“They trust silver to do the work of swords”
Lars Brownworth
In 1000 AD, English King Ethelred (“The Unready”) thought it prudent to pay-off relentless, remorseless Viking raiders (Danes) in gold and silver in exchange for their dubious promises to leave England alone. These payments, called “Danegeld,” made heavy tax increases necessary, and as anyone could have predicted, failed to get rid of the Danes. The term, “Danegeld,” thus subsequently became synonymous with scandal, and nine hundred years later inspired Kipling to write a poem by the same title, as a warning to his and future generations.
In concert with local friends and colleagues, I conducted a DTI Defensive Pistol Course in NJ last weekend.
As is usually the case, a number of my Jewish students (mostly from NYC) joined us. Their personal narratives describing organized anti-Jewish/anti-Israel harassment and violence in NYC clearly indicated to me that personal security of American Jews is regularly compromised at a far higher level than is generally acknowledged.
My Jewish students/colleagues are well-trained and go armed routinely, and it was gratifying to hear that among Jewish Americans, an ever-increasing percentage is (finally) seeing the wisdom of being in constant possession of the means to respond to mortal threats with countervailing lethal force, when necessary.
Yet, these same friends tell me that there is still much push-back on the part of those who hold that any species of personal preparedness is inconsistent with orthodox Jewish tenets. Some Christians look upon personal security with the identical naive sentiment.
It may be that an entire demographic, who has vehemently hated your guts for at least 3k years, will suddenly acknowledge they’ve been wrong all that time and ecumenically decide they like you. Maybe there is something you can do (that you apparently haven’t tried) that will make them instantly believe you’re not so bad after all.
I suppose anything is possible!
However, my students don’t think they’ll live to see that day, but are determined to live to see many other days, whatever they may being.
Our Jewish students (Christian students too) will always be at least a little conflicted about mastering our Art. That is normal, and probably healthy. I believe an “abiding restlessness” is an integral component of good mental health.
In the interim, our world is increasingly dangerous, because it is filled with unstable, often daemonic people, sometimes entire systems.
In the end, when someone attempts to do you harm, his rationale is irrelevant, at least from your immediate perspective.
We’re on our own!
“As long as there are human beings about, there will never be peace”
Charles Bukowski
/John
