{"id":2217,"date":"2020-08-17T16:32:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T20:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=2217"},"modified":"2020-08-17T16:32:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T20:32:30","slug":"the-martial-and-moral-virtue-of-ruthless-intent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/08\/the-martial-and-moral-virtue-of-ruthless-intent.html","title":{"rendered":"The Martial and Moral Virtue of “Ruthless Intent”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruthless Intent is the <\/em>martial virtue par excellence.<\/em><\/p>\n

Warrior Flow Combatives, or simply Warrior Flow, is rare among the combat arts inasmuch as it unabashedly underscores this fact.<\/p>\n

While it is, of course, true that all forms of \u201cmartial realism\u201d insist upon the distinction between Martial Arts as War (MAW)<\/strong> and Martial Arts as Sport (MAS)<\/strong>, Warrior Flow stands alone in affirming that Ruthless Intent is not only a martial virtue, but a moral <\/em>one.<\/p>\n

This difference between Warrior Flow and every<\/em> other martial art couldn\u2019t be more critical. \u00a0It couldn\u2019t be more essential.<\/p>\n

The classical or traditional martial arts, both of the standing and grappling varieties, as well as pugilistic sports are of no relevance in this connection, for the training modalities on which they\u2019re based are designed to prepare their practitioners for winning contests<\/em> or competitions. <\/em>As such, the excellence of Ruthless Intent not only has no place in these arts; the latter intrinsically precludes any occasion for its exercise.\u00a0 In fact, Ruthless Intent, far from being a virtue, is actually a vice <\/em>within the context of MAS.<\/p>\n

To many observers, including those students of MAS, this commentary on Ruthless Intent may sound bizarre.\u00a0 How, they may ask, can, say, a boxer not have Ruthless Intent when he is in the ring smashing his opponent to the mat?<\/p>\n

If they would but slow down for a microsecond, they would realize that their question answers itself:<\/p>\n

Boxers fight in rings<\/em> on mats<\/em> against opponents<\/em>.\u00a0 Theirs is the will to fight with an eye toward winning a contest<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Ruthless Intent, in glaring contrast, is nothing more or less than the will to destroy the enemy.\u00a0 <\/em>It is the will to kill, <\/em>if need be, those who make of themselves enemies <\/em>of the human race by preying upon innocents.<\/p>\n

Lest readers get a mistaken impression, it must be stressed, once more, that this is both a martial and a moral excellence.\u00a0 \u201cMartial\u201d means \u201cof or pertaining to war<\/em>.\u201d While the mass commercialization of the martial arts and, consequently, their transformation into activities that are all too accommodating of the contemporary Western world\u2019s legal, political, and cultural mores would have us forget it, we must nevertheless recall that, historically speaking, the martial <\/em>arts are the warrior <\/em>arts.<\/p>\n

The martial arts are the arts of war<\/em>.<\/p>\n

No self-styled system of self-defense is anything of the kind unless and until it seeks to cultivate in students the will to annihilate \u201cthe bad guys,\u201d as USMC Lieutenant-Colonel Al Ridenhour, founder of Warrior Flow Combatives, puts it.<\/p>\n

Unless and until a martial arts instructor instills in his students the will to crush into nonbeing any and all who would imminently jeopardize their lives or those of their loved ones, that instructor is not functioning as a martial <\/em>arts instructor.\u00a0 And students are not receiving the service for which they\u2019ve traded off their resources in time, money, and energy.<\/p>\n

However, this raw end of the deal could become rawer yet if students, upon training for so long at a dojo, learn from some determined street predator that the belts they\u2019ve earned and the techniques they\u2019ve mastered utterly failed to spare them a trip to the hospital\u2014or one to the morgue.<\/p>\n

Only if students are taught to develop Ruthless Intent are they taught real self-defense.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

Ruthless Intent\u2014the will to end the existence of any and all who would dare to harm the innocent\u2014is all that enables people to overcome their irrational fears of engaging with those who could potentially harm them.\u00a0 This <\/em>is what makes Ruthless Intent both a martial and moral excellence.<\/p>\n

Ruthless Intent is, ultimately, indistinguishable from what Warrior Flow refers to as \u201cPerfect Clarity<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cMoral Certainty<\/strong>,\u201d two other aspects of the Warrior Mind.<\/p>\n

Perfect Clarity unites what the ancients called \u201cwisdom,\u201d or \u201ctheoretical<\/em> wisdom,\u201d with \u201cpractical<\/em> wisdom.\u201d \u00a0The former is the knowledge of a general or universal truth.\u00a0 The latter is the insight as to how that general truth pertains to one\u2019s own specific set of circumstances.<\/p>\n

