A wide range of summer camp experiences are available to young people who may want to go beyond the ordinary campfire singalong experience. For Dangerous Children living in remote or overly mundane locations, such camps may provide them with training, experience, and personal links not available otherwise. Here are a few camps that may be of interest to parents and Dangerous Children:
Outdoor Leadership Camps
Three of the most highly regarded in North America, offering a wide range of outdoor experiences on rock, snow, ice, water, and more:
Military camps provide a simulated military training experience, focusing on various aspects of military philosophy and practise — depending upon the school.
Your child will build rockets, experience simulated moonwalks and take command of space missions. Located in Huntsville, Alabama, camps range from three to thirteen days in length and you can choose between kids-only or parent/child programs. __ Source
Find a specialty camp in categories from science/math, tech/computers, foreign language programs, travel/touring, business, performance arts, and writing — among others.
Note: The above camps are only suggestions. You must research each prospect thoroughly before considering signing up your child.
Most Dangerous Children Find These Camps to be Enjoyable Diversions from Training
Dangerous Child training can involve most (or all) of the areas of interest mentioned above. But Dangerous Children in many geographical areas do not have the opportunity to mix with the broad range of other children of different backgrounds and life orientations as are represented at most of these camps. Since their ordinary self-taught education and highly disciplined training are more rigorous than most of the camp training above, the kids and youth are able to spend plenty of time studying their fellow campers and understanding how social groups form and dissolve. They can also form special friendships that may last for years to come.
Think of Prison as a Preparation for Life After TEOTWAWKI
College is becoming more and more expensive. But the advantages of going to college are diminishing by the year. College Costs vs Benefits Trend
After TEOTWAWKI — The End of The World As We Know It — your kids will need an entirely different skill set than the ones that are being taught in college.
And just what is being taught in college? How to binge, fornicate, become indoctrinated in counter-productive ideology (academic lobotomy), and how to live well on borrowed money while avoiding responsibility as long as you can?
Modern economies are built upon the predictable movement of young people into positions of responsibility. The child is supposed to grow up and learn to make a living, get married, get a mortgage, raise children, and teach his own children to follow the same responsible path through life. The entire social security net welfare society is based upon this predictable trajectory.
But something happened on the way to a perpetual motion welfare state utopia. College-educated students are going so deeply into debt that they cannot afford to pay back their student loans — much less take out mortgages and raise families. A greater and greater number of them are moving back in with their parents. Less and less money and credit available for mortgages and raising families
Not only are student loans preventing indebted students from moving on with their lives, they have grown to such a size that they are creating a growing drag on the entire US economy.
Students across the country are trapped by their debts and often unable to take advantage of the freedom that a college degree should theoretically afford them.
… Student debt doesn’t just weigh heavily on graduates. Evidence is growing that student loans may be dragging down the overall economy, not just individuals. Think about it this way: if students have significant debts, it means they’re less likely to spend money on other goods and services, and it also means they’re less likely to take out a mortgage on a house. Consumer purchasing is the primary driver of the U.S. economy, and mortgages and auto loans play a huge role as well. __ http://business.time.com/2014/02/26/student-loans-are-ruining-your-life-now-theyre-ruining-the-economy-too/
Overdue Loan Payments Eventually Drag an Economy Down
How much are these over-educated dead-beats driving down the US economy? No one knows, because the people who maintain the numbers don’t want you to know. And the people who should be holding the government’s feet to the fire to keep us informed — the media — are not doing their jobs.
Going to prison voluntarily, on the other hand, does not require taking out loans. And the skill sets that your children can learn in prison will make them better suited for the “survival of the fittest” world after TEOTWAWKI.
Prisons are full of rough men, and so will the world be after TEOTWAWKI — also known as when TSHTF. After TSHTF your children will need to know how to deal with rough men and rough women, and they will need to have many of the same skills that rough men and rough women have.
Live Off the Grid — Tiny House Talk
If you have the skills to separate from government services, you can live free with your mind and your life still yours to do with as you choose.
But few people want to cut all their strings and fly free — particularly if they do not have either enormous assets or unlimited skills from which to draw. Most people do not want to live off the grid in a converted school bus, no matter how luxuriously it may be fitted out, nor are they entirely comfortable with the idea of sending their children to prison for TEOTWAWKI training.
