Culture, Community, and Security

Culture and community are more important for security than arms or equipment.

Operation Gothic Serpent, the U.S. military intervention in war torn Somalia from August to October 1993, illustrates this point. The true story, fictionalized in the movie Black Hawk Down, depicts the story of two Delta Force operators, Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart, who volunteered to secure a helicopter crash site and protect the surviving crew. Despite their superior training, weaponry, and equipment, the mob of poorly trained and ill-equipped, yet overtly hostile, Somalis soon overwhelmed the two Tier 1 special forces operators.

Gothic Serpent was a fiasco. Somalia in 1992 was a country that typified Richard Maybury’s concept of Chaostan. Longstanding tribal feuds among people with little or no understanding of the System of Natural Liberty that delivered the economic miracle of the Industrial Revolution, coupled with the failed communism of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre’s twenty-two-year reign, left the country in a state of famine and civil strife.

Yet, the Somali people resented Western interference in their domestic affairs and were offended by foreign troops flying around in helicopters showing off the bottoms of their feet (an insult in Somali culture). Plus, Islamists from all over the regions saw an opportunity to humiliate the Western powers that were, in their view, supporting apostate regimes, occupying Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and helping oppress the people of Palestine. Task Force Ranger and the United Nations missions in Somalia were fiascos. They failed to capture the warlords deemed responsible for the conflict, and humanitarian relief became another source of contention among the domestic factions. The 2024 Fragile States Index lists Somalia as the weakest central government in the world.

The point is that the most capable, well-equipped, and lethal individual will inevitably succumb to the sheer numerical superiority of an antagonistic population. No man is an island unto themselves. Humans are social creatures, and the quality of a one’s life depends wholly upon the people that populate their interactions. This is equally true in terms of love and affection, economic exchanges, and matters of defense and justice.

When looking at what it takes to “secure a free state” as found in the text of the Second Amendment, one must reference Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16 to understand the composition and conduct of well regulated militia. These local governmental institutions, composed of the whole people except the few public officers, must be organized, armed, and disciplined. Only then can We The People effectively execute the law, repel invasions, and suppress insurrections. Notice that organization and discipline, qualitative rather than material descriptors, make up two of the three components of the definition.

Most people are focused on “arms” with regard to the Second Amendment while ignoring the crucial qualitative aspects of the militia that make self-government possible. Indeed, without well regulated militia security in a free state is impossible. Culture counts, and The Way is in training. This is the real, yet currently unrealized, potential of the Second Amendment. It is the key to local self-governance.

Technology and weapon systems can, however, fundamentally alter the incentives for criminality and compliance. Development and acquisition of advanced material resources is always a competitive race between liberty and tyranny. Parasites and predators always seek the path of least resistance. This is why simple efforts at target hardening, such as a flood lamp on a motion sensor or a cactus planted in front of a window, can create real deterrence against burglars. Cryptography and cyber-monies will, in alignment with Davidson and Reese-Mogg’s Sovereign Individual thesis posits, alter the returns on violence and compel a restructuring of the nature of government.

However, without a culture of disciplined people that respect private property and the rule of law, the material things that make life comfortable and enjoyable will inevitably come to ruin. The protection of people and property in a free society remains a challenge that can only be met with cultural attitudes that are best developed through martial training.