However\u2014and this is crucial\u2014it would be a mistake to think that the theoretical and practical knowledge under discussion here is abstract; <\/em>there\u2019s nothing in the least abstract about it.\u00a0 It is a conviction, <\/em>a fiery conviction that, as such, permeates a person\u2019s whole being, his mind, body, and spirit.<\/p>\n

So, for example, the Warrior Flow practitioner knows that it is utterly unacceptable for a person to prey upon innocents.\u00a0 This knowledge, though, is one and the same as an unmitigated contempt for such predators.\u00a0 Simultaneously, while immersed within a situation in which he <\/em>is personally imperiled by a prospective attacker\u2014when, that is, an aggressor breaches a Warrior Flow student\u2019s \u201csphere of influence<\/em><\/strong>\u201d (the space whose outer limit is measured by extending one\u2019s arms and fingers horizontally)\u2014then<\/em> the contempt that one rightfully has for all bullies and thugs will find expression toward this <\/em>bully or thug, the particular<\/em> punk who threatens him<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In other words, Perfect Clarity is the unadulterated understanding that those who prey upon the innocent deserve to be crushed with abandon, to be struck with Ruthless Intent.\u00a0 It is as well the conviction that I <\/em>need to unleash my <\/em>Ruthless Intent upon this <\/em>predator for preying upon me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Warrior Flow\u2019s idea of Moral Certainty reflects its position on the superiority of the ancients over the moderns in that the former, unlike the latter, had an integrated worldview: the metaphysical, epistemological, and the ethical are all ultimately one.\u00a0 Perfect Clarity is <\/em>Moral Certainty.\u00a0 The conviction that violent misanthropes deserved to be evicted from humanity, a conviction that translates into one\u2019s resolve to distribute this justice to those violent misanthropes by whom he is threatened, is a moral <\/em>conviction.<\/p>\n

One\u2019s life is a gift from God. \u00a0As such, it bears within it a spark of the Divine in whose image it is made.\u00a0 By virtue of its source, a human being\u2019s life possesses an inviolable dignity and the person is a subject of rights and duties. In short, what this entails is that no one <\/em>has the authority to arbitrarily or capriciously harm another.<\/p>\n

This in turn means that the person so threatened has the right <\/em>to defend himself by whichever means necessary.\u00a0 And he has the duty <\/em>to protect his loved ones and even other innocents who he is capable of protecting.<\/p>\n

Moral Certainty is the conviction that it is right and good that a person imminently imperiled besiege his attacker(s) with Ruthless Intent.<\/p>\n

Perfect Clarity, Moral Certainty, and Ruthless Intent\u2014all aspects of the mind, the will, of the Warrior.<\/p>\n

And, to repeat, the will of the Warrior is the will to kill the enemy. <\/em><\/p>\n

Kill the enemy.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Warrior knows\u2014he knows in his mind and<\/em> body\u2014that he is to kill the lowlife, or low lives, who physically endanger him, his loved ones, or, if need be, others who are incapable of protecting themselves.<\/p>\n

The Warrior, given his uniquely intimate knowledge of his own situation at the time, will be able to determine whether he has <\/em>to crush the enemy into nonexistence.\u00a0 Maybe he will choose to spare the enemy\u2019s life, choosing instead to simply hospitalize him, say.\u00a0 The point, though, is that the Warrior, because of his Ruthless Intent, has a categorical advantage over the non-Warrior in that the Warrior can choose. <\/em><\/p>\n

To be clear, though, he can choose only because he has trained to kill, and to kill whomever and how many ever vermin jeopardize the innocent.<\/p>\n

Miyomato Musashi, a Japanese Samurai Warrior from the 17th<\/sup> century, remarked that the Warrior is distinguished (fundamentally, though not exclusively) on account of his \u201cresolute acceptance of death.\u201d\u00a0 Those of us who train in Warrior Flow labor under no delusions regarding our own mortality.\u00a0 We know we are not literally invincible. Thus, we train to sow within our persons the readiness to die in combat while protecting the innocent, if we must.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a caveat here that should appear as if in neon lights to any and all, whether friend or foe:\u00a0 If<\/em> the bad guys succeed in killing us, theirs isn\u2019t going to be any participation prize.\u00a0 They\u2019re going to have to earn that shit.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to have to be willing to risk getting slammed in their throats by strikes with several hundreds of pounds of pressure behind them.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to have to possess the will to stand in that space and risk having their eyeballs gouged out of their skulls, teeth plunged into their jugular vein, testicles severed from their bodies, noses smashed with a force that they\u2019ll swear is designed to drive it straight through the backs of their heads, and knees and shins booted with a ferocity guaranteed to make it feel like they are moving in ways that aren\u2019t just anatomically<\/em> impossible, but logically<\/em> impossible.<\/p>\n