For those more discriminating folk, we are devising the Al Fin Dangerous Child Method of Education and Child Raising. The Dangerous Child has all the benefits and positive skills of a prison term, plus all the useful knowledge and social skills of a broad based university education. But he doesn’t have all those lifelong debilitating (and sometimes deadly) viruses that often hike along with a person who spends too much time in prison or college.
And rather than accumulating a lifetime’s debt, the Dangerous Child masters at least three distinct ways of supporting himself financially, before he celebrates his 18th birthday. If he wanted a mortgage, he could have it, but he is more likely to build his own house — or pay cash for one already built.
So there you see the three choices:
College
Prison
Dangerous Child
It is your choice. Consider carefully, since you will have to live with your decision for a long time.
Note: The above article is labeled “satire.” But if you replace the word “prison” with “a skilled apprenticeship” in the dangerous trades, “a military enlistment,” intense training in firefighting, EMS, or other hard core occupation, you will better understand the underlying intent.
A four year college education is only appropriate for about 15% to 20% of America’s youth. Most youth need to focus on developing skills and competencies in business, entrepreneurship, and the crucial practical areas of modern life.
But if one does go to college in America, where might he get his best “return on investment?”
The best ROI are at public colleges and universities. “They dominate because of their relatively lower costs,” Bardaro said.
Schools that offer education in science, technology, engineering and math — known as STEM studies — also cluster at the top of the ROI list. Their graduates tend to land jobs that pay a lot more than the costs of school.
“Skills that you get in STEM studies are in heavy demand by employers,” Bardaro said.
The top five schools on this year’s list are the State University of New York’s Maritime College, Georgia Tech, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Brigham Young University and Missouri University of Science and Technology.
In percentage terms, their ROIs are 13.2% for SUNY-Maritime, 12.4% for Georgia Tech, Mass. Maritime and BYU, then 12.2% for Missouri University of Science and Technology.
College degrees can be obtained via distance learning, online. One may obtain an education in any number of areas of knowledge, at any age, at any time, from any location — meeting any work or family schedule. There are fewer reasons for wasting one’s time at a bricks and mortar campus, every year that goes by.
The best curriculum for Dangerous Children — and most children in general — is a curriculum that utilises self-directed, self-disciplined teaching. It must include immersion in finance and business, practical hands-on skills from cooking to heavy equipment operations to mechanical skills to the operation of transportation vehicles made for travel on air, sea, ice, snow, and ground.
By the time a Dangerous Child is 16, he already has the equivalent of a liberal arts college degree and multiple certificates of mastery for several practical skills. By the time he is 18, he is fully capable of supporting himself financially at least three different ways. If he wants to go to university for advanced training, he will have a large number of choices to pursue.
Based on the massive amount of remedial training taking place on college campuses today, it is clear that modern society does not take the education of its children seriously — at least not until they are too old to learn at critical depth, effectively. Hence the large crops of academically lobotomised, perpetually adolescent incompetents who naively march forth from college graduations every year, to almost certain disillusionment.
The best education is a Dangerous Education, and that begins before the child is born — and continues until he dies.
Being in Control of Oneself While Being Aware of One’s Surroundings
Avoidance is being aware, understanding the enemy, understanding yourself and understanding your environment. If you are training in a martial art, then avoidance is understanding that art and whether it will stand up to the threat of a real encounter. More than anything, avoidance is having enough control over yourself, your ego, your pride, peer pressure, morality etc. to stop these negative emotions from dragging you into a situation that could otherwise be avoided. __ http://www.aikidoguro.us/fighting/avoidance.html
If you can avoid areas known to be rife with conflicted individuals, that is generally best. Avoid high crime neighborhoods and cities, and gatherings of people where there is a high potential for violent encounters. Even when in relatively “safe areas,” maintain a reasonable level of awareness.
Sometimes it is not possible to entirely avoid conflict. Even so, one should learn how to avoid violence within a conflict situation, if at all possible. When you become aware that a conflict is developing, be prepared to move to a place where you have more control of the situation.
Escape can mean as little as swallowing your pride or controlling your ego, taking your lady by the arm and moving to a place where your company is appreciated. If you are like me, have a little drink at home or go to a nice restaurant thus avoiding the potential all together and stopping you having to look over your shoulder every five minutes to see who is staring at you. If you find this difficult, if for some reason you are stuck in a particular place for the evening and a guy gives you the evil eye, lift your hand up and give the fellow a polite wave. The chances are that he will think that he knows you from somewhere and feel embarrassed that he has stared, he might even wave back. Once you have made the wave do not hold eye contact, this is often seen as a subliminal challenge. __ http://www.aikidoguro.us/fighting/escape.html
When trouble has found you, and it is not possible to move away from it, sometimes one can decompress the situation with the right words and body language. Or, perhaps, one can stall for time while looking for a way out.
