MY WOD for today: (two sessions)
Stretch bands and
Indian clubs, foam roller, and 2000 meters rowing, for warm-up
Dead hang barbell from the waist power cleans. 8 sets of 3
Lumberjack one arm press: 8 sets of 5
Kettlebell farmers walk 24,28kg pairs.
Heavy bag tai kicking
Are strong
people really hard to kill or is it all about class envy?
I
just finished reading Pavel’s blog on the “class warfare envy” on strong or fit
members of American society. Now here is a immigrant(legal type), who came to America
for a better life as a former resident of the old Soviet Union, now stating
there are noticeable elements here in the US that reassembles those he
experienced in his former country in regards to class identification. I have to
agree with Pavel on this observation, as it been long time coming to address
what is happing to American society that being strong or having values that had
always served us well, now being degraded and attacked. The weak will attack
the strong but it will be of little consequence if the strong does not alter
their missions.
For those who do not know Pavel
Tsatsouline,he is one of the Russian strength coaches who brought the physical
art of Kettlebell fitness to the US over a decade ago. Every since then,
Kettlebells has been a part of the fitness industry and continues to
expand. Pavel also has a no nonsense style of fitness that promotes strong
human development besides the benefits of this Kettlebell strength training. It’s hard to describe his
methods other than to say it’s unique. (check out his blog article “Strong
First” below)
I
just believe that you cannot be physically strong and not detest those who want
to weaken our exceptionalism, we as a nation has always thrived with. It almost
like the enemies of strength want us to be we like they are so we can become
the minions of “Sheepols” who can be collectivized into the latest mission to
destroy are successful past. NOW BEFORE YOU GO HATEING ON ME, I AM NOT A
POLITICAL REPUBLICAN NOR DEMOCRATIC
MEMBER, BUT AN AYN RAND, LIBERITIAN!
One
of my favorite leaders growing up was Teddy Roosevelt, who was born into an
upper class and found that weakness will never be successful in any endeavor
but still protected those who are not strong, to be one of our best presidents
ever. I could discuss so many of his accomplishments but that is not the
essence of this blog posting. Maybe someday I will expand on my belief that
Teddy Roosevelt inspired me to do.
Military
service to me is the foundation of our freedom in a world filled with hazards and
threats. It was an honor to serve our
country in this capacity even when drafted, however the progressive political
elements has made that process, their hate board and to degrade .(don’t make me
sick by saying “we support the troops” when most will cut and run when it takes
sacrifice) At one time it was an obligation (draft board) to be part of the
military protecting of our country but now those services are provided by an
new class; the “under class” also called the “working class” , or those men and
women that cannot find good employment or ability to fund advanced education.
So our military is now a service, not so much to our country but to individual pursuits
(patriotism is still part of the program).
If military service is so vital, then why is it not that or members of
congress or most political positions are not former members of the military or
have off spring, that have military
backgrounds? At this point Pavel who is really an outside observer, hit the
point that our current members of congress(elite class), who make international
policy, have no military experience nor their family, which will become our
future leaders. (as the working class citizens can no longer be a member of
congress without being part and support
of the “ruling class”.
Therefore the “ruling class” (the new and improved
political model of progressive, rich, indulgent, political left) don’t know
longer need to draft citizens to protect our county in the military, as they
now have sufficient “underclass” who are the product of lack of education and
opportunity, can now hire on as “professional contractors”(Please read Steven
Pressfields’ book; “ The Profession”) This is your scary future! Any political
force can retrain power with strong”body guards” regardless of the belief of
masses of people within that country. Attack dogs of the “ruling-elite class in main stream the media; the ultimate adversary for the
strong citizens!
What
Pavel is saying, it’s not always the bulging muscle strong that makes a country
but our strength that can only be derived though conflict or putting one’s life
on the line for the county you live in or strong value beliefs what you will
standby always and never degrade. This is strength as a concept or the human
spirit in adversity. If you avoid
adversity you are or become weak!
Most
people I have been aquatinted with that were strong in body, were also strong
in basic values. I think it was never a political thing, it was more of some
individualism that cannot be molded into some political model that never made sense
when you when you get up each day to get strong in body and mind and it all
“you” and there is no outside public program
that can help you.
Are
strong people hard to kill? You bet your ass! Now you may become an “enemy of
the state”. These people who don’t die
easy nor intimidated, are targeted for destruction or reeducation, as they
don’t conform to the new model of collectivism, that strong don’t generally
subscribe to.
