Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

CANDANeh »

Putting up your dukes and agreeing to fight has no place in a self-defense repertoire.

I once agreed to "step outside" with a very persistent intoxicated a@s who was interfering with my date.

Told him I would meet him out in the parking lot. Paid the bouncer a substantial tip not to let him back in Being young I saved face (the doorman was the only one in the know and kept me posted).

Eventually we left the bar in a group and I was in full "condition red". Cost me about the price of the shirt I would had to replace by "stepping out"...or worse.

Thankfully that night my intelligence managed to somehow slip past my emotions.

Learn from nature. No healthy animal will choose to engage in a violent conflict unless there is no other option and the reason for engagement is survival of the pack or themselves.

Why is it that humans voluntarily engage in violent acts with very few of the situations being for reasons of survival? My guess is that our emotions are not in communication with our intelligence.

We do not teach our children about violence, zero tolerance in schools isolates them from what I think is a natural learning process (puppies not learning the boundaries of play-fighting). However, video games train them to be in control of creating very real simulations of violent acts.Acts of violence they control with no real purpose of engagement. What a "dumb species" we can be.

Léo

[Van Canna]

All good points, Leo, and a smart move on your part to avoid an ugly confrontation in the 'parking lot' …

As to the why of men 'going to violence' …the psychology behind it is very complex indeed.

But I think that probably the biggest reason is 'MAN'S PRIDE' if you will.

Also if you are insulted, it is extremely difficult to 'let it go' without feeling demeaned in a myriad of ways.

We have to look at the problem of 'self image'

Face saving (or saving face) refers to maintaining a good self image. People who are involved in a conflict and secretly know they are wrong will often not admit that they are wrong because they don’t want to admit they made a mistake. They therefore continue the conflict, just to avoid the embarrassment of looking bad.


Imagine the great number of ways our self image can take a beating…something that stays with us longer than any physical damage we may have suffered had we chosen to engage.

The 'monkey dance' as Rory describes it in his books.

Then we take up martial arts and become 'men of respect' …..And things get worse….you would think not….

but if someone says to you 'Shut the f!@# up or I'll beat your ass' _ the 'man of respect' inside of you, now with a high Dan rank…won't let you do it…and in you are up to your ass in consequences that later you will regret not having avoided at all cost.

The people, who might have thought you were afraid, or so you thought they thought, will long have forgotten about you…while you will be stuck with the consequences forever.

Tough questions, Leo

[Van Canna]

But Leo's question is a pointed one[Why is it that humans voluntarily engage in violent acts with very few of the situations being for reasons of survival?[/quote]

The following uses the example of road rage events, but I think it applies to all human interactions.

The ass-holes of the road

The so-called "reasons" for disputes are actually triggers. In most human behavior there is a stated and unstated, or conscious and unconscious, motivation. The motivation for traffic disputes is no exception. While the event that sparks the incident may be trivial, in every case there exists some reservoir of anger, hostility, or frustration that is released by the triggering incident.


The triggers are varied and in many cases 'subliminal' _ making just about anyone potentially extremely dangerous.

Take a look at these 'reasons'
Mizell & Company analyzed the "reasons" given for violent disputes and collected the following list. Each of the reasons listed is associated with at least 25 incidents that resulted in death or injury:

"It was an argument over a parking space..."

"He cut me off"

"She wouldn't let me pass"

A driver was shot to death "because he hit my car"

"Nobody gives me the finger..."

A shooting occurred "because one motorist was playing the radio too loud."

"The bastard kept honking and honking his horn..."

"He/she was driving too slowly"

"He wouldn't turn off his high beams"

"They kept tailgating me..."

A driver was chased down and shot to death after fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run following a minor collision

A fatal crash occurred because another driver kept "braking and accelerating, braking and speeding up."

"She kept crossing lanes without signaling -- maybe I overreacted but it taught her a lesson."

"I never would have shot him if he hadn't rear-ended me"

"Every time the light turned green he just sat there -- I sat through three different green lights."

A fatal dispute erupted over which car had the right of way.

A driver accused of murder said "He couldn't care less about the rest of us -- he just kept blocking traffic."

A driver charged with attempted murder said, "He practically ran me off the road -- what was I supposed to do?"

And a teenager charged with murdering a passenger in another vehicle said simply, "We was dissed."

There are many other stated reasons for violent traffic disputes. In one case, for example, a man was attacked because he couldn't turn off the anti-theft alarm on his rented jeep.

Dozens of violent aggressive driving incidents have occurred because the occupants of one vehicle "dissed" or disrespected the occupants of a second vehicle.

[Van Canna]

The most important facet of training for self defense is to first project and evaluate the likely trigger situations, the where/when/and whom/and the types of attacks we are likely to face.


Where is the violence mostly apt to originate from?

Let's again take a look at road rage incidents, a very common source of violent attacks.

