Worst case scenarios

[workinwifdakids]

One time I thought, "What would I do if [xyz] happened?" I imagined, plotting it out in my head. Sure enough, the worst happened, and I ended up... well, a couple of people told me I bounded over an 8-foot fence like a kangaroo, barely touching the fence in my leap over.

That happened a couple of more times in the last 10 years or so, where I imagined my reaction to something, the 'something' happened, and it was over... without having registered a conscious thought, I'd completed my planned actions, and didn't even remember doing it. Now, I'm far from any sort of Billy Badass. Like I said in another thread, I've never even been in an adult fistfight. That said, these experiences have convinced me that the key to surviving any of these situations is to have thought about your plan beforehand and committed to action before anything happens.

[TabascoKid]

In keeping with the "defend yourself and not feel bad about it" theme, I offer this gem of a response from a Salon.com advice "expert" to a guy who did protect himself and felt bad about it afterwards (http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2009/08/27/violence/)

He shoved you and you put your hands up but you did not walk away. We take shoving to be a provocation after which one is justified in committing violence. But kids shove. Brothers shove each other. We can shove each other. A shove is nothing. It is just a shove. There is no logical reason why it should lead to violence. It is perhaps technically battery. But the rules and laws around battery and assault, I would argue, are also formed around our the cultural assumptions of a fundamentally violent culture. We all know the dance.

Why could not two men simply have a harmless shoving contest? It would be funny.

Consider what the shove actually says. What the shove says is, I love you and I want to feel the violence of my love for you by having some contact. The shove says, I want some pain inflicted, will you please engage in some mutual infliction of pain? I need some pain. The shoving says, here, look at what I am willing to do: I am offering myself to you, to be beaten. Will you please attack me so I feel whole again? Here, look, I will shove you again. That is my request. The shove says, "I want you. I want you to beat me."

The shove can be ignored as certainly as a telemarketer's phone call can be ignored. The shove is meaningless without the belief system attached to the shove. Yet we refuse to take the extra step to say that nonviolence is possible after a shove.

Fighting is great. Who doesn't want to fight? We all want to fight. Who really wants nonviolence? Nonviolence requires us to renounce what we love. It requires us to actually sacrifice something.

But you proceeded with the reenactment. The narrative of permissible violence states that if words are exchanged and then mild physical contact ensues, a man is justified in using swift, overwhelming violent force to put another man on the ground. If the man then stays on the ground, the play can be concluded. If the man arises from the ground, however, a second round of swift, overwhelming violence is also permitted. After the second round of overwhelming violence, the loser's seconds check him for life-threatening injuries. After that, he may proceed if he requires more pain. But this whole thing is just a dance in which all the parties know the moves.

This is the enactment of a sanctioned superstition. There is no actual harm in one man telling another man that his mother sucked his cock the previous night. It is just an invitation to dance. He might as well say, you know, I really love you and want to be intimate with you by fighting. Will you join me in a fight? Will you please slake my thirst for violence? I am attracted to you; I think it would be a deep, erotic pleasure to be beaten by you. Would you please? May I have this dance of violence?

And so it is on.

[Combat Controller]

Gotta love Salon.com

I am guessing without clicking the link he got his ass beat and deservedly so? Either way, he is waaay over thinking and hoping for humans to change 600,000 years of successful survival traits.

[Aaron]

I was just gonna say, WTF?

Since when is shoving so involved? I haven't shoved anyone since I was in grade school and I can't remember anyone shoving me since the same time period? What's all that intimacy crap?

[Ben Rumson]

Consider what the shove actually says. What the shove says is, I love you and I want to feel the violence of my love for you by having some contact. The shove says, I want some pain inflicted, will you please engage in some mutual infliction of pain? I need some pain. The shoving says, here, look at what I am willing to do: I am offering myself to you, to be beaten. Will you please attack me so I feel whole again? Here, look, I will shove you again. That is my request. The shove says, "I want you. I want you to beat me."

Nothing says Happy Valentines Day more than beating the hell out of your loved one -Hallmark Cards

[Bob K]

Tabasco,

The article you quote is the silliest bunch of claptrap I've read in years. Serious street shit does not involve "shoving."

Please understand I'm the nicest, quietest, most loving guy you'll ever meet.

My wife loves me. My dog and cats love me. Children love me.

But if someone threatens me or mine with violence, and I can overwhelm them, then they are as my chattel property to dispose of as I see fit. No mercy, no sympathy, no compassion. If they're removed from the scene broken, crippled, or dead, well they brought it to me, I didn't bring it to them.

[TabascoKid]

Gotta love Salon.com

I am guessing without clicking the link he got his ass beat and deservedly so? Either way, he is waaay over thinking and hoping for humans to change 600,000 years of successful survival traits.

Actually, the question writer beat the snot out of his attacker. It's the answerer that goes off into Goofyland in his reply.

[Aglifter]

The "shoving" stuff is involved when two frat boys fight -- never understood it myself -- probably better than I went through college visibly larger and stronger than the rest of the student body... (er, well, barring teammates/a few folks I knew...)

[Mike OTDP]

I consider training in unarmed techniques to be essential. If nothing else, you can draw your hands and feet far faster than you can draw any other weapon.

My personal preference is for Okinawan karate in a traditional dojo. Nothing flossy, nothing for movies, nothing for tournament sparring. Just the old-fashioned killing techniques.

[Aaron]

I consider training in unarmed techniques to be essential. If nothing else, you can draw your hands and feet far faster than you can draw any other weapon.

My personal preference is for Okinawan karate in a traditional dojo. Nothing flossy, nothing for movies, nothing for tournament sparring. Just the old-fashioned killing techniques.

I've been doing Jujitsu for years and really started Kempo. Thinking about starting Krav Maga as there's a gym here that does it. As for usefulness, yeah, your natural weapons are always quicker to hand. Not to mention your body is the only thing you can absolutely count on having when you need to fight.