‘Featured Articles’ Archives
Why the Buddhist Peace Fellowship is Wrong
On a whim, recently, I purchased a copy of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship publication, Turning Wheel. The theme for the issue was "disarmament," which I could not resist exploring. Since the founding of The Martialist it has been my assertion that pacifism is an unworkable, self-destructive, ill-conceived philosophy of false moral equivalence in [...]
Going Armed: Understanding Utility and Hoplophobia
I've read some truly stupid things about the martial arts on the Internet. One of these is the opinion, particularly prevalent among foreigners who do not share America's heritage of gun ownership, that self-defense is acceptable – but that armed self-defense is some sort of psychotic obsession practiced and prepared for by slavering, [...]
Guns, Gun Control, and “Martial” Artists
“Most systems taught today could not meet even basic combat training needs,” wrote Richard Loewenhagen in Mastering Kung Fu, “because they are more artistic expressions than scientific achievements of maximum efficiencies in a life-and-death reality. The real danger in this type of training is that it leads to the illusion of [...]
Enemy, Thy Name is Complacency
When I was in college, I witnessed something that would change my outlook on awareness and self-defense forever. I was leaving a four-story residence hall in which one of the university's dining halls was located. I had just come from dinner and was feeling relaxed and untroubled. As I exited the building I stopped to see what was going on [...]
Self-Defense: The Individual Right
For the self-defense exponent, few things are as immediately irritating, illogical, exasperating, and enervating as an argument about self-defense. Martialists, who understand the realities of force and self-preservation, rightly believe there should be no argument. An aggressor who seeks to harm you without provocation and without justification [...]
Unreality-Based Self-Defense
There is no shortage of criticism to be found on the Internet. Stating any opinion in this medium invites the ignorant pontification of a legion of armchair experts, most of whom are woefully misinformed on the topics about which they choose to comment. Articles here at The Martialist have spurred a great many responses, some of which I found [...]
A Critical Look at FM3-25.150
Use by some branch of the military is often held up as the ultimate "street cred" for a martial art, combative system, or fighting technique. As anyone familiar with the process of selecting firearms for the military can tell you, however, the military is a bureaucracy first and foremost. Any weapon and any program related to a weapon owes as [...]
