By The Sensei
The Urbanite vs The Urban Warrior
By The Sensei
It can be difficult to explain the essence of The Urban Warrior philosophy to somebody who has not been trained in it from the ground up. Ironically, perhaps the easiest way to illustrate the spirit of The Urban Warrior is by comparing him to what he is not.By The Sensei
Look at the average modern city dweller; the kind of contemporary excuse for a human being that litters our cities in the western world today. Imagine him as a gestalt of everything he represents. An archetype. Let us call this theoretical man “the urbanite”. And let us compare him with The Urban Warrior.
The urbanite’s mind works on the lowest possible level. It constantly seeks out relaxation. When he gets free time, he chooses to fill it with useless crap designed to block out any real depth of thought. This is the purpose of modern “culture”—celebrity magazines, soap operas, reality television, etc. The Urban Warrior values his mind as his greatest possession. It constantly seeks out tension. When he gets free time, he chooses to drink deeply from the thoughts of the greatest strategists and thinkers known to all of history.
The urbanite worships in the cult of pleasure. The Urban Warrior embraces pain. While the urbanite is constantly seeking to add things to his life—more gadgets, more possessions, more trivia—The Urban Warrior seeks to strip away that which he does not need. This is why the urbanite grows weaker, while The Urban Warrior grows in strength.
The urbanite’s constant aim is to reduce stress. To him, stress is anathema and he cannot understand its function. The Urban Warrior invites stress into his life, because he understands that all growth is based on controlled suffering. Struggle, pain and stress are the source of his spirituality. Pain is just weakness leaving the body, and suffering is strength entering the soul.
The urbanite unconsciously destroys his body with alcohol, drugs and junk food. The Urban Warrior consciously builds the abilities of his body with self-control and exercise. The urbanite, if he exercises, does so in chrome-clad leisure centers, full of electronic gadgets and easy machines designed do the work for him. For The Urban Warrior, his own body is his gymnasium. The only machine he truly needs.
The urbanite is obsessed with finding ways to quickly and noisily waste his time. As a result, as the years pass he becomes increasingly worn-out, useless. The Urban Warrior uses his time. He slowly and silently develops his abilities in the Ten Skills. As the years pass, he becomes increasingly powerful.
The urbanite is an automatic product of the modern age, and has no grasp of time or historical context. The Urban Warrior is self-made. He looks to the warrior skills of the past—martial arts, weapons skills, stealth, survival techniques, an ideology of strength—to prepare him for the future. Even the worst of all possible scenarios.
The urbanite seeks to seem important, and wants nothing more than to stand out from the crowd for his moment in the spotlight, acknowledged by others like him. The Urban Warrior prizes invisibility, and carries out his operations in private, blending into the background like a tiger. The opinions of others are utterly obsolete to what he is.
The urbanite is a combination of a bully and a victim. He bullies those weaker than him, and is victimized by those who are more powerful. The Urban Warrior is unseen to those weaker than him, just as he is unknown to those who would damage him.
The urbanite is obsessed with appearance. The Urban Warrior is only interested in function.
The urbanite is all mouth when safe, but is silent and hopeless when an emergency strikes. Empty vessels make the most noise. The Urban Warrior is silent when safe, but explodes into a blaze of pre-rehearsed action during a crisis.
The urbanite is totally conditioned by a herd mentality. He is a sheep. The Urban Warrior can work alone, or in a pack if and when it suits his purposes. He is a wolf.
The urbanite is simply a cog in a machine. He is used by the city. The Urban Warrior thinks outside the box. He uses the city.
That is the true essence of The Urban Warrior.