Greg Ellifritz, at Active Response Training (activeresponsetraining.net), posted the review of Forging the Hero, as promised. http://www.activeresponsetraining.net/forging-the-hero He does a pretty good job of describing the content of the book as well. Continue reading...
This was a really good blurb on this book He starts with the idea of building the individual. “Who does more is worth more.” Providing advice for strengthening and hardening yourself at the individual level, Mosby calls the process “The Way of the Hero.” His advice is likely to shake up the preparedness community. From the book: “If you are complaining about the demise of society, are your actions proving that you are dissatisfied? If you are complaining about something, but then you are acting out the same things whether out of ignorance, frustration, or lack of real motivation, it makes your complaints a lie. If you claim you value a culture of strength, but no one has ever seen you do anything more physically exerting than eating an entire baker’s dozen of cream-filled, glazed donuts? Your conviction is a lie. If you claim you value a culture of community, self-reliance and independence, but you can’t go help a neighbor move his couch because your favorite television show is on? Your conviction is a lie. If you claim you are a combat marksman, and believe in the responsibility and right to bear arms for personal, family, and community defense, but you don’t carry your gun every single time you walk out of the house? Your conviction is a lie. If your conviction is a lie, people are not going to pay attention to you. They’re not going to look to you for leadership, because you don’t embody the personification of your orlǫg. You’re a liar. You’re a fake, a fraud; a pretender to the throne of the tribal chieftain. You’re the Trickster. Fuck you. The first step towards building a strong, resilient, surviving tribal identity is living the customs and values that you profess. I promise you, from the deepest depths of my experienced soul, if you begin living a life of leadership, by getting off your ass and living the values you lay claim to, people will begin paying attention to you. They will begin not only listening to what you say, but they will come to you, uninvited, and ask for guidance. It’s part of the human nature, and the natural hierarchy. It’s not a matter of the image; no one cares that you have eighteen sets of Crye Precision Multicam uniforms, and three complete sets of load-bearing equipment. If you’re a lazy fuck, who won’t get off the couch, you’re a fraud. No one cares that you are a NRA-certified CCW instructor, if you don’t carry your gun, you’re a fraud. No one cares that you have two years worth of food storage, if the only meal they see you eat are McDonald’s Extra Value Meals. You’re a fraud. If you tell your children and the youth of your clan, that they need to get outside, away from the television and video games, but you lock yourself in the house all day, because you’re “old” and have “old injuries?” They’re not going to believe you. You’re a fraud.” Furthermore, Mosby states: “We must become the Hero. Not in the modern, vainglorious sense of some pampered, overpaid adolescent sports star or celebrity, but in the classical mold. We must become the person that people look to, when the dragon that is the primordial fear, is at the city’s gates, because they know that we long to slaughter dragons. We must accept the inheritance of the mythic history of our people. We must eschew the weak comfort of the mediocrity of egalitarianism and strive instead to be worthy of donning the arms and......
