I asked, and you answered. The Warrior Poet Way: A Guide to Living Free and Dying Well won the poll for the following book review. The funny thing is that a lot of it ties into a series I'm starting in mid-September on antifragile living.
Here it is.
"From the founder of the Warrior Poet Society, a daring manual on how to become a dangerous—and good—man
There is a war on masculinity, and everywhere we look—on every front we hold sacred—we can see the painful reminders of this collapsing order. The chaos and crisis we are experiencing today should be a signal for men everywhere to rise up, to fight to preserve our way of life by once again walking the ancient paths. But this isn't a journey that need be taken alone.
In The Warrior Poet Way, public speaker, former Army Ranger, and all-around patriot John Lovell offers a needed antidote to the lack of strong men in our modern world. This is a call to all men to be what they truly are. Both dangerous and good. Lovers and fighters. Lions and lambs.
Both philosophical and practical, this guide dispenses essential advice on how to be a whole man, from tyranny-proofing your home to wooing the right woman. Through anecdotes of his time in the military, interviews with other men, and practicums at the end of each chapter, Lovell teaches the virtue of balance—navigating the tension between violent warrior and romantic poet—and guides men through each mental and physical change they must make to embody the ancient spirit of a real man.
This is a manual for every man to use in the fight of their life—and what it takes to win. No good thing comes easy, and the life you want is just on the other end of what you don't want to do. This is the Warrior Poet Way. Are you ready to walk it?"
I first heard about John Lovell from the pages of Clint Emerson's 100 Deadly Skills: Combat Edition. I was wondering about how to be a Christian yet also a protector. I found quite a few in those pages, but John stuck out.
This review will be long because I highlighted a lot but there’s a lot under the surface. I liked that he gave you "Practicums" to implement what you learned at the end of the chapters.
What is a Warrior Poet?
"What is a Warrior Poet? Put simply, it is an antidote to a society that has forgotten what true masculinity is. Today, our culture tends to celebrate victims over heroes. We praise weakness and a lack of discipline while villainizing aggression and strength. Be passive, we seem to tell men of all ages. Go with the flow, be a nice guy, and do whatever the ruling class tells you. But shouldn't we be teaching our boys to trust their instincts and fight for what's right? Shouldn't young men everywhere be encouraged to question immoral authority and search for truth beyond what is socially acceptable? Should we not expect men to challenge evil, embrace what is good, and fight to protect it? In other words, shouldn't we be ready to rock the boat and stand unflinchingly against a world gone wrong?" 4%
If you have not noticed, there's a link between Rogue Scholar and Warrior Poet. As I define it, the Scholar is more of a nerd with relentless curiosity. The Warrior Poet Society is more guns and politics than the Rogue Scholar.
I view them as contemporaries. I also see myself as a warrior poet as well.
What's a good man?
"To be a good man, you must become a paradox: strong but self-controlled, violent but gentle, ready to go to war one minute and prepared to give piggyback rides the next. This kind of man is fierce in word and deed while remaining compassionate and humble. He is fully soldier, fully lover, whole man. This is what I call the Warrior Poet, and it is the standard required of all men. A whole man is not part Warrior and part Poet. He's all Warrior and all Poet. To be anything less than both is to be incomplete. When a man goes to war, he doesn't take a part of himself, he takes the whole thing: body, mind, heart, and spirit. Any unconverted part can become an anchor dragging the Warrior down. Any uninitiated parts of a man will sabotage him in the strain of battle, resulting in deadly consequences. Just like how a chain can break at the weakest link, a man is only as strong as his greatest vulnerability." 4%
"Therefore, Warrior Poets train themselves in both the art of war as well as the daily challenges to live and love better. This kind of man loves a woman well and cares for his children. He goes off to battle when freedom is attacked and works tirelessly to provide for his family. His whole soul, body, and mind chase truth like a bloodhound. He wants to be at once awed by beauty and still deeply feel the tragedies of life. This is what it means to be a whole man, to be a true Warrior Poet." 5%
"The Warrior Poet is a simple concept broad enough to encapsulate many kinds of men. I myself am a Christian, and this worldview influences everything I say and do, but we have many in our ranks who come from a broad base of ideologies. Still, we are united in our aim to be a living sacrifice for a cause greater than ourselves. That is our calling and burden: to live free and die well. As broad as this mission is, it is impossibly difficult. Which is why we are always training, always striving to become better. If you can get behind that and are willing to put in the work, you are already one of us. We may differ on politics, theologies, and personal philosophies of life; but if you can rally around living for a higher purpose and sacrificing in defense of others, then this is your invitation to join us." 5%
Now, how does this book work?
