The Martialist: The Magazine For Those Who Fight Unfairly

Do They Know What They're Talking About?

By Phil Elmore

Do they know what they're talking about?

The yin to the yang of Do I Know What I'm Talking About is, of course, the wisdom and acumen of one's critics. Only an egomaniacal fool would assume he was infallible, his opinions unassailable, his conclusions immutable. On these virtual pages, The Martialist welcomes opposing viewpoints and regularly hosts opinions with which I, its owner, do not necessarily agree. Many times readers have e-mailed or posted online to add to, qualify, or offer critical insights into material I've written myself. This, too, is most welcome, for all of us are learning all the time.

Unfortunately for those who understand both the reality of force and the day-to-day risk facing ordinary citizens, there is a relatively large pool of critics online (and, one supposes, in real life) whose members offer anything but substantive, reasonable input when confronted with the work of others. (It is, perhaps, not surprising that very few of these critics create anything of value themselves.) A flock of sheep in wolves' clothing, these loud-mouthed virtual tough guys make up in posturing what they lack in knowledge and ability.

Can there be a better example of armchair commando bluster than a twenty-something French blogger telling you that you "obviously don't know anything about real-life fighting" because, as he's only too eager to tell you, he thinks you lack his extensive steetfighting experience on the mean streets of France's urban jungles? What if that blogger then follows up a series of personally insulting posts with the lament that his woodland camouflage pants are getting too faded in the wash, interfering with his dream of starting his own wilderness survival school?

The world's knife fighting experts apparently are very quick to anger – at least among those who spend their days working in the IT departments of metalworking companies in southern states. Then there are the combat experts still in college and strolling about in what Morgan Freeman called "invisible coats," oblivious to the dangers presented by street people. These are the folks who believe that prudently maintaining space is "panicking," "overreacting," or something that "looks funny" (something the average teenage martial artist avoids at all costs).

Add up all the affected thousand-yards stares among the brick-throwers indignantly accusing me of styling myself as a "tactical guru" and you could , as the Who asserted, "see for miles and miles." In a world of macho fantasies and fragile self images, daring to state earnest opinions about your own pursuit of combative skill is an affront to the ranks of the armchair assassins. If you refuse to pretend, if you reiterate what you know, you poke them with the proverbial stick of their own insecurities – prompting a flood of insults and accusations comprised of the personal failings they project.

It is truly amazing just how many of the mall ninja, world-weary street warriors, bar-tough working Joes, cynical self-professed ordinary guys, proponents of social justice, and European webmasters out there just don't "get it," whatever "it" might be at any given moment. The fact that fools and herd animals roam in groups does not grant their majority opinions any credibility. Reality is what it is – no matter how many Canadians extol the wonders of gun control, no matter how many high school students from Singapore tell you that panhandlers are misunderstood saints, and no matter how many coffeehouse clerks in camouflage pants tell you that they've had more death matches in the bloody alleyways of Venice than have you.

Do they know what they're talking about?

They really wish you thought so.