Become the Leadership Cadre

This came my way in an e-mail. I have no idea who J.M. is or where else this is published, but thought it was worth sharing. I changed a word and inserted paragraph breaks for readability. It is long and targeted to a specific audience. Read and review when you have a chance. – Ted

Think Globally, Act Locally: Become the Leadership Cadre

Focus on the 25M Target First

There is a consistent interest in the Patriot movement to focus on the bigger picture, on a national level. This ranges from insisting on the misdeeds of the current administration, to concerns about things like the Zimmerman case. This is not necessarily a bad trend, and it even makes sense on some levels. It was not, after all, that your local chief of police who “walked” guns to Las Zetas and other Mexican cartels. It’s not your local mayor who wants to ship your kids off to die in a foreign desert for no apparent reason.

At the same time however, as has been discussed previously, ad nauseum, within the blogosphere, it is your local neighbor who borrowed your lawn mower lasts week, who’s going to turn you into the regime for stockpiling food storage. It’s your local sheriff’s department SWAT team that will be kicking your door in to serve a no-knock drug enforcement warrant, fondle your daughter, and stomp your dog to death, before realizing they’ve hit the wrong house. It’s your local tax collector who is responsible for assessing your little patch of heaven at a level that you cannot afford to pay, in order to send you into arrears, and lose your property, so his buddy can buy it out from under you, at foreclosure rates. It’s your local traffic cop who orders a plate carrier on E-Bay, dresses up in multi-cam utilities, and a select-fire M4 and PVS-14 so he can think of himself as a SFOD-D assaulter, instead of a sworn peace officer who will shove a rifle in some skinny teenagers face during a traffic stop.
Our society and culture are rapidly accelerating down the same steep, precarious mountainside road that our political system has already slid off. We’re on a twisting, turning, two-lane blacktop road, and the brake lines on the truck were cut. The Powers That Be in corporate, banking, and political circles are going to do everything they can to protect themselves and their interests. If that means convincing local cops to shoot patriotic, hard-working Americans in the face, do you honestly think they will lose sleep over it? They will lie, steal, and cheat their asses off to keep the ignorant, unwashed masses stupid enough to believe them, in their “rightful” places. It’s not going to work though. The brakes are already toast, and we’re passing 100mph already. Do you know a mechanic that can fix brakes on a runaway car on a downhill grade? Me either.
The system is f***ed, and each of you needs to wake up to the reality.

It just doesn’t matter what is done in D.C., at least in the long-term. In the short-term, of course, you need to protect yourself from the professional criminals in the Beltway, as well as the local snitches who do their bidding in the effort to maintain the status quo. In the long-term though, instead of worrying about the national level affairs, you need to focus on developing the defense of your local area. Focus on your family, your networks, and your community. When those are dialed in shit tight, then and only then, should you even consider worrying about the national level. I can promise you though, no matter how “prepared” you are, your local area is not wired as tight as you think it is.

Local Leadership
This ties directly into another related subject that is important to me. As a former Ranger and Special Forces NCO, leadership, as a science and an art, is both near and dear to my heart and soul. The definition of leadership, the execution of leadership, and the art of leadership, especially in the local tactical arena, are long-held passions of mine.

What makes a good leader? Why, when so many claim that charisma is critical in a leader, are so many of history’s greatest tactical leaders guys that you would want to punch in the mouth if you met them in a bar?
According to the bible of small-unit tactical leadership, SH 21-75 The Ranger Handbook, leaders provide purpose, direction, and motivation. Good leaders must BE, KNOW, and DO. Those are pretty good criteria. How can we have leaders at the national level, within the Patriot movement, if we don’t have good leaders at the local level? We can’t. It’s neither realistic nor relevant to concern yourself about the strategic, if you cannot handle the tactical.
 
A leader must be proficient in all the skills relevant to his position, on both an individual and collective level. For our purposes, he must be able to shoot, move, and communicate. He needs to understand not just the how, but the why of what he is teaching, and asking his subordinates to do. If you cannot hit a standard E-type silhouette with your primary personal small arm at distances from 0-200 meters, how can you expect to convince members of your group that they need to be able to engage at 500 meters? If you cannot confidently demonstrate how to insert a nasopharyngeal airway device, or explain how to perform a surgical chricothyroidotomy, as well as explain the indicators for utilizing either procedure, how can you expect your group members to understand the importance of dropping $50-100 or more, on IFAKs/BOKs? If you do not have a realistic, serious food storage program in place, how do you expect to convince others of the necessity? If you’re a fat, out-of-shape slob, who wheezes his way up the steps of the front porch, why should people listen to you when you try and teach them the importance of physical conditioning, or teach them combatives?
 
A leader must be courageous, committed, and candid. If you preach the sanctity of the Bill of Rights, but you refuse to verbalize your concerns about increasing tyranny, because you’re worried about NSA eavesdropping, or that the wrong neighbor might overhear you and rat you out because of the USA PATRIOT Act, how candid and committed are you? If you’re afraid to get politically involved and be verbal about your concerns and arguments with others, because you’re concerned about being “marked on a list,” how committed are you? How courageous? How candid?

If you’re a Second Amendment guy, but you are afraid to carry a weapon daily, because you can’t or won’t get a concealed-carry permit, or carry at work because it’s a non-permissive environment, how committed are you? How courageous are you? How candid are you?