When avoidance is gone and escape is no longer possible we are left with verbal dissuasion. Verbal dissuasion means talking the situation down… Therefore, as soon as you are approached in a potentially confrontational situation take up a small forty five degree stance (as illustrated) by moving your right (or left) leg inconspicuously behind you. Simultaneously splay your arms (fence), as though in exclamation, whilst replying with your dialogue. The lead hand is placed between you and the assailant, the reverse hand back, ready to control or attack…
… For the duration of dialogue it is imperative to maintain distance control until you are able to escape, or are forced or strike. If you are forced into an attack situation -this should be an absolute last resort -make it a telling blow to a vulnerable area. Explode into the opponent with every fibre of your being, then run!! __ http://www.aikidoguro.us/fighting/verbal_dissuasion.html
Being aware of your surroundings and avoiding the bad areas is only part of the challenge: You must also know how the bad guys think, and how they go about stalking and attacking their victims.
If you know how the bad guys work it stands to reason that you can avoid him like the plague. These people mainly rely on deception, not so easy now that you know how the blighters work. Avoid at all costs, escape as soon as you see their ritual in play, if that doesn’t work, or the option has been spent .then use verbal dissuasion.
__ http://www.aikidoguro.us/fighting/returning_the_verbal_challenge.html
But in reality, bad guys are not restricted to bad areas. They can stalk deeply into your community and into your neighborhood and even inside your very home.
Dangerous Children are taught to keep a part of their minds awake and ready, even while attending to other things, even in reasonably safe environments. Such readiness allows them to move into a necessary response phase more quickly and automatically.
Competence-Based Confidence Makes Choosing Avoidance Easier
Combat flow training and “attack-proofing” allow trainees to become accustomed to the feel of ongoing physical contact, and helps to move them beyond the sometimes paralytic fear of physical conflict. Mastering such fears should allow a person to more easily choose avoidance, evasion, escape, and verbal dissuasion — even when he might easily put the aggressor down quickly and (perhaps) relatively easily.
Benefits… :
1. You don’t waste training time memorizing a million moves
2. You can improvise any strike to any target when you need it with full power
3. Hit harder at close range without telegraphing or winding up
4. Fight on the ground against multiple attackers without wrestling
5. Develop hyper-balance plus the ability to control your attacker’s balance
6. Develop a liquid body that eludes blows, locks and grappling
7. Feel what your attacker’s doing before he does it
8. Adapt to both changing attacks and changing defenses
9. Train deadly striking and dirty fighting all the time
10. Train defenses against both
There is nothing like getting hit to clear the cobwebs from your nervous system, at least if you have incorporated dynamic contact into your training. By placing improvisation into the middle of your training, you are not as likely to be surprised by less conventional attacks.
Amusing Afternote:
Once there was an app called “Sketch Factor” which was meant to alert newcomers to “sketchy” areas of town that they may wish to avoid. It was based upon user reports, and displayed red bubbles on neighborhood maps where suspected trouble spots existed. After being labeled “racist” ad nauseum, the app died a slow and ignominious death. The new app by the developers is called “Walc.” It is meant as a safe walking guide for cities, to keep walkers from wandering off their intended path.
Clearly there is a need for websites, apps, and services that help to acquaint travelers, visitors, tourists, and newcomers with unfamiliar territory — to keep them out of trouble. Just as clearly, powerful interests in media, the activist community, and the rabble-rousing peanut gallery in general, wish to prevent such useful information from becoming common knowledge — even if innocents suffer as a result. Political correctness and ideological purity are obstacles to living long healthy lives in some situations.
Corrupt influence peddlers and information gatekeepers in government, media, academia, and other cultural institutions want to keep people in the dark just because they can. We’re gonna need a lot more guillotines! 😉
The word “reactive” implies that you don’t have the initiative. You let the events set the agenda. You’re tossed and turned, so to speak, by the tides of life. Each new wave catches you by surprise. Huffing and puffing, you scramble to react to it in order to just stay afloat. __ ActivePause
The default state for most humans is the “reactive state.” Coasting in cruise control, people typically spend time waiting for something to react to. This can be true for the surgeon on call, the soldier on sentry duty, the fighter in the ring, the cop on his beat, or students in a classroom. Waiting, reacting, waiting, reacting . . .