Weapons Used by Aggressive Drivers

In approximately 4,400 of the 10,037 known aggressive driving incidents, the perpetrator used a firearm, knife, club, fist, feet or other standard weapon for the attack.

In approximately 2,300 cases the aggressive driver used an even more powerful weapon -- his or her own vehicle.

And in approximately 1,250 cases the aggressive driver used his or her own vehicle and a standard weapon like a gun, knife, or club. No information was available for 1,087 of the cases reviewed.

Without question the most popular weapons used by aggressive drivers are firearms and motor vehicles. In 37 percent of the cases a firearm was used; in 35 percent the weapon was the vehicle itself.

Other weapons used by aggressive drivers have included the following, in order of their frequency:

¥ Fists and feet: In hundreds of cases hostile drivers have used their fists and feet to express their displeasure with other motorists.

¥ Tire irons and jack handles are frequently used as weapons, probably because they are readily accessible in most vehicles.

¥ Baseball bats: Mizell and Company recorded over 160 cases in which baseball bats were used to settle traffic disputes.

There are, of course, thousands of cases in which baseball bats have been used as weapons in other situations, such as gang fights or street.

[Van Canna]

we will all do the most foolish things from the emotional high jack and then we will wonder why we are in the morgue.

Celebrities are not immune: In California, Oscar winner Jack Nicholson believed that the driver of a Mercedes-Benz cut him off in traffic. The 57-year-old actor grabbed a golf club, stepped out of his car at a red light, and repeatedly struck the windshield and roof of the Mercedes.

Go figure.

[Van Canna]

If a person is enraged, irrational, and impulsive enough to kill one person, he or she may also be irrational, impulsive, and crazy enough to kill many people, depending on the circumstances.

How and what do we practice to deal with this? You will never know when your time is up....every time you step out the door...this monster lurks.

[Van Canna]

There are thousands of mentally and emotionally disturbed individuals on the highway. Charged with anger, fear, and personal frustration, and often impaired by alcohol or other drugs, motorists in all 50 states have murdered and maimed other motorists for seemingly trivial reasons.

¥ Without exaggeration, millions of motorists are armed with firearms, knives, clubs, and other weapons. There are more than 200 million firearms in circulation in the United States, and many motorists are carrying guns.

It is also important to remember that every driver on the highway is armed with a weapon more deadly and dangerous than any firearm: a motor vehicle.

¥ Anyone can become an aggressive driver! People who have maimed and murdered motorists during traffic disputes have been old and young, males and females, rich and poor, well dressed and poorly dressed.

They have been white, black, Asian, and Hispanic. Do not underestimate the potential for violence in any driver.

[Van Canna]

There are thousands of mentally and emotionally disturbed individuals on the highway. Charged with anger, fear, and personal frustration, and often impaired by alcohol or other drugs

These same people must at some point get out of their cars and ambulate amongst us in public places etc.

They are all reps. of the 'great unwashed' masses ...just take a look at the photos of the people who invaded the Capitol building...those are what we are up against every day of our lives.

[Van Canna]

Studies of animal behavior have shown how rats and various primates can respond aggressively in response to overcrowding. It is reasonable to suggest that humans respond in a comparable manner.

Human beings are territorial. As individuals we have a personal space, or territory, which evolved essentially as a defense mechanism -- anyone who invades this territory is potentially an aggressor and the time it takes the aggressor to cross this territory enables the defender to prepare to fend off or avoid the attack.

This may extend no further than a matter of a few feet or less. We may be prepared to reduce the size of this territory according to the available space (e.g. on a crowded subway train) but this can cause tension.

In most cases if the territory is "invaded," if someone stands too close, our social education tends to result in defensive body language rather than physical aggression.

[Van Canna]

Ever been 'chased' by a tailgater, inches from your bumper...or have you done this yourself?
In some circumstances, the defending driver may wish to go one step further and assert his dominance.

Many drivers admit to having chased after a driver to "teach him a lesson," often pressing him by moving to within inches of his rear bumper.

This is comparable to the manner in which a defending animal will chase an attacker out of its territory.

However, the result of such behavior in drivers is, of course, potentially fatal.

[Van Canna]

Psychological Mechanisms of Aggression and Rage

It may be useful in addressing this point to revert to wider analyses of aggression. In many animals aggression is undoubtedly a basic biological response -- an evolutionary drive which helps to ensure a species' survival.

In humans, however, it is still unclear to what extent a firm biological basis for aggression can be assumed, as opposed to being a learned response developed through imitation of others and reinforced by the experience of its results.

This lack of clarity is based on numerous experiments; if a certain area of the brain, the hypothalamus, is artificially stimulated in certain animals, aggressively violent behavior is normally instigated.

This is not the case for humans, however, suggesting that social factors may be more influential in human aggression.