{"id":2154,"date":"2020-06-12T17:55:18","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T21:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=2154"},"modified":"2020-06-12T17:55:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T21:55:18","slug":"the-martial-virtue-of-ruthless-intent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/06\/the-martial-virtue-of-ruthless-intent.html","title":{"rendered":"The Martial Virtue of “Ruthless Intent”"},"content":{"rendered":"

As decent, law-abiding, God-fearing human beings throughout the country (and the world) behold the spectacle of the wicked laying waste to scores of American cities while state and federal governments appear either incapable of stopping the lawlessness or unwilling to do so, some of us\u2026train. <\/em><\/p>\n

Some of us spend each and everyday training to develop martial prowess.<\/p>\n

My own martial training began before this latest attack on Western civilization, for I certainly didn\u2019t need for it to have occurred in order to know that there are evil, violent people in our midst.\u00a0 Rather, the mass violence that\u2019s unfolded over the last few weeks has served to vindicate <\/em>both what I have always known as well as my commitment to make myself into a person who will be ready to reckon with the wicked along the very lines\u2014the only lines\u2014that they seem to understand: violence.<\/p>\n

To be clear, good people, Godly people, will use violence against the wicked only in order to defend themselves, their loved ones, and\/or innocents (even strangers) in their presence.\u00a0 However, in the eternal struggle between Good and Evil\u2014and, make no mistakes about it, the racial character of this latest conflagration aside, it is but the latest battle in the perennial war between the forces of Darkness and those of Light, between the City of Man and the City of God\u2014the good must <\/em>be willing to employ violence lest the wicked destroy them.<\/p>\n

Gun sales over the last three months, since the COVID-19 Internment began, surged.\u00a0 The month of May broke records.\u00a0 The further spike in firearms correlating with the Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots promises to make June an all-time high record breaker.\u00a0 That an average of three million Americans a month since the beginning of 2020 have purchased guns, and that many of these are first-time gun buyers, assures us that there are far more men and women in this country who are willing to defend<\/a> themselves against the thugs who garnered international media coverage while terrorizing citizens than there are the thugs themselves.<\/p>\n

And the countless accounts of armed citizens successfully defending their businesses, homes, property, and communities against far larger numbers of vandals is equally encouraging for those who champion the Good and despise the Wicked.<\/p>\n

This being said, while a simple show of force, a show of arms, could <\/em>deter the violent, it need not necessarily do so.\u00a0 There are, though, undoubtedly many gun owners who don\u2019t seem to be aware of this fact.<\/p>\n

Among the features that makes unique the combat art in which I myself train is its emphasis on \u201cruthless intent.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Warrior Flow is founded by Al Ridenhour, a United States Marine Core Lieutenant-Colonel with 40 years of martial arts experience behind him.\u00a0 Much more can be said about this art and its founder (see here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>), but for now, suffice it to say that \u201cMaster Al,\u201d or \u201cthe Colonel,\u201d as his students refer to him, devised Warrior Flow for the purpose of helping ordinary, decent people of all backgrounds discover their own internal Warrior.<\/p>\n

Given the indiscriminate manner in which the term is used these days, it\u2019s crucial to recognize that in Warrior Flow, \u201cwarrior\u201d is understood literally<\/em>. \u00a0As one combat artist memorably put it, \u201cSelf-defense is war <\/em>in microcosm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only violence for which Warrior Flow practitioners train is one and the same violence for which soldiers train.\u00a0 In other words, unlike police officers, Warrior Flow students do not train, as police officers train, to subdue and restrain criminal suspects.<\/p>\n

We do not train, as today\u2019s students of the classical martial and pugilistic arts train, to perfect forms, <\/em>master combinations of strikes, and win matches.<\/p>\n

Warrior Flow students do not train to beat opponents.<\/p>\n

We train to destroy enemies.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

And we train to incapacitate them, by whichever means necessary, with ruthless efficiency.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, of course, that there are proponents of different versions of \u201cmartial realism\u201d who will object that, since all combat arts teach their students to train for the same end, Warrior Flow is not <\/em>unique with its focus on ruthless intent.\u00a0 But here\u2019s how their objection misses its mark:<\/p>\n

While there is no arguing with the fact that self-defense\/combat art instructors teach their students to neutralize the enemy by whichever means, they adulterate their message and, thus, impede their students\u2019 cultivation of the mindset of ruthless intent by way another end that they emphasize:<\/p>\n

Survival. <\/em><\/p>\n

As far as I\u2019ve been able to determine, all combat arts, except for one, identifies survival <\/em>as the ultimate goal for their students.\u00a0 To this end, all combat arts, except for one, instructs their students to run <\/em>as soon as they think <\/em>they are capable of fleeing.<\/p>\n

From the perspective of Warrior Flow, this message\u2014which necessarily permeates the training modality of these arts\u2014does students a disservice, for it contradicts the idea of ruthless intent that the arts are supposed to instill in them.<\/p>\n

Warrior Flow most emphatically does not <\/em>teach its students to aim no higher than bare survival.\u00a0 As Master Al has said on many an occasion, rape <\/em>victims (like victims of all violent crimes who have lived through them) \u201csurvive.\u201d\u00a0 And anyone who spends who knows how much money and how many hours training deserves better than to have their instructor tell them to just run <\/em>when they come under attack.<\/p>\n

Warrior Flow teaches students not to merely survive, but, as Master Al says, \u201cWin the damn fight!\u201d<\/p>\n

Students in Warrior Flow train to crush the enemy<\/em>, to flourish<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Yet to accomplish this, physical ability is insufficient.\u00a0 It must be supplemented with the mindset of ruthless intent.<\/p>\n

In order for the martial art student to surmount his fears, he must cultivate ruthless intent.<\/p>\n

And, this, in turn means that he must train with an eye toward, yes, killing<\/em> any who would pose an imminent threat to himself or his own.<\/p>\n

Warrior Flow doesn\u2019t teach its practitioners that they must <\/em>actually kill those who would attack them.\u00a0 Training, however, is designed to equip them with the ability and will to do so if, <\/em>relying upon their own practical wisdom, they should determine that their circumstances, which, of course, they know best, dictate this course of action.<\/p>\n

Warrior Flow equips students with freedom, <\/em>namely, the freedom to choose: <\/em>If vicious attackers live to see the inside of a jail cell, it will only be because the Warrior Flow students upon whom they decided to prey chose <\/em>to spare their lives.<\/p>\n

Now, the practitioners of Warrior Flow are well aware of the reality that no human being is invincible. \u00a0Although we are determined, as all warriors have always been determined, to score victory over the enemy, intrinsic to this resolve is a readiness to die, <\/em>if need be.\u00a0 A warrior, the warriors of history teach us, must be willing to die an honorable death.\u00a0 Master Al has often repeated to his students the words spoken by mothers to their Spartan sons as the latter were about to set off to war: \u201cCome back with<\/em> your shields\u2026or on them<\/em><\/a>!\u201d<\/p>\n

For centuries, as part of the civilizational process, human beings have been educated into the virtues of head and heart through stories, fictional and otherwise, featuring moral exemplars\u2014what we today tend to call \u201crole models.\u201d With an eye toward the end of facilitating my own education in the warrior arts, as well as helping anyone else who is interested in accomplishing the same, this essay will be followed by a series of profiles of the martial virtue<\/em> of ruthless intent and the willingness to die honorably.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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