(If you came to this site because of an ad you saw on YouTube for a self-defense system or something like that, we’re not them. That said, if you’re interested in that sort of thing, you may want to look around here.)
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately just thinking about what I want out of not just me, but men and women in general. I’ve also mentioned a certain quote by Conan creator Robert E. Howard quite a bit, and that whole idea has deeply crawled inside my brain to set up housekeeping.
The idea is that we probably need to be a little less civilized and become modern barbarians.
I don’t really know what’s wrong with the world anymore.
I mean, I’m someone who looks at the world on a daily basis. I take in all the insanity and try to boil it down for human consumption. My entire job revolves around comprehending what is taking place at a given moment and to try to figure out just why that is.
The problem, though, is that I look at a glimpse of the world and can figure it out from there, but our world is broken. Horribly, horribly broken.
Honor is an important thing. However, honor doesn’t strictly depend on what you do. It’s also about how others view you. Being honorable is hard, and people want to be acknowledged as honorable. Unfortunately, some other people will want to tear you down as well.
Photo courtesy of Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca
In days gone by, dueling was how this was dealt with. Two men would draw swords and go after one another. Still later, it was pistols at 20 paces. Regardless of the tool, there was a definite risk of life which made it costly to be insulting.
Then, we became more “civilized” and dueling was banned. That didn’t end the practice but pushed it underground. Further, it gave the dishonorable sort an out. After all, now all they had to do was claim to be law abiding citizens.
For a while, boxing took the place of dueling. Two men would put aside their swords or pistols according to the law, and hopped into the ring to settle their disputes. In many schools, even in relatively recent times, the gym coach would put gloves and headgear on two students having issues and let them duke it out.
This system worked well enough until “civilization” reared its ugly head and decided that violence never solves anything. Ever. Continue reading “A New Breed of Duel”
“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” — Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard is best known as the creator of Conan the Barbarian, but this quote from him may be my most favorite thing from him.
Photo by Dennis Jarvis
You see, he’s right.
Take a look around you for a moment. The world is filled with people being discourteous to others for any number of reasons. Just yesterday I watched a video of a student group being besieged for an hour by their political opponents, belittled and accused, told they don’t belong in their college because they’re not liberals.
The whole thing wasn’t a pleasant experience for those surrounded, I’m sure, but what if there had been repercussions for that act? What if these special snowflakes had been forced to deal with real violence for their discourteous behavior? What would they have done then? Continue reading “On Civilized Men And Ruthless Savages”
