If there is something to be learned from this last election it is you seek or swim politically as a team. The groups that are able to put differences aside for a common cause repeatedly achieve far greater goals than splinter factions alone. This has been a problem that has plagued the Patriot Movement where issues like ego, societal rejection, and hard headed “rugged individualism” have become chronic self-defeating diseases. This isn’t to say that we sacrifice our morals and ethics for the sake of unity, but it is important to understand what is critical and what isn’t when it comes to winning the long war of ideology. Collectively, if we can move closer to achieving our objectives we are better off rallying together. This isn’t without consequences and pitfalls though. As we have seen, our major political parties have been hijacked by elitist interests to the point that rallying to a false idol for “party unity” will do far more damage than good. We must once again remember what it means to be American and define our core values and principles. These moral underpinnings must be our guides and what we rally to instead of a hijacked political party or fallible individual. This is a far more enduring strategy. Without this solid foundation based in moral and ethical truth we will be continuously misled, divided, and ultimately fail.
I don’t want to wander too long in the theoretical realm. Instead, let’s look at addressing specific fault lines within our own ranks that can and should be bridged. One that I find particularly counterproductive is the artificial hierarchy that is all too often created between military and non-military preppers and militia organizations. This can be extended to the law enforcement community as well. Generally, what I see is those that have served in the military or law enforcement maintain an “us and them” mindset. It is true that many of the military and law enforcement communities have been vetted, proven in combat, well equipped, and well trained, but that no means should translate to a superiority complex. This goes directly back to keeping focused on what matters. Fundamentally, we are involved in an ideological struggle not a military one. The military struggle is always subservient to the ideological struggle. Your ability to shoot is great, but not what’s going to win the long struggle. As soon as you understand this, it should be clear that there are many critical roles to be filled that go far beyond a background in military skills. In fact, military skills are only one part of winning any strategic struggle. Even if one holds an ideologically void perspective of prepping, one must seek to recreate a functional society for true long term survival and this demands far more than military skills alone. Certainly there is a place for good fighters, but we also need great thinkers, communicators, organizers, writers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, farmers, mechanics, and every other skilled trade imaginable to win an ideological struggle against what has proven to be a very capable foe.
Preppers, survivalists, and militia are not the same, but I would argue they all share a common theme in being engaged and active in preparing for periods of instability. They also generally take a martial perspective on their activities, which tends to create a mindset that military skills are preeminent even going to the point of what I would call “SOF worship.” As a community we need to dispense with this prioritization of military skills over all others. Again, it has its proper role and place, but it cannot be allowed to permeate our ranks to the point it becomes counterproductive and creates personality divides. If these groups stop and really examine their motives, they would realize that every one of their groups really require people that can provide a full spectrum of skills to maintain what looks like a normal society rather than a very narrow band of military skills. Look at it this way. How many jobs does an infantryman qualify for outside of the military without new training? Do you see my point?
Respective of the skeptics, many are quick to point out that they are in fact preparing for a situation where military style resistance may be necessary and therefore military skills are the most important. To that I would suggest a couple things be studied. First, they should review the Department of Defense’s budget and manpower numbers if they want to see what really drives a military machine. What that study will reveal is very little of anything is accomplished without a sizeable budget funded by someone. This means integrating with people capable of establishing lines of support and funding are very important if you want your resistance to last more than a few weeks. Remember that Osama bin Laden was critical to the mujahedeen’s resistance in Afghanistan because he was a financier not a fighter. The second thing it would reveal is that that for every “trigger puller” there are literally hundreds of support personnel. The notion that a shooter is a one man army is about as accurate as thinking a quarter back wins a football game all by himself. Another issue to study is senior military leadership during wars. Successful leaders have come from all types of backgrounds. Some had military experience, but very rarely was that their only experience. More often than not, if a military background was present, it was eclipsed by a life far more diversified in skills.
Bringing this back to the core point of the article, we need to identify based on our ideological foundations not the hat we wear. Any prepper group or militia that fails to recognize the value of both soldier and citizen will be weak. The sum of citizen-soldier team is far more powerful than a group that has selected only one or the other. As a someone that has served, I can say first hand that there are absolutely unique and beneficial skills combat veterans bring to the struggle, but they all too often also bring institutionalized thinking that is counterproductive to winning a rapidly evolving ideological struggle. We need open and adaptive minds capable of solving complex problems in new and innovative ways. This is more important than how tight you can shoot a group at 100 yards. Like it or not, the military mindset traditionally is not well suited to this type of out of the box thinking. Further, and equally important, is that we need every person we can get. We need to be inclusive of any likeminded person and drop the isolationist attitudes if we are going to achieve the goal of survival many of us have set forth. We should not be turning anyone away because they don’t know how to shoot. We do not have superior numbers so can’t afford this degree of exclusivity. Finally, it is worth mentioning that by lessening the militancy of our activities, we naturally address many of the recruiting issues to our cause. By appearing more accommodating to a broader range of backgrounds, we naturally draw in a larger number of people with a far more diverse skillsets that will prove to be critical in the long war.
Going forward, we must be far more efficient, creative, and active than our adversaries. We need to take back our nation from the ground up. This doesn’t start with fighting a resistance with guns. This starts with flooding our bureaucracies with likeminded individuals at the local, state, and federal levels. This creates the critically important network and organizational architecture for what comes next should other means of resistance fail. To do this we need far more people than those that wore a military or police uniform. We can’t hope to have our equities respected without well placed individuals holding key positions. You can help with that by contracting and doing business with likeminded people. Further, if you own a business or are able to influence hiring decisions, make sure those that you hire are also ideologically on the team. At minimum this provides us some influence and intelligence. At best this allows us to shift the pendulum away from the radical leftist agenda being pushed by globalists. Remember, we must not lose sight of what’s important. We either unite and overcome our adversaries or we divide and tear ourselves apart. Remember this the next time the hipster millennial enters your chatroom or approaches you at work. He may just turn out to be the greatest leader we have ever seen. All this said, groups actively seeking members are welcome to email LMS. We are looking at setting up a chat room or a electronic bulletin board in the coming months and can link you to other global networks.
By Guiles Hendrik
January 3, 2017
