Dynamics and dozens of others (sorry y’allcan’t mention everybody). Getting out and learning the basics of patrolling your local area for defense is a great way to embrace warrior culture. Medical and communications classes are important as well. My books are great (TW-05 is OUT NOW) but books only take you so far.

Another piece of warrior culture we need to embrace is vigilance. We have to ditch normalcy bias and start realizing that we are already in a societal collapse that is happening as World War 3 begins. Riots can pop up at any time, as Philadelphia found out. Street takeovers and flash mobs are increasingly common and so is police disengagement of these events. What do you imagine Black Friday will look like this year? Start raising your alert level. You are already in the collapse.

Warrior Culture isn’t a hyper-paranoid wannabe thing. It’s understanding that we need to be ready to defend our homes and communities at a moment’s notice, and being aware that evil exists in the world we live in, not just “those other countries”. When people say it’s a LARP or playing soldier, it’s because they don’t want to have to think about what’s ahead. They want “those government people” to protect them. Ironically, they usually say “the police will protect us” while also claiming that the police are oppressing people. It’s weird. You can’t change these people’s minds, so rather than engaging with them, just ignore the naysayers. Go to the classes, stack food to the rafters, and get vigilant. Train and prepare and don’t care what others think. You aren’t doing it for them.

Thanks for reading this and get out there. Embrace a warrior culture and I will see you out in the field training.

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