You know whats wrong with society in the UK today?
People are soft.
People are whiny.
People suffer delusions of grandeur.
Weakness is indulged instead of being snuffed out at the source as it should be, like the dimly flickering, scented aromatherapeutic candle of whimsical wooly thinking floppiness that it is.
Back in the day, in the rugged hood of Greece when people liked a good old bit of battle, if your private army was struggling you could apply to the Spartans for aid.
The Spartans would typically send, not a small army in support as we might expect, but one man… a General.
It is not the resources we have a vailable to us that count but how we use them. Give up all excuses and self pitying whining, it will get you nowhere and the cold indiffernet stars will spin in their heavens whether you make it happen or not. Whether your “self esteem” is low or not.
Self esteem is an interesting subject. Why do people expect to have self esteem? It is a symptom of a life well lived. Why would you expect self esteem rotting away in a job you hate, with a partner you cant stand living to other peoples expectations and demands.
Expectation. Thats the other thing. We have leanrt to expect things. Support. Mercy. Help. Respect. Respect???!!!
How can anyone just expect respect. It is earned.
Typically the Spartan General would arrive to find an Army in dissaray. Not bad men, just men who gotten used to easy lifestyles and self centered material gain. They have lost all sense of “common good”, pride, discipline.
Sound familiar?
The Spartan Gneral would remedy this primarily by setting untis and regiments one against the other in competition. Nothing like a common enemy to draw people together in the attainment of a group goal. Nothing like competition to make people PUSH THEMSELVES to greater achievment.
Yes, push themselves. If you can motivate people to do that you are a leader. If all you can do is organise you at best a mangaer, at worst a bureaucrat.
There is no discipline but self discipline.
I can take away everything from you, punish you, imprison you even torture you but if you refuse to do a thing, it remains undone… if you are determined enough eventualy I will kill you with my coerscion.
See Ghandi, the gap toothed, ghetto nappy wearing gangster understood this priniple and he was a leader. He made people push themselves.
Back to our Spartan General. Isnt it dangerous having units of men at each others throats competitively? A little. So what? Back in the day, bar room brawls, insults and pranks were encouraged between regiments. Spartan children were taught to sing specific songs written to mock lazy/ weak men.
Shame is a great motivator.
People dont seem to feel it that much nowadays. Jerry Springer, Trisha and all the rest of that televisual excretia prove that. People will parade their addictions, infidelities and weaknesses with a kind of twisted pride in front of millions. Theses are the same benefit claiming, compenesation grabbing, emotional handicaps who weaken us from within.
Are they bad people? No. Do they lack the resources? No.
They just dont know any better.
Back to the Spartans… would this inter regiment rivalry lead to men being more likely to protect their fellow regiments on the battlefield or less?
Think about it.
People need a strong sense of who they are. This can only be developed through adversity.
Adversity. When a whining x factor wannabe stands in front of the judges and gets mown down by the high panted mr.cowell but mooed over by the motherly sharon… who is being cruellest?
Should we let people carry on with their ridiculous self delusions. Is that kindness?
What have you learnt most from? The good times or the bad times?
You ever recieved a good dressing down/ telling off/ moment of shock/panic and emotional turmoil that afterwards made you think… “I will never let that happen again.”
We can give people the adversity they are lacking in their lives.
In Russian Martial Arts they take pride in training with very little equipment and doing their work on hard wooden floors or concrete. They say that matts are a “bad friend” as they will cushion the blows for you. The floor is a “good friend” as the floor will let you know where you are going wrong.
Zen stories are full of masters violently/shockingly attacking students… what is the intent? to bully them? to break them? or to build them and make them?
The truth is the truth is the truth. Sometimes it hurts, but at least its real.
I found a great thing about human behaviour when I used to deliver seminars in schools. Mainly to “troubled” 16 year olds. I would get fantastic results from students who were branded “naughty”, “useless” or “stupid”. Why? Or more importantly, HOW?
People will react in the way you treat them. They will always resond to your expectations.
If I treat my students like young adults, guess how they try to respond? Like young adults! Its not hard is it?
If I baby you and assume you cant hack the truth and need molly coddling, guess how you react?
See the downward spiral?
My auntie. Lovely lady, heart of gold, Terrified of her own shadow. She hates driving and the experience frightens her. I used to be a professional driver as I owned my own little chauffeuring biz (one of my many manifestations) and I love to drive. I am a confident driver. I foolishly offered to give her a lift.
After just 5minutes of expert NLP hypnosis from my Auntie (she does this quite naturally and unconsciously) in the car with me I was a bag of nerves and actually started to repsond to HER expectations and HER projected standards. After 10 minutes I actually had the experience of feeling nervous pulling out of a junction.
I’ve lived in the centre of London. Terrifying other drivers by nipping out in front of them at a junction is just a little bit of fun to give yourself an adrenaline spike. Its cheaper than redbull.
You will act in the way in which I treat you. I expect the best from my Martial Art students and that is what I get. It is a given. Of course you can do it. Of course you can learn this straight away. Of course you are ready to move on to the next thing. Its easy and you are brilliant. How could it possibly be a problem?
This isnt idle pontification by the way. Educational psychologists have proven time and again that you can affect a students I.Q. score by altering their beliefs about themselves and the way the teachers treat them.
We should be tough. With ourselves. With each other. Like a pack of wild dogs, constantly fighting and rough with one another, then when an outsider tries it on your attitude will be… “hahahaaha! is that all you’ve got? come to me precious and I will introduce to whole new vistas of suffering and terror”
Im kidding obviously. But Im sure you take my point. Dont namby pamby people. Its not fair. On them!
Crush the delusions. Disillusion them. They may not thank you for it. They may hate you. So what?
Are you addicted to being liked?
Do you think people liked the Spartan Gneral who came over and started telling them the way things were going to be? Like? Popularity? I say a pox on popularity , I spit on the weakness and people pleasing it fosters.
Im sure the Spartan General would return every night to his tent, his cloak wet with tears that nobody wanted to invite him round for tea. His “self esteem” in tatters.
If he didnt get results, people would die, families would be killed or sold into slavery.
“Oh my job is so high pressure, I think Im suffering from stress, let me see my reiki therapist quick!”
You deserve: NOTHING
Nobody owes you anything
If you want it, Take it
Why are you asking permission?
Its down to you, to make it happen
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