These <\/em>are the kinds of costs that attackers will be expected to pay.<\/p>\n

It is not squaring off, street brawling for which Warrior Flow students train.\u00a0 We train, rather, for war, for mortal combat.<\/p>\n

For MAS and the typical street brawler whose idea of a street or barroom fight has been heavily influenced by MAS, the opponent\u2019s arms and hands are key weapons.\u00a0 But from the vantage point of MAW, the enemy\u2019s arms and hands are themselves targets. Why?\u00a0 Because every <\/em>detail of the enemy\u2019s body is now a potential target.<\/p>\n

The bastard, or bastards, if there are multiple attackers, are safe\u2026nowhere. <\/em><\/p>\n

Warriors aren\u2019t born.\u00a0 They are made. This is the philosophy behind Warrior Flow. \u00a0While Mike McNulty and Kevin O\u2019Leary, Warrior Flow instructors and co-owners of Warriors Way Combatives, the premiere training school for Warrior Flow, maintain that within every person there is a warrior waiting to be released, I think it is more accurate to say\u2014and I suspect that they would agree with me\u2014that within every person there is warrior potential<\/em>.\u00a0 Unless, however, there is the will on the part of a person to actualize his potentiality, he will never become the Warrior who he may have otherwise become.<\/p>\n

The potential can and will be actualized, but only if a person is determined to undergo a transformation every bit as fundamental and dramatic as that experienced by the caterpillar that exits its cocoon a butterfly, or the acorn that becomes an oak tree.\u00a0 Just as Saul of Tarsus, a Jewish scholar who made his living persecuting the disciples of Christ, became Paul, not just a disciple of Christ himself but the greatest of disciples, a believer in the absence of whose efforts it is doubtful that the Gospel ever would\u2019ve made it to the Gentile world, so too must the person who seeks to become a warrior kill his old self and assume a new identity.<\/p>\n

The seed must die before the plant can bloom.<\/p>\n

The suffering, anger, and fear; even the sadness and inadequacies that preoccupied much of one\u2019s identity yesteryear constitute the seed from which the Warrior will materialize, for they are the ingredients of the fuel that motivated one to embark upon one\u2019s martial quest in the first place.\u00a0 These emotions power, intensify, and sustain one\u2019s training into the Warrior.<\/p>\n

They are the stuff of the Old Self, it is true.\u00a0 But the difference between the Old Self and the New is that pain, anger, and fear served no productive purposes for the Old Self. They consumed or oppressed it. \u00a0The New Self, the Warrior, in glaring contrast, chooses to use these emotions for his own purposes.\u00a0 He chooses to hold them in reserve.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not that the New Self, the Warrior, has rid himself of his pain, rage, and fear.\u00a0 Rather, he has radically altered his relationship to them.\u00a0 As Copernicus subverted the Ptolemaic model of the Earth\u2019s relationship to the sun, so too does the Warrior subvert the relationship that he previously had with his pain, his rage, and his fear.<\/p>\n

When Ruthless Intent becomes, or starts to become, the whole point and purpose of one\u2019s every movement; when, in Musashi\u2019s words, one\u2019s everyday stance becomes one\u2019s fighting stance and vice versa, then one starts to move<\/em> like a different person.\u00a0 And when one starts to move like a different person, then, inescapably, one begins to think<\/em> and feel<\/em> like a different person.<\/p>\n

The logic is inexorable: If a person moves like he\u2019s a different person, and thinks like a different person, and feels like a different person, then\u2026he is a different person. <\/em><\/p>\n

Warrior Flow is unique among the combat arts in making its mission the creation, not of men and women who are capable of \u201csurviving<\/em>\u201d violent attacks, but of Warriors<\/em> who will achieve unqualified victory<\/em> over their attackers.<\/p>\n

Yet in order to attain this objective, students must understand, appreciate, and seek to perfect the martial and moral virtue of Ruthless Intent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruthless Intent is the martial virtue par excellence. Warrior Flow Combatives, or simply Warrior Flow, is rare among the combat arts inasmuch as it unabashedly underscores this fact. While it is, of course, true that all forms of \u201cmartial realism\u201d insist upon the distinction between Martial Arts as War (MAW) and Martial Arts as Sport…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Martial and Moral Virtue of "Ruthless Intent"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2020\/08\/the-martial-and-moral-virtue-of-ruthless-intent.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Martial and Moral Virtue of "Ruthless Intent"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ruthless Intent is the martial virtue par excellence. 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