Indigenous Ability

  Let’s begin with a prickly quote to set our stage. The following is quant Nassim Nicholas Taleb on how systems can become fragile even when the intent is to improve, as is the case with conditioning training. “ Our ancestors mostly had to face very light stones to lift, mild stressors; once or twice a decade, they encountered the need to lift a huge stone. So where on earth does this idea of “steady” exercise come from? Nobody in the Pleistocene jogged for forty-minutes three days a week, lifted weights every Tuesday and Friday with a bullying (but otherwise nice) personal trainer, played tennis at eleven on Saturday mornings. Not hunters. We swung between extremes: we sprinted when chased or when chasing (once in a while in an extremely exerting way), and walked about aimlessly the rest of the time. Marathon running is a modern abomination (particularly when done without emotional stimuli.)” — The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable The above quote view is meant ...

  Ready for an obvious statement? The Vikings were a seafaring warrior people. Obvious statement, Part II. They were mighty comfortable and proficient in and around water. Obvious Statement, Part III. Vikings knew that nothing comes naturally to a man, that to be proficient in anything—from sailing, to swimming, to mastering the flute, to battle, to the art of negotiation, love, and friendship—all require dedicated attention and practice. Obvious Statement IV. As one might expect, a rough and tumble people, did not brook tippy-toe methods to mastery. Proficiency, to Warrior cultures, is often hard-earned via stark ways but such hard-earned knowledge and skill creates confident and able warriors. Let us turn to a passage from one of the sagas to illustrate hard ways. The following passage is from The Saga of The People of Laxardal , Chapter, 40. It tells of a “swimming” competition [drowning, really] between Kjartan Olafsson and King Olaf Tryggvason. “ Kjartan ...

  Just how prevalent and important was this ubiquitous weapon in early Frontier warfare? Well, in a word—it was the penultimate choice for many. The long gun from flintlock to carbine to repeating rifles was the primary choice. We do see wide use of the bow and arrow, and facile use at that, but…if/when access to firearms was on the table the bows became back-ups, if carried at all. What did not fade away was the tomahawk. From the earliest and prolific bloody engagements in Pre-Colonial America to as late as the 1880s, the tomahawk was often the second-tier go-to, in many cases surpassing the long knife and, surprisingly still a second choice of many even after the advent of reliable revolvers as sidearms. The earliest days of continental warfare were termed by many “ The Days of Flintlock and Tomahawk.” And this weapon was not merely an indigenous peoples’ tool, it saw quick and early adoption by many colonists; those who sloughed off Eurocentric ways and experien...