'If Only We Were All Courageous'

'And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs
hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those blue caps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur - what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!' - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008)


Just something which I've pondered when I think of how throughout history the oppressive and violent few have been able to oppress, terrorize, and murder the masses with such little opposition.
I have to ask myself are most people, even in the face of terror and death, still afraid to actively engage their enemy in conflict? Or, as terrible as this question may sound to myself, are most of us in general cowardly or merely pacifistic in our inherent nature?


How are cruel and oppressive government regimes able to control, terrorize, roundup, and even murder masses of their own citizens all over the world throughout the ages while the masses go as sheep to the slaughter?


In an age when it has become trendy and even a fad for young people to refer to themselves as warriors, souljas, street soldiers and etc. I'm often surprised at the increasing evidence of selfishness among the young and even the old. Selfishness, according to the ancient Samurai of Feudal Japan and many other warrior cultures, is a sign of cowardice easily observed in others.


The Bushido Shoshinshu of Taira Shigesuke states that the difference between the courageous and the cowardly can be seen in everyday life. One whom is naturally valorous exercises loyalty and devotion to his employer and parents, and if he has any free time he studies and also practices the martial arts. He avoids personal luxury, and disdains to waste even a penny. He is not stingy, however, and spends his money freely when necessary. He has a patient, tolerant attitude in respect to everything else. (And it goes on describing more of the mentality of the courageous...)


As for the cowardly, they merely feign respect for employees and parents superficially, without really caring for them. They do not avoid things forbidden by employers or disliked by parents; they even frequent places they should not go, and do things they should not do. Acting as they please, they habitually nap mornings and afternoons. They hate literary studies, and even if they practice martial arts they do not pursue any of them seriously. They just talk boastfully about skills they cannot really perform.


They are spendthrifts when it comes to useless crazes and fancy dining, but extremely stingy when it comes to necessities. They give no thought to the maintenance of the heirlooms they have inherited from their parents, much less to the replacement of other military equipment.


If they are sickly, they cannot enter active public service mindless of the worry they cause their parents, they overeat, drink too much, and become addicted to sex.


Wearing away yourself and your life like this is something that comes from a weak and immature mind unable to endure and tolerate things. This generally reflects the mentality of a cowardly
knight.
Therefore  they say the courageous and the cowardly can certainly be distinguished in everyday life.


They even go farther and say that one who is is stingy and selfish shows cowardice in their
mentality. For how can one be expected to lay down and sacrifice the only life that they have to give when they can not even sacrifice their time, money, or material wealth for others? It is believed that altruistic love and generosity go hand in hand with the courageous.


Among many traditional Indigenous people of the Americas we believe 'generosity' and courage both are virtues of a warrior, but for us a warrior is not a killer as in many cultures. A warrior must be ready to defend his family, his liberty, his nation, and his land but native warrior ship is actually the willing campaign against adversity. For Indigenous Natives it's willingly facing and battling adversity with the undying will to prevail. And putting others first before oneself at all costs, including death. It's an altruistic path of selflessness and this requires great courage since it's our human nature to give in to the path of least resistance and be selfish.


Now I consider such wisdoms from various origins and from very old warrior cultures having survived the test of time. I study the epidemic character of the masses of youth in both my own country and countries abroad. I consider history and compare it to the present state of humankind...


Pondering once again this question that plagued me, is it any wonder that throughout history until the present the cruel few have been able to oppress, and even annihilate, the mass majority of humans across the world and across the ages?

by AnDrew Soldier.
14Dec.2013.