“ We are rough men used to rough ways .”—Outlaw Bob Younger of the Cole-Younger Gang. The above quote was Younger’s simple explanation for the “why” of he and his compadres’ life choices. The explanation does not excuse evil or crime, but we can use it as a jumping off point regarding immersion as shaping the animal via environmental response. Younger refers to hardscrabble frontier upbringing and delving in guerrilla warfare in the Bloody Border States of the Civil War period [both pre and during.] These organized, live-off-the-land, shoot-with both hands with reins-in-the-teeth tactics continued on into the bad choices of post-war crime. The “rough ways” did not and do not justify the bad moral choice. Plenty of “rough raised” men and women chose the bright and true. The “rough ways” merely points to the fact that often there is more to shaping the animal than the specific assumed tactic. What do I mean by that? “Rough Ways” vs. Compartmentalization Training vs....
Examining & Resurrecting Indigenous Skills and Frontier Rough & Tumble Combat