When I started out fighting professionally
, I was a very reactive fighter. I used to get beat up a fair amount in the first round, and then typically come back to win in the later rounds (or, I’d just lose, ha).
So, in a fight, I was reacting more than anything. I’d react to my opponents punches and takedown attempts, then later try and mount my own offense.
I did this because in the back of my mind, I didn’t want to get tired early on, then pretty much be a punching bag in the later rounds due to fatigue. __ Chad Hamzeh
What Chad learned as he progressed in fighting, was that the right kind of proactive exertion in the beginning rounds of a fight can pay dividends toward the middle and the end.
Most “self-defence” training is oriented around reacting to an attack. By honing the reflexes, one can react far more quickly, appropriately, and effectively, than if one does not train his rapid subconscious reactions to unexpected provocations. And there is no getting around the fact that the unexpected happens — life is full of surprises!
On the other hand, taking a broader, more aware, less emotion-laden, and more “proactive” approach to potentially hazardous situations, can deliver results that are closer to optimal.
. . . the image we associate with “proactivity” is one of grace under stress. To stay with the previous analogy, let’s say you’re in choppy waters. Now, you look more at ease. It’s not just that you anticipate the waves. You’re in tune with them. You’re not desperately trying to escape them; you’re dancing with them.
It would be great to dance with the rhythm of life, using the ebb and flow of events as a source of energy. __ Proactive vs. Reactive
This is the essence of Dangerous Child training for dangerous jobs and environments. Not only is the Dangerous Child better prepared for the situation, he is using broader and higher forms of dynamic thinking and moment to moment planning — before things start going sour.
What I call the proactive mindset is the human ability to engage the more evolved neural circuits, and perform a sort of due diligence to improve the quality of the information that we get through the reactive mindset. I am not talking about ignoring our more primitive reactions, far from that. I am talking about building up on these primitive reactions. Instead of reacting impulsively, we use the reactive impulse as a starting point for a more sophisticated process that helps us respond more effectively to a given situation. __ Beyond Reactive
Here is the idea of “proactivity” as described by author Stephen Covey:
Underlying the Habit of Proactivity according to Covey are:
The ability to set goals and work towards achieving them.
Creating opportunities, not waiting for them to come your way
Taking conscious control of your life
Understanding the choice you have in engineering your life
Applying your own personal principles and core values in making decision
Having imagination and creativity to explore possible alternatives
Realizing you have independent will to choose your own unique response.
Do not mistake “proactivity” with a constant wild flailing around merely to have an impact. That is mindless dissipation of resources and potential. Sometimes proactivity takes the form of quiet contemplation and resolution. Sometimes proactivity involves beating the crap out of someone who has long deserved worse. It depends on the circumstances — and having the savvy to know what is best at the time. And, once knowing, then doing.
Proactivity and Reactivity are reflected in both strategy and tactics. The “element of surprise” is often a result of the conversion of proactive strategy into proactive tactics.
We will be looking at proactive tactics and strategy from the standpoint of education, child-rearing, local defence, regional defence, networked defence, politics, innovation, and more, in the future.
The modern bureaucratic mentality — which rules most governments, universities, media, government lobbies, NGOs, and other cultural institutions — is largely reactive in an opportunistic, knee-jerk way. It is important to learn how to anticipate and take advantage of this tendency in most large institutions.
There is no such thing as a fair fight, especially when a small bunch of mice are in conflict with mad herds of rhinoceri. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. It is never too late (or early) to have a Dangerous Childhood.
Staying Alive is a Dynamic, Chaotic Affair: You Must Learn to Flow With the Go
Get Out of the Box!
Just as Neo needed to understand that there is no spoon in the film The Matrix, you need to realize that there is no box to step outside of. Once you start with a box you have already created something in your mind that limits your creativity because the box doesnt really exist…
… the fight is what it is; it is less about what you want to do versus what you have to do. As we always say to students, “as long as it is within the laws of physics and human physiology don’t ever let anyone tell you what you can’t do.”
