Resistanceless Resistance

Nearly everybody of note (and any number of un-notables) seem to want to bat around the concept of "leaderless resistance" and its pros and cons like a cat at Christmas with a wad of wrapping paper.

Well, spiffy, blogfodder for me, yay, and no muscle strain involved.

Problems?

1) There ain't no leader.
2) There ain't no army.
3) There ain't no Rebel Alliance with an air force and a secret base squirreled away anywhere, or most of us would have run away to join that circus long since.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone reasonably well-informed.
But the deal-breaker is
4) There ain't no Resistance.

Because, there isn't.
There's a trail of people ranging from the mildly amused to the frothingly malcontented who are all opposed to what passes for governance in these here United States. The vast majority can't and won't be gathered into anything larger than what would constitute a big rush at Wal-Mart on a Sunday afternoon.

Most of the few who'd actually show up couldn't pass muster at the recruiter's office, even were they inclined, and many of those because they already did so, and so long ago as to be time out of mind.

And what that leaves is nothing but a mob and a rabble, which is as far from a resistance as amoeba are from apes, even if we assume Darwin got it mostly right.

So, long before we get to a Rebel Alliance trying to reinstate the Old Republic, it would probably be helpful to have some actual rebels.

We aren't going to have those anytime soon, and here's why:

Americans are not "joiners", until push comes to shove comes to somebody starts shooting at somebody else, and then some.

Historical precedents?
The Declaration of Independence languished in Congress for more than a year after Lexington and Concord.
John Brown and his abolitionist fanatics were jeered by the bulk of the nation, not just even, but especially in the north, as a bunch of bomb-throwing lunatics. He was hung in short order without so much as a burp or hiccup from society. Fort Sumter was another matter.
It took Wilson the better part of three years of chivvying and multiple U-boat attacks, and Roosevelt two years, to get the US into separate World Wars, and even FDR had to wait until the Japanese helpfully sneak-attacked us. But the next day, the lines at the recruiters' offices were a mile long.
QED.

So we have a long and strong tradition, and not entirely unreasonable, to wait until someone starts shooting at us before anybody is inclined to reach for the rifles. This separates us from most of Europe, and all of Africa and Central and South America, and it's not really a bad thing.

So forget a leaderless resistance, or a led resistance, until you've first gotten Darth and his Evil Empire to square off against, unless you want to look like the 21st century equivalent of John Brown and his hapless bunch of nutballs. (Of which, even a casual tour of the interwebz will attest, there is currently no shortage. And most of them truthfully are people you wouldn't even speak to in person, and if you had the unfortunate luck to greet, would induce you to bathe afterwards, after securely bolting your doors.)

What does that leave?

Well, 21st century life has left us severely short of stevedores and farm and ranch hands of sturdy build and long hours of physical labor since youth. Which, once again, anyone who's ever run a platoon of recruits would confirm.

So the most important thing anyone can actually do, and which ups the stakes from internet bravado to actual get-off-your-ass commitment, is undertake the same regimen beloved of drill instructors since time immemorial:

> Go do PT.
Not pilates, or yoga, or tofu wrestling and coffee swizzling at the Bean and Bonehead Cafe.
Get off your ass, work on pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups, until you approach and/or exceed military-grade levels of performance (available any number of places online).
Then do at least a Daily Seven (look it up if you're unfamiliar!) of calisthenics as a warm up, and proceed to run, increasing distance and endurance, until you meet or exceed the same levels as the military ground forces expect.

> Get at least a decent rifle (first!) and a decent pistol, and learn to shoot both proficiently.
And not just at paper targets while you stand stock-still at rock-throwing range.

> Start hiking, and up the distance and weight carried, until you can carry say 60# for 20 miles in a day.

Boot camp takes sedentary videogamers and turns them into hardcore military animals by instilling physical fitness, rapid obedience to orders, and practical marksmanship into them, at which point they are barely qualified to begin to learn how to be part of an army, or the equivalent.

If any or all of that is beyond your means, will, or ability, then you've already self-selected yourself out of the pointy end of any resistance anywhere anytime.

Even if you do accomplish it, you may only end up more physically fit, and able to defend yourself from the dregs of society, which is no mean improvement in your status. But it isn't a green beret either. You undertake the preparation in the knowledge that events may transpire such that your further services are never required. O happy day.

And failing to do that means you also flunk the "rapid obedience to orders" component, in this case the order of common sense in making basic preparations, and which skill no one can inspire on the internet unless Jedi mind tricks would also work on you.

Those who attempt this, and have the will but not the ability, have thus selected themselves down from the pointy end, to a lower level of the pyramid, into the ranks of what John Mosby calls on his mountainguerrilla blog, the support or Auxilliary levels.

But if you aren't motivated to do something beyond banging on your keyboards, you're just part of the "chattering class", of which there is no shortage, and frequently little utility once things get sporty.

Less than one person in one hundred (or, probably, a thousand) will make or is making any attempt to achieve even such a basic level of personal preparation as basic physical and martial prowess coupled with the ability to take a hike.

Hence the title of this post, and the observation that the first ingredient for a salad is the unstated necessity to begin by planting a garden.

Go plant that particular Liberty Garden, or shaddup already.