"So let's talk about how this book works. The Warrior Poet Way follows ten basic principles that have guided my understanding of what a real man is and ought to be. Starting with how to harness your own warrior spirit, then applying that strength to the rest of your life, we'll tackle one challenge at a time. After that, we'll explore what it means to become "the most dangerous man in the room" as well as how to battle the inner coward that wants to ruin your life (and will, if you let him). We'll also talk about death and why we all must face it now so that we can be ready for it whenever it may come. Then, we'll delve into what poets can teach us about love and life. I'll share what I learned from both the battlefield and the dance floor. Through all this, I'll ask you to lean in to learn the secret of a successful life and the most important lessons I've learned about balance, romance, and discipline." 6%
Chapter One: A World in Need of Warriors
"The question is, what are you fighting for? G. K. Chesterton wrote, "A true warrior fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." 11%
In times of tribal war, tyranny was through physical domination. Now, it works more psychologically, taking away your agency. Then the force comes when you're weak and emasculated, says John.
"George Orwell was right when in 1984 he said, "But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought." When they win the battle of the mind, every other victory is imminent." 12%
"What we need to stand against these forces is a warrior. The modern warrior does not just fight against physical threats but also stands in opposition to destructive philosophies and foolish arguments. These men can be lawyers, public speakers, politicians, business owners, tradesmen, social media influencers, teachers, police officers, pastors, and hundreds of others professions. They are all on the front lines to fight against freedom-destroying ideologies. We must join them." 13%
Chapter Two: The Most Dangerous Man in the Room
John tells the story of a coach in his school to highlight the importance of never underestimating anyone.
"When you think of the "most dangerous" men in a room, the obvious choices are the big guys tatted up wearing MultiCam with a Glock T-shirt and gun stickers all over their cars. When I see that sort of man, I typically think "good guy." We might even chat about what he's carrying, or he may even be a fellow member of the Warrior Poet Society. But when I see a dude like that, I also see crosshairs all over him. For a bad guy, those are the easiest men to spot and take out immediately. With a guy like that, if you ever had to go toe to toe with him, you'd at least give him the respect of putting your best foot forward. In that kind of scenario, you'd want to attack hard and fast, bringing your absolute A game—because you know what he's capable of.
But not with men like Tony Lopez. Never would I have pegged that kind of man as someone to fear, and because of this, I wasn't ready. Part of the power of a man like that is because you have seen him out in public, and he's not scary. Remember, Tony was chatting it up with me: a fun-loving, Spanish-speaking, jovial man. Or so it seemed. I never would have dreamed what he was capable of, and that's what made him dangerous. It would be like going up to some bushes and seeing a little tail sticking out, then giving it a tug only to discover a massive Bengal tiger hiding behind the leaves. That was Tony Lopez—he was the tiger. And I was his prey." 17%
"Tony was the kind of man you didn't see coming, and those are the scariest men you'll encounter, because you don't know what they're capable of. A man who is unpredictable almost always has the upper hand. When people look across the room at you and can then say, "I bet he's bad news," you've just become a little less dangerous." 17%
There's a subsection in this chapter called Traits of Dangerous Men. I'll paraphrase that.
The characteristics of dangerous men include toughness, both physically and mentally. These men have a high tolerance for pain and discomfort and approach life with discipline and humor, even in the face of danger.
