© COPYRIGHT 2010 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – May 2010 Issue
[Reprinted With Permission]
American Combato
Seattle Combatives
WHILE it is unlikely that too many individuals would disagree that violent predators are different in their orientations and lifestyles than the decent human beings who unfortunately find themselves obliged to deal with them, many self-defense and weaponry teachers fail to appreciate exactly what the advantages are that these monsters possess, and precisely why they are — in the relatively small numbers that they exist — so formidable as adversaries in today’s society.
We suggest that understanding this is an important matter for both teachers and students of all aspects of self-defense.
Some insist that violent offenders are all psychopaths, and dismiss them as being a threat because they "have no conscience". In some instances this is true. However, some will be surprised to learn that many violent predators are not psychopaths. Many psychopaths are not in fact dangerous in a violent way. And while it is true that a lack of conscience is one aspect of the psychopathic syndrome, it is also true that the style of conscienceless predation that true psychopaths practice is more often than not of an economic and psychological style. They manipulate, steal from, use, and exploit people without mercy and without limit — but they do not always physically attack them.
Some psychopaths are deadly dangerous. But not all. Thus, the psychopath’s absence of a conscience does not and cannot universally explain why violent offenders possess such an advantage (most often) over their victims.
Some point to the toughness of violent offenders. "They grow up on the street. They are used to fighting. They reach puberty with the experience of more physical violence in their past than most seasoned street cops possess after patrolling some of America’s most dangerous urban areas for 20 years."
In some cases that is true. However, if we look, for example, at the freaks who followed Charles Manson and committed atrocious murders under his direction, we find backgrounds, among others, as choir boy possessed by one of the killers amongst the Manson scum. And then look at Manson, himself! A small, puny little mentally aberrant misfit-nut who probably never was in any physical fight (certainly none that he ever won!) in his entire, miserable life. He encouraged others to kill, but he himself was nothing resembling a physical killer or fighter.
Ted Bundy (who was a psychopath) had no background of physical violence and fighting. He did pursue Satan’s calling (i.e. the practice of law), but he was not in his early or even later years a physically experienced street fighter. He was ferociously violent, to be sure; but you will find no history of back alley slug fests if you explore Ted Bundy’s upbringing. He targeted victims whom he overcame by subterfuge and the element of surprise, which enabled him to use violence against them effectively — as, sadly, he did.
Our studies, which span nearly 50 years, indicate to us that violent offenders come in all forms: psychopaths, psychotics, normal neurotics, and statistically otherwise "normal" people who simply possess poor impulse control. There is not the slightest excuse or justification for ANY form of violent offense, please note. Thus we are simply making an observation about what “types” of people perpetrate unjustifiable violence against their fellows; we are certainly not in any sense attempting to be an apologist for these troublemakers.
We believe that the psychological advantages possessed by a violent offender over his victim may be summarized as:
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS ENJOY HURTING, TORMENTING, ABUSING, TERRORIZING, AND — SOMETIMES — EVEN KILLING THEIR VICTIMS
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS (NO MATTER WHAT THEIR PROTESTATIONS AFTER HAVING BEEN APPREHENDED FOR THEIR CRIME[S] AND BEING CALLED TO ACCOUNT FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR) DO NOT CARE ONE BIT ABOUT OTHERS’ WELL BEING, OR OTHERS’ RIGHTS, PROPERTY, PERSON, DIGNITY, ETC. VIOLENT TYPES ARE SELF-CENTERED IN THE EXTREME
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS FEEL AND BELIEVE (INSIDE THEIR OWN HEADS — NOT NECESSARILY EXPRESSED TO OTHERS) THAT, WHEN THEY TAKE THE ACTIONS THAT THEY TAKE TO HARM THEIR VICTIMS, THEY ARE GOING TO “ENJOY” THE THRILL OF “GETTING AWAY WITH IT” — AND IN GETTING AWAY WITH IT, THEY HAVE NOT, IN THEIR HEADS, DONE ANYTHING PARTICULARLY “WRONG”.
If the above sounds crazy or incomprehensible to you, then that’s probably because you are not (and have never been) a physical troublemaker, bully, violent criminal, or egotistical scumbag.
