Respecting The Enemy

© COPYRIGHT 2010 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – April 2010 Issue

[Reprinted With Permission]

American Combato
Seattle Combatives


NO bully, troublemaker, or felonious predator of any kind deserves to be respected as a human being. Having chosen to exist as a threat to others and as a tormentor of the innocent, such predators should be relegated to the status of harmful bacteria; bacteria whose destruction and elimination deserves the prioritization of all who are concerned with and who care about the maintenance of proper civilization and human existence.

We would never dream of insulting our readers (or our self!) by positing the suggestion that those who prey upon others deserve any consideration beyond that which a physician might afford the polio virus.


We begin with the sentiment above so that no one misunderstands what we mean when we say that a critical prerequisite for being able to defend against violent predators and related forms of scum, is the acquisition of a healthy respect for this filth, and for the potential harm that it is capable of inflicting upon human beings.

We often hear violent types referred to by martial arts teachers as being "stupid", or as being "throwbacks", etc. Implied in the tone and in the descriptions used when referencing this garbage is the idea that so long as one has been trained in the martial arts, one need not concern oneself with the matter of being able to cope with them.

This is a dangerous attitude, indeed.

Violent types are often cunning, street-smart, highly experienced in the ways of violence and predation, and — what is most important — these monsters are willing to do serious harm to others with little or no provocation, most often simply to enjoy their sick “pleasures”, and to get whatever they want, regardless of how badly they injure those from whom they take it. Killing people is, for many violent types, just part of their “game”.

A human being who is worthy of the designation adheres to two fundamental principles in dealing with members of his species:

1. HE DOES NOT EVER INITIATE PHYSICAL FORCE, EXCEPT IN SELF-DEFENSE OR IN THE PROTECTION OF OTHERS WHO ARE BEING SUBJECTED TO PHYSICAL VIOLATION,

and

2. HE DOES NOT DEFRAUD OTHERS, BUT DEALS WITH THEM IN AN HONEST, STRAIGHTFORWARD MANNER — UNTIL OR UNLESS HE FINDS HIMSELF OBLIGED TO DEAL WITH UNSCRUPULOUS OR TREACHEROUS PEOPLE.

Simple principles that make for fair, straightforward, aboveboard, civilized interactions in which no one is taken unfair advantage of, and whereby no one is mistreated or violated.

People who subscribe to those principles are, as human beings per se, deserving of respect. The freak/monster/misfit/savage/garbage percentage of scum who refuse to recognize or to subscribe to those simple tenets of proper, civilized human behavior are — also, but for a very different reason — deserving of respect; respect of a different kind.

Just as one must respect the rattlesnake‘s potential for suddenly doing terrible harm while obviously and at the same time having no respect for the creature‘s mental capacity, or for its "value" as anything resembling a productive member of the human community, so one must respect the homo sapien predator as possessing the capacity to do harm, while also frankly acknowledging that its worth as an actual human human being is nil, and that it (IT, please note; not "he") merits not the slightest degree os respect as a person.

Do not train with the idea that you may safely dismiss with total contempt and unconcern the threat that the predators you are training to defend yourself against actually pose. Unless you condition yourself to have a realistic and ever-present respect for the serious danger that encounters with these bacteria inevitably bring, you are living — and training — in a fool's paradise.

In the real world the good guy does not always win. And unfortunately, too many good guys, by virtue of their smug assurance that their enemies are all buffoons, literally block themselves off from acquiring and maintaining the careful respect for those enemies that is the precondition for defending successfully against them.

Once a man appreciates and respects the potential danger that a rattler poses, he increases his caution whenever out and about, so as to avoid insofar as possible, encounters with these snakes.

His respect also prompts a man to arm properly whenever the possibility of encountering a rattler exists.

What is more, his respect for the gravity of that which the rattler might do to him, makes a man absolutely willing and set to USE his weapon, and to use it unhesitatingly should he find himself confronted by a rattler.

With no intention of suggesting that violent predators possess the dignity or the stature that rattlesnakes possess, we submit that in precisely the same way that respect for the rattler prepares a man thoroughly to deal with the rattler if and when he encounters one, respect for the predatory felon prepares a man to realistically and well to deal with him, should he ever be so unfortunate as to find himself needing to do so.

Respect the enemy. That prepares you to destroy him!