Dangerous men are skilled at managing fear, clever, and can think like bad guys. They are creative problem solvers, understand the value of being in the right place at the right time, and recognize that success doesn't always go to the strongest but to the smartest.
Finally, the last trait worth mentioning is that dangerous men know how to break you in several ways.
"Choosing to be dangerous means admitting what you are capable of: understanding how bad you can be, the power you possess as a man. Every man is capable of violence, especially the one who doesn't know it. A man like that will inevitably hurt and abuse women. He will neglect young ones and poorly lead others. To be a good man, you can't deny the danger in you; you have to take control of it. A weak man cannot do this, because it takes strength to be good. And only a man who understands his own violence and how to temper it is truly safe. So, to be safe, you've got to be dangerous. To be strong, you've got to understand your own weakness. This is the way of the Warrior Poet, a path riddled with contradictions, calling you to an ideal that you will spend the rest of your life pursuing." 22%
"Each warrior needs to know his calling from moment to moment, when he ought to be delicate and when he needs to come down hard and fast on the enemy. I would not sit gently by and watch a home invader rape and murder my family. Real love protects, and there's a huge difference between turning the other cheek to one who has insulted me and killing terrorists who are trying to kill innocent people. My faith tells me that the same God who died on a cross also led the charge at Jericho and issued armies to retake the Promised Land. This same Savior, according to the Bible, will come back not as a lamb but as a lion. All of which is to say, you need to be both gentle and dangerous to be truly good." 24%
Chapter Three: Battle the Inner Coward
“To become good men, we must face our own inner coward, learn to do hard things we would rather avoid, and cultivate our strength.” 26%
Venting on social media is pretty popular now—it's a nice dopamine hit. Don't stop there; counterattack the problem.
“Being cold, hungry, overworked, exhausted—it all just sucks, and there's really nothing to be done but swallow the complaints and take the pain. You can do this because you are stronger than you know. You just have never met misery.” 28%
Parenting teaches you this.
“Don't avoid difficulties, because they don't fit your "strong man" stereotype. We all have to challenge our areas of weakness if we want to become stronger. Consider these two missions in life: one is to be as tough as nails, as ferocious of a fighter as you can be, an absolute maniac; and the other is to be as kind and loving as possible, a giant so gentle that those you protect have no reason to fear you. We must always be battling our own shortcomings so that we are getting stronger each day.” 31%
Praying is one weakness of mine. I am not good at praying.
“Prayer is also a daily discipline of mine. The goal isn't to just pray before meals with the family but to "pray without ceasing," as the apostle Paul admonishes the Thessalonians in the New Testament. It's a difficult endeavor to be constantly praying in the back of your head as you go through the day, but that's the call—and it pays massive dividends. Prayer is important to me, because I believe it not only moves God but it also moves me.
Prayer helps to shape and replenish me in the most important of ways. I also gain spiritual strength each time I do the right thing, especially when it's difficult. At the same time, every instance I'm given to outbursts of anger, moments of self-centeredness, or harshness toward my family, my spiritual strength is sapped. Every action and thought moves us all toward greater spiritual strength or weakness, so . . . no pressure, right? HA! I didn't say any of this would be easy, gentlemen. I promise only that it will be worth it.” 33%
“Wherever you are weakest, that is where you will be attacked. I've seen many physically strong men buckle under the weight of extreme physical pain, and I've seen other men with lesser physiques but far more mental toughness keep going. I've seen this with soldiers who I thought would do really well but who shocked me when they quit.
Muscles aside, there is a mental strength that allows us to endure pain. Emotionally, I've cracked under physical strain, and it makes me think of the many Christian martyrs over the millennia who were able to sing hymns while being flayed alive or sawed in two. There is a spiritual strength that allows one to go without food for long periods of time, endure torture, and face the imminence of certain death. I would like to be that strong, and I resolve to grow until I am.