Assuming that you have digested the points thus far given, let us now point out the physical and tactical advantages possessed by the violent offender:
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS DO NOT HESITATE TO ACT IN A DESTRUCTIVE, MURDEROUS MANNER, THE MOMENT THEY DECIDE THAT THEY WISH TO ATTACK ANYONE. THEIR DESIRE TO INJURE AND TO HARM REMOVES, AS IT WERE, ALL ELEMENTS OF DOUBT, OR BLOCKS TO WHATEVER DEGREE OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE THEY FEEL LIKE UNLEASHING
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS SEE THEIR VICTIMS AS TARGETS — OR AS “OBJECTS” — MERELY THERE AS A MEANS ENABLING THEM TO GRATIFY THEIR DESIRE TO DO HARM, NOT AS “HUMAN BEINGS, TOO” WHO DO NOT DESERVE TO BE MAIMED, TORTURED, OR KILLED. THUS VIOLENT OFFENDERS WILL DO ANYTHING THEY FEEL LIKE DOING AT THE TIME TO THEIR VICTIMS
• VIOLENT OFFENDERS — DESPITE THE FACT THAT NOT ALL OF THEM EVIDENCE THIS IN ALL OF THEIR PERSONAL DEALINGS AT OTHER TIMES, AND WITH OTHER PEOPLE — DO NOT ACTUALLY BELIEVE OR CONSIDER THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING WHEN THEY INJURE OR KILL IS PER SE “WRONG”. RATHER, IT IS JUSTIFIED (TO THEMSELVES) BECAUSE THEY “FEEL LIKE DOING IT” AND BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT THEY WILL GET AWAY WITH IT, AND NEVER BE HELD TO ACCOUNT FOR THEIR EVIL (SO “ONLY THEY WILL KNOW” THAT WHICH THEY DID). THUS VIOLENT OFFENDERS ARE REMORSELESS AND UNRESTRAINED WHEN THEY ACT. STABBING, SHOOTING, STOMPING HELPLESS PEOPLE IS PAR FOR THEIR COURSE.
Twisted stuff? You bet. Welcome to the real world. Our species has never been a very impressive phenomenon during its history on this planet. Every epoch, nation, culture, and time in human history has been polluted by a disgraceful potpourri of despicable conduct unleashed by some "people" against others.
The situation will not change, simply because people will not change. The worst of our species (which is no small number) are either career predators, or have not the slightest compunction about “part-time” predation, when and where the impulse hits them!
Violent offenders do possess advantages over most of their victims — because of their psychological and physical/tactical willingness and readiness to do harm.
Now let’s look at how decent people — like YOU — can overcome their advantages and, when necessary, defeat and destroy them. There’s no "nice" or "pleasant" or "refined" or "sanitized" or "artsy" way to accomplish this. However, if you are willing to join the real world and accept that which reality demands of you in order to to accomplish the necessary goal of victory over predatory scum, YOU CAN DO IT.
First, drop all thoughts of violent types being "human" or being "people, too", and of them deserving anything less than the most merciless, viciously ferocious treatment imaginable, when they undertake to attack their intended victims.
The trend here in America began back in the 1960’s (that civilization-destroying "love" or "hippie" era) to begin thinking, not in terms of right and wrong, or good and evil, but in terms of GRAY. People were enjoined not to condemn those who did evil, and not to reward and praise those who did good; but rather to "see the good in everyone and to realize that no one is completely good or evil".
Unjustifiable violence directed against the innocent is EVIL — plain and simple. The initiation of violence is an extreme and very dangerous form of human wrongdoing and, as such, cannot and should not be dismissed simply because there may "be some good in the violent person". Possibly so. But when the violent individual proceeds to physically violate an innocent individual, whatever “good” may be said to be part of his character ceases — for the time being — to be at all relevant. The victim of such a monster has, and ought to be expected to have, not the slightest concern for ANYTHING about his tormentor, save taking whatever action may be necessary to stop him.
Get this straight in your own mind: Anyone who undertakes unjustifiable violence against you is not a “human being”; he is a TARGET — AN OUT OF CONTROL WILD ANIMAL — THAT MUST BE DESTROYED, THE SOONER, THE BETTER.
Second, and this is extremely important and relevant for the so-called "martial arts" student or teacher, today: EXCISE FROM YOUR THINKING FOREVER THE “SPORTING” OR “COMPETITIVE” VIEW OF PHYSICAL COMBAT. Fighting sports have nothing to do with physical encounters in which a person must defend himself. And while it is sometimes true that those who participate seriously and regularly in match fighting and other competition events may be able to apply that which they do in an emergency, their competitive skills are only coincidentally related to that which is required in close combat. And self-defense is CLOSE COMBAT, make no mistake about this, and do not permit yourself to water the concept down! Remember that human predators enjoy tormenting and damaging their victims. They are not “sportsmen”. Sporting techniques (ie skills that win matches and contests) are not the right ones to train in for hand-to-hand combat and self-protection.
You must acquire the WAR VIEW of self-defense. That is: The individual or individuals who attack you have initiated war against you. And just like a nation that has been attacked and that finds itself obliged to rally its people and its resources, and retaliate by going to war against the attacking foe, and ultimately destroy that foe, so you too must "go to war" when attacked. Abandon thoughts of fair play, ethics, considerations of mercy, forbearance, or what-have-you. YOU MUST WIN! And to win in real combat you must be meaner, tougher, more aggressive, more ruthless, and more relentlessly merciless than your attacker.