A leader must know himself. He has to know, and acknowledge, not only his own strengths, but also his own weaknesses, in character, judgment, knowledge, and skill. He must be willing an able to determine his strengths and weaknesses, through honest, objective introspection, and he must possess the moral strength of character to admit those weaknesses and get expert guidance and advice when he requires skill in an area he lacks expertise. He cannot let ego and hubris deceive him into believing he has strengths that he doesn’t possess.

A leader must know his subordinates and their strengths and weaknesses. He must know what areas of training and knowledge they need improvement in. Are they conducting their individual training requirements (marksmanship and weapons handling, PT, field craft, combatives, and other individuals skills task areas), and professional reading? A leader must recognize the weaknesses in his own group, and develop a training plan that addresses these. If a group as a regularly scheduled “training” meeting, a leader should have collective task training planned and prepared for when the group arrives. A leader must recognize what concerns his subordinates have regarding safety in training, and address them in a way that alleviates those concerns, without belittling or denying those concerns.

Leaders must set the example. Let me repeat that: LEADERS MUST SET THE EXAMPLE. One more time, for emphasis: LEADERS MUST SET THE MOTHERf***ING EXAMPLE!!!!! If you spend your weekends in front of the computer screen, reading blogs on the internet, instead of at the range, in the gym, or hiking up a local mountainside, how can you, with any integrity, expect to guide and inspire your group members to spend their time training? If you’re whining about being too old or broken to bother with PT, then step the f*** aside and let someone with a backbone take over. If you’re bitching about the costs of ammunition, instead of dry-firing daily, how do you expect to convince your group to spend their time focused on effective firearms training, instead of making excuses? If you’re not willing to put in the effort, regardless of excuses, to meet and then exceed your standards, then go sit in the f***ing corner, pout, and watch f***ing Oprah, but get the hell out of the way of the guys that are doing shit!

“I’m already the fittest guy in my group!” or “I can meet the marksmanship standards!” is not an acceptable excuse for a leader. “I did all that shit when I was a 20 year old infantry sergeant! I’m too old for it now!” is not an acceptable excuse for a leader. If you’re not willing to man the f*** up and do the work, now, so you can teach and lead from the front, then get the f*** out of the way! Can everyone in your group exceed the standards? Then why aren’t you out there training WITH them, to help coach them to do so? Because you’re a lazy piece-of-shit who’s too busy whining about the last episode of some shitty reality TV show. You’re damned sure not a leader!

Leaders provide guidance, mentorship, and motivation. Leaders lead by teaching their subordinates to be better than they are. If you’re a Master-Level 3-Gun shooter, or a black belt in Judo, then why isn’t everyone in your group getting close to that level? If you’re an EMT-P, why isn’t everyone in your group capable of TEACHING TC3? If you’re a combat arms veteran, why the f*** is your group not dialed in on IMT and the basic battle drills?

If someone in your group is morbidly obese, and won’t get off the goddamned couch to do PT, you’ve got two choices: drive to their house, grab them by the throat, yank their ass off the couch, and drag them down the f***ing road until they decide that running is less painful than road-rash! Or, you can do the right thing, and leave them to f***ing rot, shedding the dead weight, and focus your efforts on improving those members of your group that have the quality of character to actually give a shit about improving, instead of just whining about how hard it is. “Trample the weak and hurdle the dead!” as SGM Lamb is fond of saying.

Make the hard decisions, and be a f***ing leader. Focus on local needs. If you want to be a leader, quit worrying about the f***ing national scene, and start developing some useful training at the local level. Don’t sit around the campfire bitching about how you’re doing something by singing “Kumbaya.” When you develop your training, focus on software versus hardware, and make sure you really know the f***ing difference.

“How to Build an Alcohol Stove” is a f***ing hardware-centric approach. I can BUY a f***ing alcohol stove. If I can’t afford one, I can download plans and do it on my own time. Teach shit that people cannot learn except from an expert, with hands-on guidance. Don’t waste limited training time on stupid shit. Be a leader and help people focus on the fundamentals.

People don’t need classes on “How to Develop a Food Storage Program.” Between Peggy Layton, Vicki Tate, and the LDS (Mormon) Church, there’s plenty of information out there. People do need to know how to perform IMT. People do need to know how to change their carburetor. People do need to know how to butcher a a f***ing deer or elk. Focus on the important shit, not silly ass, feel-good hardware-centric “tricks.” Be a god-damned leader and TELL them what they need to learn.

Start developing your local auxiliary support networks and cells. If the local geheimpolizistan is kicking in your door and playing fetch with your dog with flash-bangs, in Moose Knuckle, MT, what good is your network of contacts in East Coal Mine, Pennsylvania? Sure, if you survive, and can escape and evade, he might provide you a safe house, but wouldn’t it make more sense to spend the money and time on making local contacts at the range who will be around to come save your ass? How about going to a Tea Party or Oathkeepers or Preparedness Rally, and making your voice heard, in concert with others of like-mindedness? How about speaking to your local neighbors and political leaders and expressing your concerns? Sure, a majority of the slobs you’ll meet will think you’ve got a tin-foil beanie under your Gadsden Flag ball cap, but who gives a shit? It’s like dating women in your 20s…If out of every 100 people you approach, you manage to find two who are right-minded and dedicated, you’re still doing better than you did picking up girls in college. Hell, you’re even doing better than Heraclitus:

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

Be a f***ing leader, and start taking charge of your local concerns.