Bearing up under any pain, physical or not, calls on the different types of strength we all possess. If any one of the chain links of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual are too weak, the weakest link will snap when hardship comes—and with it, the man. He may have six-pack abs and can deadlift five hundred pounds, but if he cannot handle a little criticism, he's weak. If he crumbles into despair at the loss of a job, there is weakness in the chain. If he cannot handle the irritations every family brings, all can see his weakness. No shame here. I'm in these trenches myself. We have to continually test our strength so that we can stand on the day when it is needed most.” 33%
Chapter Four: Face Death Before You Die
This chapter is brutal. And the practicum at the end is where I stopped. It's memento mori to the max. I got to this chapter about the time I was battling the intrusive thoughts of my death.
I came out of that one stronger. See the chapter above this one.
“Every man should do this at some point in his life, even if he isn't going off to war. Writing your own death letter is incredibly powerful. When you take the time to say goodbye to everyone you love, allowing yourself to feel everything that goes along with this final farewell, you appreciate your life a lot more.
A death letter challenges you to be better now. You don't write it just on the contingency that you might die—because, of course, you will. That is guaranteed. This kind of letter allows you to focus on living a better life in the present. This practice of remembering death is what the Stoics called "memento mori," which they used to focus their awareness on living.
When we don't face death ahead of time, we end up living reactionary lives, drifting along the path of least resistance. We choose what's easy and comfortable over what's fulfilling and meaningful. We log hours, days, and years like this, asleep at the wheel. We may imagine that we'll grind out a living for just a little longer, then retire and really start living. But that line of thinking is a trap. Your life is right now. There isn't a "later."
Good soldiers know to not take death too seriously, to not give it the benefit of respect. They joke about it, make fun of it, regularly bring it up in everyday conversation. To people on the outside, this sort of behavior may appear insensitive and disrespectful, even crass. But a dark sense of humor carries with it an important message: if you are able to laugh, it means you're still alive. Graveyard humor helps men weather the storms of life and reminds us that we're here . . . for now.
Some things in life are so horrible that if you didn't have a certain flexibility (much in the way of comedy), then you're going to snap. You'll split in two, cracking like the tree that couldn't bend with the unpredictability of nature. Many of the most dangerous people on the planet have this kind of humor. They have to. We all do. Graveyard humor is a secret coping mechanism that when used correctly can get you through some of the worst times in your life.
When you serve something bigger than yourself, death loses its sting. What matters most is your mission, not how long you get to live it out. So you welcome your end, because in a way it is a familiar presence. It will happen, and when it does, you'll be ready. At the time of writing this, I am thirty-nine years old. I have two young boys and a wife I want to love to a ripe old age. But let's suppose my time is up. Can I greet death with a smile? Do I possess the inner joy necessary to die with dignity? Have I made my time count? On a good day, the answer is . . . maybe.”
Chapter Five: The War of Ideas
Now we're heavy into rogue scholar territory.
“But philosophy isn't reserved for just the academics. It has to do with how we see the world and what it all means. Good philosophy may sometimes start in the clouds, but it should end in the dirt—in the everyday, practical way we go through life. The word "philosophy" literally means the "love of wisdom." A philosopher is a person who loves what is true and what is rational. Furthermore, I'd say that philosophy is how science, history, experience, and so on form the very basis of our lives. In other words, it's how all the pieces fit together to form a holistic view of how the world works.
Everyone is constantly building and editing their philosophy of the world; it cannot be helped. The big questions for us, though, are: How good of a job are we doing? Have we gotten the most important stuff right? Does our worldview fit well together so that our theology fits well with our politics, the history of the world, and the sciences? If there is a contradiction, then there's a misstep somewhere, and we must back up and revise some or all of what we think we know. I believe a philosophical system must be cohesive, true, and actually work.” 42%
“Every good man must be a philosopher, a poet in the truest sense, and the problem with relative truth is that it is impossible to live by.” 49%
Chapter 6: Every Warrior Needs A Muse
This chapter is a curveball. A muse? What's that?