There is more than a technical danger in pursuing sport-oriented and competition modes of martial art if your purpose is self-defense (or, if in the military, hand-to-hand combat). There is the psychological danger that you will actually come to see and to feel man-to-man battle to be some kind of a "contest" — a contest in the sporting sense. That is: you are not driven to DESTROY the attacker, but merely to "defeat" him. This is the proper attitude that all good competitors must adopt, and it is quite appropriate when in a sporting contest; but it is suicidal in a real attack. Remember what the attacker's mindset is! He wants to injure you — perhaps to kill you. He takes pleasure in this. He sees you as "game"; almost exactly as a hunter sees the animal that he is stalking in the wilds; to be killed and consumed. He does not take a sporting or recreational view of the encounter in which he intends to maim, cripple, torture, or kill you.
Third, stop wasting training time on acrobatics, competition skills, or classical/traditional "art". Get the real deal, and get going! You want simple, basic, destructive, reliable maiming and — when and if legally and morally justifiable — killing skills. Home invasions, muggings, gang attacks, rapes, kidnappings, carjackings, and other acts of horrific, terroristic violence cannot be dealt with by resorting to anything less than utterly reliable combat techniques. Do not give the monster who endangers your life and well being the benefit of attempting to employ skills against him that fail to place his life and well being in immediate, serious jeopardy!
Police officers and security guards may have need for controlling and restraining skills. That’s fine. But private citizens have only two responsibilities, and neither one entails "arresting" others:
1. Never start trouble or agree to fight with anyone. Always strive to the outside limit of your capability to avoid trouble.
2. Defend yourself (or whoever you may be with, who depends upon you for protection) if no other option is left to you but to act against an aggressor.
It is ridiculous to practice restraining and submission techniques (all intended for sport and possibly adaptable to law enforcement needs, under less than extreme circumstances) if you wish to be able to stop a real world attacker.
Drill, and drill, and drill, and drill some more in ferocious and destructive wartime skills, if you want to possess a reliable system of self-protection. Open hand blows; low kicks; biting; eye gouging and clawing; elbow and knee smashing; head butting; simple and vicious counterattacking moves that are fluid, flexible, and adaptable to numerous predicaments; a couple of destructive throws or takedowns, lots of combinations of followup attacking actions that devastate an assailant, etc.
Fourth, cultivate REAL WORLD TACTICAL SKILLS. Forget about "squaring off", getting into a "fighting stance", etc. Master dirty and foul tactics. Take the enemy by surprise. Be deceitful, deceptive, and mercilessly vicious when you take the opponent off guard. Use anything at hand to assist your defense! Go right for the jugular! That is, do not tippy-toe into a gradual escalation of force. EXPLODE ALL OVER THE ATTACKER AND GET HIS EYES, HIS THROAT, OR BREAK HIS KNEE OR CRUSH HIS STERNUM! Move in! Keep on attacking! Press the offensive and never allow your would-be tormentor to get set or to recover!
Remember: There is no round two, and you’re not going to have a rematch! Get that extralegal violator RIGHT NOW!
Extreme, remorseless, relentless, unyielding, viciously destructive, and fierce OFFENSE wins. Take the war to the enemy! Get him! He asked for it. He started it. YOUR LIFE AND YOUR WELL BEING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS.
There are no time clocks, referees, limitations on how many may attack a single defender, weight classes, rules regarding weapons, prohibitions against attacks from behind, safe mats or cleared, polished wooden floors in a real attack. No "appointment" is made for a mugging or home invasion, or kidnapping, or beating, or rape. or for any emergency. When the critical moment comes it will be unanticipated, and everything will be at stake.
A realistic assessment of the facts indicates that, in certain ways, violent offenders usually have certain advantages — even when attacking "martial arts trained people" (some might say, "especially when attacking martial arts trained people"!). Let’s change that, shall we?
Stack the deck in your favor. The world does not need human predators. Life is arduous and demanding enough without having to worry about our own species preying upon us. Turn this around. Follow the steps and suggestions that we have given you, and YOU, not the predatory filth that attacks you, will have the critical advantage in a real world self-defense emergency.
NOTE: THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ARTICLES ON OUR OTHER SITE, WWW.SEATTLECOMBATIVES.COM THAT WILL ASSIST YOU IN UNDERSTANDING AND CULTIVATING THE ATTITUDE AND TACTICAL ORIENTATION — AS WELL AS THE TECHNIQUES — THAT YOU NEED!
Bradley J. Steiner
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