… from the basic principles one is able to develop a multitude of responses and you are not limited by them but eventually you begin to learn to manipulate them at will. From there, you are, for the most part, only limited by your imagination because there is no box. __ 188 Contact Flow vs. Combat Flow
Developing an instinctive and effective approach to personal combat is only one part of an integrated survival system. But if you do not pass the test of face to face survival when you or your family are attacked, you will not be able to proceed to the other aspects of the survival continuum. To make the best use of your training time, strip the process to the basics, then go crazy (in a figurative sense).
Some essential aspects of defence and survival:
• PHYSICAL Self-defense, weaponry
• EMOTIONAL Mindset, coping tools
• FINANCIAL Investments, holdings, barter
• MEDICAL Self-help, first aid, food, water
• TOOLS
• HOUSING
• COMMUNICATIONS, TRANSPORTATION
Notice that self-defence and weaponry are only the tip of the iceberg. Yes, they are the penetrating tip, the sharp point and edge. But they are only the beginning. Developing the underlying foundation is crucial for motivation, focus, persistence, and impulse control.
Combat flow exercises are designed to train your subconscious reactions, so that you will not have to take the time to think about what you must do to stay alive.
Take what works and drop the tinsel wrapping. You do not have the time to waste on empty ritual or tradition which has nothing to do with the fight at hand. Aikido, for example, is an excellent training method to develop the mind and body for many forms of dynamic combat. But focus on what works, and drop the ritual.
Survival is something that often takes place up close and personal. It is important to get out of the mental straitjacket that unrealistic television and movie portrayals have wrapped around your brain.
Close quarters shooting and self-defence:
Videos are Not Training; Training is Not Fighting
Unless you are in possession of “Matrix-class” virtual reality, you need to partner with other persons to train.
Basic philosophy, applications, drills of flowing combat:
You can fast forward to the training exercises roughly 20 minutes in. Learning to close with the opponent is a key aspect of surviving an inevitable attack.
These exercises are very basic and introductory. The purpose is to develop the right instincts in training, so that in case of a fight you will react effectively, instantly. All videos presented here are mere introductions, meant to suggest different approaches to training you may choose to take.
Importantly, avoiding and evading violent conflict is almost always your best bet — particularly when innocents and loved ones are in the vicinity — and it is possible to move them out of danger.
A well-trained, mentally prepared person’s competence shows in his confident bearing and demeanour. Such a person will be seen as a “hard target” by predators. Persons who project fear, on the other hand, will attract conflict and attack. Likewise, persons who behave in an arrogant and antagonistic manner are magnets for violent and unbalanced persons.
How can you possibly expect someone who has spent most of his or her life in a educational system that discourages risk and critical thinking, and which teaches them to stick with the crowd, to exit college with any meaningful advantage?
Armstrong lives in Yorba Linda, California, with his father Kevin, mother Priscilla and brother Dylan. He likes playing his guitar, soccer, flag football, video games, swimming, laser tag and is a member of the boy scouts.[15]
Children are individuals, unique to themselves. Treating them as lumps of clay to be shaped just as the lords of society wish, is a recipe for disaster — a disaster that has been in the making for decades now.
Assembly line education is simply not working out for young people any longer, and ironically, many of these kids are so ignorant they actually think their problem is that they need even more “education.” In reality, the dumbing down of their minds with indoctrination and a focus on political correctness has made them grossly unprepared for life outside the sheltered cocoon of formal schooling.
… To summarize, our schools are training children to become followers instead of leaders and critical thinkers, and it’s going to take some dedicated parenting to turn things around for future generations.
Death Comes to Us All — The Importance of Careful Attention to Detail
People are living animals, subject to dying. When people — including children — take risks, the odds of death can rise appreciably, depending upon a number of factors. The child pictured below — Tito Traversa — fell to his death at age 12 due to equipment malfunction / inadvertent rigging error. The cause of the accident is analogous to a mistake in parachute packing, or a pilot error in judgement leading to a crash. Such accidents could happen to persons of any age, but are particularly tragic when they involve children and people who are involved in the training of full-spectrum children.
Not all children are born daredevils. Those who are innate risk-takers need to be taught utmost attention to detail, and extreme care in following best procedures to minimise and mitigate inherent risks in their activities. Although we incorporate play into learning of all kinds, life itself is being played for keeps.
Do not push them beyond their ability, but do not hold them back — when the proper training can empower them to expand their competence and skillful autonomy.
The misguided attempt to eliminate all risk from the lives of all children, is the far more salient danger to the future, rather than the disciplined training of Dangerous Children to manage risks.
The Dangerous Child 