Martial magic 101 — part 4 (the most dangerous opponent is NEVER the strongest).
It’s the chaotic instead. Fear breeds chaos.
Ya know the cliché that says “the more prepared you are for battle, the more likely you’ll win?” Yeah, forget it. Complete bullshit.
No, I won’t give you real life examples. Aye, they exist — both past and present, from every era, you name it; But I won’t give you examples because my intention could be misconstrued, as this is not an article in praise of the “crazy” who fight in a fit of desperation. It’s quite the opposite. Since I don’t mean to invalidate any underdogs (in fact I’m with them), I’ll leave you wondering. The problem is not them, or their cause — the problem is the strategy itself; It can seem noble at first, but on the long term, it doesn’t live on. It’s short-lived. For every example of bravery, there’s also an example of an equally successful and equally crazy villain elsewhere using the exact same chaotic approach to battle for a coward purpose. History is also rife with them; But this is the Internet, and trolls wanna be trolls, and will conveniently forget there are TWO sides to my criticism instead of just one, and cancel me without bothering to see the full context. People love cancelling each other for opening cans of worms. This is why we can’t have nice things and you’ll just have to use your imagination.
The following article will sound very mind-boggling and hard to believe, but I need you to trust me because I’m teaching you nicely. If you don’t trust me here, perhaps fate will teach you the same lesson, but it won’t be nicely. Aye, it is uncomfortable. Aye, your first impulse will be denial. Aye, that’s normal; But try to resist that. If you don’t, well… Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.
Let me repeat a question: what do you fight for?
“Wait, what? Are you repeating it? Where was it originally?”, some will ask. My answer is: I did originally ask this question, but it wasn’t in this same article. This is a series of articles about martial magic, and now we’re on #4. They’re all available for free, and if you haven’t read the first ones yet, I highly recommend them. Here:
Martial magic 101 — part 1 (reasons for fighting)
Martial magic 101 — part 2 (why you shouldn’t be an open book)
Martial magic 101 — part 3 (discipline)
As you might have guessed, article #1 discusses motivation in more detail. Here I’ll just remind you of its importance. A very common misunderstanding newbies make is that of “fighting to win”. Putting the act of winning on a pedestal, as if nothing else was important.
*sips tea*
There’s a thing called kamikaze — winning a battle (or just trying to) but destroying yourself in the process. Chaotic fighting makes for interesting stories and good movies, but that’s where the benefits end. I won’t even discuss if desperation justifies it, I’ll simply tell you it’s dumb. I’m sorry if you have an urge and it feels like the most important thing right now, but you’re completely capable of holding it in until you know how and where to release it safely and EFFICIENTLY. Yes you can. It’s like shitting. Does it feel urgent? Sure. Does that mean everyone shites everywhere? No. Thankfully.
The short term can sometimes feel like the only important goal in existence, but that’s not true. The long term matters too. If you stay short-sighted, you’ll keep suffering and you’ll prolong the suffering of your contemporaries. No, I’m not cursing you, I’m just offering a free prophecy. Why for free? Simple: because it’s not specific for you. It works every time. Go read History books. You’ll come back agreeing with me.
JK Rowling wrote about it. George Orwell wrote about it. There is no shortage of examples in and out of fiction.
Am I saying every revolution ever is pointless? No. Don’t misconstrue it. (Or do it if you’re a troll, go ahead, have some fun. I’m sorry you’re so miserable you need to bring random authors at Medium down to feel better about your life). What I’m truly saying is: only a very specific kind of revolution is short-lived and becomes pointless on the long run: the chaotic, “desperate” kind.
What did all these [chaotic, fuelled-by-emotions and free of rational strategy] revolutionaries have in common? They were perceived as “weaker” than the opponent they set out to overthrow. However, they were chaotic enough as to become unpredictable and end up winning anyway.
But what is the result of such victory? A change in the status quo?
Hmmmm… No. Just a change in leadership, really. The car is still going to crash; but hey, we have a new driver. I guess that’s something. No, wait-
*Crash noises, death, and doom*
This is why we shouldn’t just fight “to win”. It’s not the be-all-end-all of fighting.
Keep in mind: if you obsess over victory, you’ll automatically also obsess over the prize the current status quo has to offer. And you’ll corrupt yourself to obtain it, because people are watching, and you’re too proud to do anything different.
After all… If there’s no prize, what’s the point of winning? What would you even win? There is always an object. A set object. You didn’t decide, shape, produce, order this object yourself. No, it’s heirloom.
Are you really going to keep an old heirloom that no longer serves a noble purpose?
Maybe you can transform it somehow? But then, there is no value in “winning” it. You could even create and protect your own new prize, and spare yourself the trouble of fighting for a prize the old obsolete “bad guys” decided upon in the first place. That’s what revolutions SHOULD be about.
Some will say, “no but I’m just doing it out of spite, fuck the prize” — Okay, I hear you. That’s even worse though, sorry to break that to you.
Sometimes you’re like Janice (see video above) and all you want to do is overthrow a dictator because this dictator made you and/or yours suffer. That’s fair, I’m not disagreeing… I’m just worrying about what comes AFTER. Do you even KNOW what comes after? Have you given it much thought? When you end something — like this dictator’s post — you’re creating emptiness. How can you fill it back in?
See where “Animal Farm” comes from? The pigs were never the villain. They were just ignorant and short-sighted. They knew how to obtain success, but never thought about what to do with this success.
Perhaps this fatal flaw comes from our good old western Christian conditioning: “don’t visualise yourself having power. Power is bad”; “don’t have notions about yourself”; “don’t count on victory before you even fight”. Sure, all these morals look good on paper but… They’re not really working today, are they? Perhaps we can try something new?
Okay, so… If this spiteful, emotional, chaotic fighting is bad… Why is it so effective?
Simple: this kind of person has nothing to lose. They’re betting it all. They don’t know when to stop, and probably don’t want to ever stop, until some bigger external force stops them.
It’s the kind of fighting that wins every battle, but loses many a war. Maybe this sounds like a contradiction, but it truly isn’t: there’s more to “war” than just “battlefield stuff”. Look at the Cold War. Look at the international competition over nukes today.
Better yet, let’s focus on a smaller scale: look at that person who seems to “give in” to you whenever you raise your voice… But still, somehow, ends up better off than you in life. Do you think that’s a coincidence? Nothing to see there? Think again.
Chaotic fighting is effective, but it doesn’t stand the test of time.
Meanwhile, people who HAVE long-term vision will have no qualms about letting you taunt them from time to time. They’ve got their eyes set on a prize you can’t even see, because you’re short-sighted.
Regardless of what I said above, you should still tread carefully around chaotic fighters.
They probably don’t know (or care?) their victory won’t last long. They will do it anyway. And even if it doesn’t stop you from achieving the ultimate result you were hoping for, defending what you set out to defend, it sure as hell will create a big inconvenience along the way. That’s because warnings, ultimatums, or even threats, tend to have zero effect on chaotic attackers. Now… Translate that into the context of occultist fighting, and you’ve got your hands full for a good while.
Don’t underestimate this inconvenience along the way. The more you try to get a point across with them, the more they’ll treat this “attention” as fuel. You can’t change this fact; All you can do is become aware of it, try not to be overly optimistic, and hopefully then retain some quality of life while you tackle an attack from this kind of person.
Better yet: don’t fight back. Lose the battle; Win the war. You don’t want to deal with a chaotic fighter, in ANY context, if you can help it at all. Trust me on that one.