“The warrior needs more than war to live a happy life. So I ask: What are you living for? What will you fight for? Are you ever concerned that even as you fight, you could lose the reason you do it all? What then? We need a purpose, and that purpose must be bigger than ourselves or the love of our lives. The warrior is helped by a muse in their journey toward purpose,because she can serve as a means of drawing out who he really is as well as urging him to climb higher.” 50%
“A muse may not be a woman, per se, but it must be something or someone that calls you beyond yourself and into relationship.”
“We Warrior Poets fight for a purpose, and our muse keeps us rooted in it.
I found a warrior in the military, as well as virtue and passion in my faith. I found a poet when I met my wife—who became my muse—and I found gentleness as a father. But I found freedom and purpose only in Jesus. Now, with Him at the center, I am left to bring all these areas into balance. I am not one of these things. I am all of them, and so are you. At least, you can be. A purpose grounds a man, helping him find his center. For my part, I pick Jesus, my eternal source of inspiration.” 53%
Chapter Seven: Learn to Dance
Balance is an issue I fight. As the only breadwinner, I must provide and be present with my wife and kids. John has some things to say about that.
“Balance is the ticket to long-term success, in my experience. If you are a successful businessman but an absentee father, that's not success. If you're crushing your quarterly goals but a stranger to your wife, you have not won at life. Not yet. Why is this so difficult for most men? Because balance is not natural to us. It must be learned, practiced.” 61%
Here's an example of dancing.
“You can't make every stressor go away today, but you can start dancing with the chaos. Move the laundry off the chair and close your eyes for five minutes of peace. As you hop up with a little renewed energy, engage the kids in a quick wrestle to distill their conflict, then ask your wife what's needed for the neighbors. After that, you may find a little more energy comes, so before bed tonight you decide to dive into the book you've been putting off and set your alarm a little earlier for a workout tomorrow.” 63%
“To dance well with life, we have to get some of our gusto back. We need to push ourselves harder than we think we can go. It may sound counterintuitive, but this is necessary. I know you're tired, worn out, and frustrated. The good news is that you were built for this and may not even know it. Most men don't come close to what their real limits are. They can carry more burdens than they know. If you think you can run two miles, I guarantee I could get you to run five if you let me push you.” 63%
“You cannot live up to everyone's expectations and meet everyone's needs. You just can't. If you gave work everything it would like to demand of you, it would keep demanding more until it had taken every shred of your attention from all other areas of life.” 64%
Chapter Eight: Goodness, Not Greatness
“My personal belief is God gets to decide what a good man is. If He created me, then He gets to define what I'm worth. It just makes sense. So what does He say? Five times in the New Testament, the different biblical authors talk about "living a life worthy of your calling." I've stood on this phrase for years, and it's served as an anchor for my own search for worth and value.
How do I live a life worthy of my calling? What does it mean to measure up what the Creator of the Universe expects?” 73%
“For my part, I've decided that faith is my most important priority, so if I crush it in every other area of life but look nothing like Jesus at the end of my life, then that's a failure. Goodness, for me, means trying to be better on a daily basis while recognizing the areas where I fall short and vowing to do better next time.” 74%
“Another priority is my marriage. You really have to nail this. No "happily ever after" happens accidentally, and I've learned that you've got to pour lots of time and intentionality into any important relationship, especially when it comes to a spouse.” 74%
“The same goes for children. I want my kids to know me and want to spend lots of time making memories with me. Children emulate what we show them, so if I consistently demonstrate that a career is more important than family, what do you think they are going to reflect back to me as they get older? They won't have any time to hang with their old man, because they'll be doing exactly what I taught them.” 74%
When he talks about kids, it gets to me. The next chapter is all about kids.
“Everywhere we look, we see false heroes: people who have achieved greatness at the cost of their own goodness. Your fate is sealed the moment you set foot on their course. A hero, however, is one whose example awakens your soul...Whose example makes you want to be a better man?” 75%
“We want to hold both the ambition of the Warrior and the love of the Poet in healthy tension: to have big dreams and desires alongside a committed reverence for the people we love.” 77%
Chapter Nine: Raise Little Poets
Right off the bat, the shots were fired.
