Ninjutsu is the Way of the TEOTWAWKI Warrior

Guest post today from an old college buddy of mine. How did we meet anyway, dude? Was it Paintball Club – lol – remember that shit? LOL – I had a work study job as President of the Paintball Club – LOL – seriously! I formed the club, got student activities funds to support it, then ran it for work study. Aaaaaah, when life was much more simple . . . .

Anyway, dude is calling me to task on my use of the phrase “survival ninja.” Fair enough, this dude knows more about ninjutsu than I do. He’s been like . . . studying it and shit, punching people, getting punched, throw downs, you know – whatever it is those ninjas do.

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Survival Ninja?!

Survival Ninja?!

This is too much. To survive IS Ninja- to give up is to become one of the parade of the billions who’ve passed from this world. This term that you’re throwing around is like saying “an eight-cylinder v8″ – a touch redundant- and redundancy is like Rangerman’s middle frickin’ name. Rangerredundancyman… Granted, “Survival Ninja” has a cool ring to it – but it could be streamlined…

So, to explain this overuse of terminology, first let’s explain the Ninja. What is Ninja? Ninja is, simply put, “to persevere.” To get by. To make do. To survive.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking – isn’t a ninja some dude in a black costume, doing back flips, wearing two-toed shoes, and chucking spinning stars? Yeah, like in the movies, right?

There are lots of resources out there that speak to where the ninja comes from, and just what the Ninja is/was. Is. In my favorite version (Yeah, they’re all just different stories- no information about Ninja can be really considered true. Just think about it – they’re frickin’ ninjas, you think they’re going to tell the truth?) the Ninja were common people who were unrepresented under the rule of their daimyo; they moved off into the forests, and developed skills to defend their families and culture – skills in fighting samurai, in espionage, and in concealment and stealth in order to stay alive. This version of the ninja story, by the way, ends with the vast majority of ninja ultimately being slaughtered by a powerful Shogun – much like the Fed going after any home-grown guerrilla organization here in modern times. Complete annihilation. Execute with extreme prejudice. No prisoners.

The concept of the ninja is at its core the concept of survivor, without regard to fashion, without need for announcement. The ninja is a spy behind enemy lines looking to gather information, maybe to identify or neutralize a target, or to win some prize – most important to the ninja is to not get caught doing it. The ninja passes through the enemy organization or culture unnoticed in order that his or her purpose can be served…

If you think about your life, what are you trying to survive? How can we use this idea to benefit us in our modern lives? I don’t know about you, but for me it’s to get home at night and enjoy my family, or to spend the weekends hiking, fishing, or using recreational drugs. Err, forget that last one…

Not to be too strange here (I guess that’s already done for) but using this point-of-view, think about the disagreements that you’ve had with coworkers in the past – think about all the little differences that we all have with people at the gas station, the bank, in traffic, etc – and think about “just surviving” instead of proving our ego-points with these people. Think about it like this – “who lives longer?” the guy that starts a fistfight over a parking ticket, or the one that just shrugs it off and keeps rolling? Engaging trouble is typically a waste of time – granted, there are situations where as a man, a person, you should grab trouble by the throat and gouge its fucking eyes out – but these are rare and life-defining moments…

I was traveling in New York the other week, and saw a great example of this… A long line had formed queuing up for the next Accela train. As one of the first few people in line, I was right near the entrance, and waited patiently as exiting passengers came off the escalators. When the conductors let us start down to the trains, some people walked right into the front of the line, cutting off the couple hundred who’d been patiently waiting. A few folks made loud comments – “get to the back of the line,” and “hey, there’s a line here,” and so on. One particularly greasy fucker just kept on, commenting back “hey, whatever” and proceeded to get right to the front, with his little wheeled laptop bag strolling along behind him. Naturally, I wanted to say something – but a very convenient, very Italian gent took care of this for me. Out of no place this guy starts kicking the greaser’s luggage to get his attention and let him know. The greaser turned back to say “hey, fuck you,” which was ideal. Totally ideal. It turned into a short scene from Goodfellas…

*SCENE – Penn Station, Entering the “Down” Escalator*

Italian Man – “Fuck Me? Fuck YOU.” (kicks Greaser’s luggage again, hard)

Greaser (stops) – “Hey, whaddaya, wanna go to JAIL?”

Italian Man – “Jail? I fucking LOVE Jail.”

(the two ride the escalator out of view)

At this point the Conductor stopped the rest of us from continuing down the escalator – “Hey, if they want to have it out, let’s let ‘em take care of that,” he said. When I finally got down to the platform, there was no sign of either guy, but the floor was greasy underfoot… But I managed to stay out of the way AND in the front of the line, even though the douche bag greaser was totally asking for it, and in many situations might have caused myself or many of us to get a little hot under the collar, potentially screwing up the rest of the day with some… paperwork.

So, as a Survivalist thinking about the ninja, we can look at ninja-ness as a method to un-complicate or de-stress life. When you pare things down, and stay focused on just “getting through” then all the little irritations change – instead of ruining your day, they become the flavor in the coffee, the color to the film, the nuance to the story. The funny shit to laugh at.

So, the Real Survivalist = Ninja. Rangerman, you’re already ninja, bro. No need to double up on the terms!

Until later, keep your eyes and ears open, and your nose clean.

~ Nincognito

Ranger Man BTW: YES! I’m a NINJA! And (according to dude’s definition) – so are YOU! Cool, huh? That was easy.

1) thanks for the post

2) a couple purchases were made via the SHTFblog Amazon search bar the other day – thank you – I see the items purchased, but that’s all. I always think of Amazon for books, but never for folding shotgun stocks – lol. Amazon kicks me 4-6% of the sale (a.k.a. makes me rich)

3) someone provided a link to SHTFblog on Facebook – thanks

4) someone provided a link to Warrior Talk – thanks

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