"Kratophobia"

By Matt Larsen:

Kratophobe – A person who claims to be a warrior and yet has an irrational fear of realistic hand-to-hand combat training.



Etymology, from the Greek kratos meaning strength, might or power. As in the name of the ancient Olympic sport of pankration which means competition with all powers (No holds barred) and the Greek word phobia meaning irrational fear.

In a recent conversation about people who are afraid of Combatives. I was reminded of the word "Hoplophobe" coined by COL Jeff Cooper to refer to people who have an irrational fear of guns. The root word is hoplos, as in hoplite, which means arms in Greek. COL Cooper said it this way:

I coined the term "hoplophobia" in 1962 in response to a perceived need for a word to describe a mental aberration consisting of an unreasoning terror of gadgetry, specifically, weapons. The most common manifestation of hoplophobia is the idea that instruments possess a will of their own, apart from that of their user. This is not a reasoned position, but when you point this out to a hoplophobe he is not impressed because his is an unreasonable position.

In a similar fashion, I perceive a need for a word to describe people who claim to be warriors and yet have a mental aberration consisting of an unreasoning terror of learning how to win fights or physically dominate enemies. Since it is not a reasonable position that warriors do not need to be proficient fighters a kratophobe when confronted by the reality of preparing for conflict will make excuses or simply give lip service and then never show up to training. The most common manifestation of kratophobia is an over reliance on weapons to handle every tactical situation often expressed as “I would just shoot you.”

-ML

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