Phil Elmore and the Martialist

**afronaut** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 6:39pm

This may have been posted on before, but any searches for his name return no results. So ...

Mr. Elmore has me puzzled. I am a newbie, to MA and to this board, so I will rely on my betters to supply experienced opinions. But have a look at his zine, the Martialist:

http://www.themartialist.com/

Here's what strikes me -- how certain he is. It's always been my experience that people who are deadly certain about anything, especially a lot of things, are doing it because they like the feeling of believing they are experts in stuff. Here are other random concerns:

1) He constantly refers to himself as "publisher (of the Martialist) Phil Elmore". But it's just a zine. Zines are great and all, but "publisher of a zine" means is that you have web space. It's like calling yourself "e-mail account holder Ed Hinesworth." Who cares?

2) He's an Ayn Rand fan. First, this is a problem because usually Randians are people who don't have the sack to own up to their true feelings and join the Klan. Also, Elmore fancies himself a moral philosopher, who says things like this:

Stating plainly that society is full of predators isn't a paranoid assertion, emotional hyperbole, or a marketing ploy. It's a fact. If you can look around and honestly state that you don't believe our society (I am American and speak only about the United States) contains a significant criminal element that preys on our citizens with regularity, you're living in denial. You don't believe the news reports of shootings, stabbings, rapes, burglaries, and robberies that appear every day in the media. You don't believe the tales of your friends, relatives, and fellow citizens who all seem to know someone who's been robbed or assaulted or found themselves in an extremely threatening situation for which they felt unprepared.

Um. ok. Well argued. True because it's a fact. I'll remember that trick.

He also like to use lots of military and legal terms that he gets wrong. Like guys in jail who think that undercover cops have to identify themselves if you ask. He says "Your right to defend your property is absolute." Nope, it's not. Shoot a guy stealing your lawn ornaments if you think so.

3) Fat. Sorry, but he's fat. I'm not in good shape. But I don't give out advice on how to whup ass. Would you trust a track coach with Down's Syndrome? Even Corky? Maybe Corky. But that's it.

4) Gun and weapon obsessed. Also, obessed with pictures of himself looking tough. Look through the articles. Phil with gun. Phil with knife. Phil with stick. Phil hitting stuff. Phil holding a blinking neon sign that says "I'm a bad-ass! Really!"

5) And then there's this, for which words fail me:

As the panhandler approached, my first thought was that I must, at any cost, keep him outside that distance – or else I would have to strike him, as I did not want him approaching me.

You see, every panhandler you meet IS a potential threat to your health and your well-being. Under no circumstances whatsoever should you allow a street person to approach you...

...I pointed at him, bringing my rear hand up in a subtle approximation of the double Wu Sau guard that is the default hand position in Wing Chun Kung Fu.

"Step away," I hissed.

Now, I'm not describing this because I think I'm cool or because I think I have the ability to put the Fear of Phil into random strangers. I was simply enraged and I spat at this beggar with a hostility I did not realize I possessed. I reacted instinctively – but my instincts were, in this case, developed by training that simply took over under stress.

Golf clap? Golf clap. (lightly claps.)

**tkdan28** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 6:54pm

What's your point?

**Don Gwinn** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:03pm

2)

usually Randians are people who don't have the sack to own up to their true feelings and join the Klan

I've never noticed that. What is the connection between those two things (Randian philosophy and racism?)

4) Most people would call the members of this website violence-obsessed knuckle-draggers, too. He likes knives and guns. He's not alone in that, you know. I like guns myself, and I've been known to forge a knife or two.
The earliest tool we've discovered so far that was decorated--i.e., made prettier than it needed to be to function--was a knife. The fascination with the knife literally goes back thousands and thousands of years. Take a man from the Paleolithic Era and sit him down at a table with a knife, a television, and a PalmPilot. He'll pick up the knife, and he'll know what to do with it even if it is the latest thing to come out of Chris Reeve's head and made of unobtainium.

Also, as you noted, he's the "publisher" and apparently the staff as well. If not pictures of him, then pictures of whom?

The rest of your observations are correct. I know that's true because it's a fact.

**Wounded Ronin** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:08pm

I always thought that Phil's essay on the homeless man was tragically humorous. He, like, used kung fu to menace a panhandler who begged him for some change.

Let me say that again, and with more detail, for emphasis.

A gun-obsessed fat man used kung fu to menace a panhandler who begged him for some change.

In any case, here is a Phil Elmore radio interview: http://www.kellyworden.com/home/medi...-9-11-2004.asx

**Reikon** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:08pm

Reikon thinks anyone who refers to theirself in the third person while describing theirself has some big fucking issues.

**afronaut** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:10pm

My point is that it's Bullshido. He's spent a lot of time polishing it, and infusing it with nice sounding words and not the "end any fight in five seconds" hucksterism of some, but it's still Bullshido.

Aren't we supposed to post examples of Bullshido to this thread?

**afronaut** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:26pm

I always got the impression that Randians hated welfare, gun control and such because they resent black and hispanic people, not because they are particularly principled.

**Dochter** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:36pm

Originally Posted by afronaut

I always got the impression that Randians hated welfare, gun control and such because they resent black and hispanic people, not because they are particularly principled.

Please stay and post more.

**Reikon** · Posted On: 10/18/2004 7:49pm

I'm too lazy to read up on crap..Anyone wanna gimme a quick summary of this randian stuff..

**Kungfoolss** · Posted On: 10/19/2004 2:03am

Originally Posted by afronaut

This may have been posted on before, but any searches for his name return no results. So ...

3) Fat. Sorry, but he's fat. I'm not in good shape. But I don't give out advice on how to whup ass. Would you trust a track coach with Down's Syndrome? Even Corky? Maybe Corky. But that's it.

Seeing how phil's a personal fan of mine, I agree he's a Cartman. And even though he may be chunky, I'll bet he kicks the ass out of a quart of haagen-dazs.