A classic example of degrading
strength in the fitness business is the “Planet Fitness” gym commercials, showing
that a weak looking gym manager of this fitness model is preferred to the heavy
muscled person who wants to train hard. The strong person is demeaned as a
freak
model of fitness and shown the door and not wanted. This is a product of class warfare that weak
or individual promotion of physical strength is not acceptable and targeted for
humiliation. They are attempting to
control the fitness narrative as it was new metro, gentle training movement. (Note
Planet Fitness provides the public with low cost memberships, which is a good
thing, but hating or critical theorizing is not necessary for getting more
business)
Strong
people normally do no demean the weak, they encourage them to become stronger
not dependent or reliant. For the most part the fitness business enhances or
maintains low grade, marginal effort fitness that barely keeps one healthy in
body but never in strength, spirit or passion. We even target the education process
of our youth to the weak end of the bell curve and not the strong end that will
make us all better educated nation.
In a
running race you are to keep up with the lead runner or try to pass him. The
navy SEAL’s have a more aggressive statement on this ;“second place is the
first looser”that is because the SEAL’s has to be exceptionally strong to
protect the weak and oppressed.
Ken
“The mission is sacred”
By Pavel Tsatsouline,
Chairman-blog
I despise class envy. In any form
and in either direction.
Today’s blog is about strength envy
directed by today’s upper class towards the working class. Externally it
manifests itself as “disdain” for strength, the way one tries to diminish what
he does have. The hoity-toity make fun of the brawny brutes with their
uncivilized barbells—behind their backs, naturally.
It did not used to be that way. Many
rulers of the past respected and cultivated strength.
Augustus II the Strong, the king of
Poland and Lithuania, broke horseshoes with his bare hands and was mighty proud
of it. Henry VIII, the king of England, challenged Francis I, the king of
France, to a wrestling match. The latter gladly accepted—and threw the former
to the ground. Peter the Great, a legendarily strong Russian tsar, reveled
in hard physical labor. Incognito, he went to study the ship building craft in
Holland.
St. Louis and Richard the
Lionhearted, kings who personally led their troops on crusades to the Holy
Land, were well schooled in a knight’s martial skills. And these skills
demanded extraordinary strength. Ironically, one could talk about “reverse
strength discrimination” in the days of the Crusades. The Catholic Church
unsuccessfully attempted to ban the crossbow, a weapon “hateful to God and to
Christians”. Historian Rodney Stark in his book God’s Battalions:
The Case for the Crusades, explains: “The “moral”
objections to the crossbow had to do with social class, as this revolutionary
weapon allowed untrained peasants to be lethal enemies of the trained soldiery.
It took many years of training to become a knight, and the same was true for
archers. Indeed, it took years for archers to build the arm strength needed to
draw a longbow, let alone to perfect their accuracy. But just about anyone
could become proficient with a crossbow in less than a week. Worse yet, even a
beginner could be considerably more accurate than a highly skilled longbow
archer at ranges up to sixty-five to seventy yards.”
More important than physical
strength, until a very recent past, leaders of the past had a strong sense of
duty. Several years ago, in the midst of the financial crisis, I read an op-ed
that made an impression. The author pointed out how the ruling classes of the
yesteryear considered the fate of their country their own personal
responsibility. The word “duty”, so thoroughly made fun of by today’s hipsters,
guided the decisions of the high-ups. Not surprisingly, leaders of
Western democracies were men with remarkable military careers and a deep-seated
sense of duty. Churchill. De Gaulle. Eisenhower. Kennedy.
Men and women of the upper class,
not just the presidents, viewed their lot as equal shares of privilege and
responsibility. The conduct of the lord of the manor and his family
in “Downton Abbey” is the case in point. Today’s upper class, on the other
hand, is little more than “a bunch of crumbs held together by dough”.
It frequently views its position as all rights and no responsibilities.
How many sons and daughters of the ruling elite serve in the armed forces?
The disdain for physical strength
shown by movers and shakers in Washington and New York has contaminated a
significant majority of all white-collar people, including those far from the
upper echelons of power. A Russian pundit recently quipped that we ought to
replace the word “gentry” with “intelligentsia” in old satirical plays about
snobs. “I am too good to lift heavy things. Let the uneducated brutes do it.”
I am convinced that in the back of
their minds they are simply envious of the strong. And envy breeds
resentment. Is this one of the reasons the USA are so polarized today?
This is a slippery slope, ladies and gentlemen. I come from a country that
was ripped apart by class envy and drowned in blood. Shortly after the
Communist coup of 1917 my maternal great-grandmother, then only seventeen,
watched her parents get murdered in front of her eyes—just for belonging to the
other class.
The price exacted by envy is
unacceptably high. Get strong and replace it with self-respect.
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