“If we are seeing our kids only for an hour or so a day before they fall into homework or a screen, can it be said that we're really raising them at all? Or is it someone else?” 80%
Boom. Part of the reason I want to homeschool.
“We are medicating our children and exposing them to more medications at home more than ever before. Kids are bored, and instead of giving them an outlet for their boredom and creativity, we are drugging them. Maybe all this is just coincidence or accident, but it sure does look suspicious to me.
What benefit does society get from killing a child's love for life and adventure? They become an adult that is easier to control. In the words of Anthony Esolen, "If we can but deaden the imagination, then, we can settle the child down, and make of him that solid, dependable, and inert space-filler in school and, later, a block of the great state pyramid." In other words, if you can get a kid to stop dreaming, you can get him to conform to an authoritarian system without even knowing it.” 80%
Or give them a screen. Adults watch other adults play sports, and students and younger adults watch other people play video games. I've noticed that when we do let my kids watch a screen, it's a video of someone else playing.
“There is schooling, and then there is education, and those are not the same thing. Education is what we are after for our children, which means the classroom has a part to play, but the most critical stuff often happens outside of school. Have we carved out the time with our kids to pass on what we know and who we are?” 81%
I do need to be better about structure.
“As parents, we are responsible for providing structure for our kids so they have some direction in life and can learn to walk before they run. But we also want to give them enough freedom to fail and grow. In our home, my boys do chores every morning, they eat breakfast, spend two to three hours homeschooling, then go off to explore, catch crickets, shoot BB guns, read, and play with other kids. In the summer, they swim nearly every day and create new games constantly. When they aren't outside cutting trails with our Belgian Malinois in tow or ranging chickens, they are drawing pictures of dragons and writing adventure stories. They spend a lot of their time with us, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We are raising our own kids—not the state or a screen.” 82%
I love this line. My son will tell me there's a monster under his bed, and I'll tell him to fight it. And he does.
“We need mothers to keep our boys alive, and we need fathers to make them hard to kill.” 84%
“As teenagers, we get a taste of more independence: we go out with friends, do our chores, dress ourselves, start dating, get a part-time job, learn to make our way in the world. And that brings us to adulthood, which is when we move out, get a place of our own, and learn to stand on our own two feet. But it doesn't stop there. Eventually, many of us end up getting full-time jobs, begin paying bills, get married, buy a house, and start a family. This is when we begin to take control of our lives and learn what it means to be responsible for others. It can also be a stressful time, especially if no one taught you that all of this is good and natural. That's just what we see in the world today, especially in America. Our current problem is that many men simply refuse to grow up, downright avoiding these necessary rites of passage that teach a man how to carry burdens. Now more than ever, young men are not branching out on their own; if anything, they're only extending adolescence into the first couple decades of adulthood.” 85%
Chapter Ten: How To Stay Free
This chapter covers much of what I will discuss with the antifragility series. COVID should have taught us all, but most have forgotten.
“The first step is to not be so vulnerable. This is relatively easy, but most people haven't taken the necessary measures. If you'd like to start making some steps toward self-sufficiency, you should begin by finding a way to stock emergency storage food and a lot of water. If you can't feed your family, you're very easy to manipulate, intimidate, and control. Because what wouldn't you do to keep your family from starving? A fantastic stopgap is to have a month's worth of storage food on hand so that you and your family can stay free and healthy. That won't hold you forever, but it's a good place to start. If you've already stored a few months' worth of food, your next goal is a year. There is storage food you can buy that is sealed and guaranteed to last more than twenty-five years, so there's no reason not to get started today.” 93%
This is the best argument for guns right here.
“After food, the next one is obvious. Guns. Lots of guns...First, they hold their value very well, which is important in a time of inflation and falling confidence in the dollar; second, you can use them for defense; and third, you can hunt and feed your family with them. Furthermore, you never know what anti-gun legislation will prohibit your future access to guns and ammo, so ideally you should just go ahead and stockpile all the ammo your family will ever want or need." 93”
“The next thing to stock up on are standard weekly necessities. These are things like toilet paper, diapers, toothpaste, soap, rags, and so on. Think of it like preparing for a big storm that's coming through that might knock out your power for a few days.” 93%
I need more batteries. I'd definitely be rotating them out with the kids' toys.
“After that, make sure you get enough batteries in various sizes to help you power items like flashlights and essential electronics. Then, make sure you have enough fuel. This means gasoline, diesel (if you need it), smaller propane tanks for outdoor camping stoves, and plenty of wood for burning. Fuel is tricky to store long term, so don't get too crazy.” 93%
“Next on the list are survival gear items and basic tools. Ensure you have things to bushcraft or build with. In the tools category, make sure you have things such as hammers, saws, axes, crowbars, wrenches, and so on—plus a ton of screws and nails. Even if you live in an apartment or a rental, you'll want a decent tool kit in case the maintenance man is suddenly out of a job or bitten by a nuclear rabbit. Plus, any self-respecting dude should be able to fix something that breaks at home or at least have the tools to figure it out.” 93%
“Preparation can be a glorious mitigator to paranoia. Fear is sitting around, worrying about what might happen. I don't do that, and many of the men I know who are stockpiling ammunition and food aren't doing that, either. We're not scared, because we're ready. The man with a boat isn't as afraid of drowning as the man treading water. Just like I'm not very fearful of an active shooter killing me or my family because, well, I'm armed and better trained than they are. Preparation trumps paranoia. Many Americans live as if their current reality is all there has ever been or ever will be.” 95%
“You want to ensure a better life for your children and grandchildren? You want to leave the world better than you found it? Learn to love freedom. Fight for it, first in your own life, then in the lives of others. Become as independent as you possibly can be. Don't rely too heavily on anyone; instead, do your best to become self-sufficient so that you can experience the luxury and blessing of being able to take care of others.” 95%
“To be free, we have to be able to protect ourselves from a lack of freedom. If I want to know how free a country is, I look at that nation's laws regarding gun ownership. If the government heavily regulates or deems guns illegal, then they are not free enough. In an instant, the government can away all other freedoms and the people have no recourse. The right to bear arms is the freedom that protects all other freedoms because it keeps humans somewhat safe from the powers of force and coercion.” 95%
“This is what every tyrant tries to do: take the people's guns, control their speech and ideas through the media, and reprogram the nation's youth. The details of how this is done vary over time, but the plan is invariably the same. When tyranny has come to roost, dissenters will be jailed or shipped off to work camps.” 95%
“The best way to become tyranny-proof is to need very little from your fellow man. Our greatest defense against injustice is to be as free as we possibly can. Just like America's Founding Fathers intended, we must be willing to speak up against all kinds of hostile forces and be prepared to defend ourselves and our ideals from those who might try to take them away. Cowardice can be contagious, but so is courage. If you and I speak courageously to each other long enough, we all become braver. When our connection to each other is severed, we are left alone and vulnerable to forces of intimidation.” 95%
Conclusion
“You become a Warrior Poet, discovering that warrior spirit buried in the recesses of your soul. You face the coward within and become a dangerous man. In humility, you realize how far you have to go and all the areas of weakness you still have to work through. You live as if you were dying, aware that death is always around the corner, never taking it for granted. You wield truth as a weapon in defense of what is right and good, speaking up in the face of evil, disciplining your mind to always be learning and growing. You pursue your muse daily with passion and gusto, dancing with her—and all of life—as you go. You commit to chipping off the sharp edges of you, so that you can love and lead better. You chase goodness above any thought of greatness, keeping eternity in your sights at all times, remembering that your legacy is being written in real time, happening in this very moment. And even though it's difficult, you keep your priorities straight, making room in life for loved ones. You stay humble and apologize when you spend your time in stupid, foolish ways.” 97%
There was no way I could make this shorter. I highly recommend this book. My best friend jokes that I have a bit of a man crush on John Lovell. He looks so average, but he can introduce you to Jesus through the Word or the sword if you have bad intentions.