Via a post on TPI, comes this rather interesting summation of a talk.
It speaks to the need to understand the mindset of ones adversary, and from this, to understand his strategy and tactics, and how to interrupt them. This is nothing new. Writers on strategy from Sun Tzu, to Boyd to Von Clausewitz have advised this. However, what this talk does differently, and where this relates to my semi-nascent concept of Safeism, is that we have to understand the goals of our opponent. What it is that motivates him.
For most martial artists, training for the gym or the ring, this is simple. The opponent wants to do to you as you to him - score points, get the technique on, look good and impress sensei or maestro. This is all well and good, but a different context to that of the VCA (Violent Criminal Actor) as Gochenour calls them. He likens the attacker to a predator, noting that crocodiles gather at the points where othe animals come to drink. This concept of predator is the first step to understanding the goals of the attacker.
One of the exercises I encourage those that attend my seminars, is to role-play being a bad guy. As you go about your daily life think about how you would mug those around you, how you would get that girl alone to assault her, how you would start a fight with that guy. By considering this one comes to a greater understanding of the motivations of the attacker. Leaving aside the deeper societal motivations that leads to this behaviour (I care deeply about social justice, but not when faced with an individual or group seeking to do me or mine harm), it does show that the predator analogy is simplistic. An attacker has concerns about being caught and has needs that transcend the purely material or sexual. The need to dominate, to exert will over another is a prime example of this, and a significant motivator for many crimes. By understanding this, and by playing to it we can gain an advantage. By acting cowed, for example, we can gain initiative - what Fairbairn would call Artifice.
As with most things understanding is the key to success, and by putting oneself in the mind of another we can better judge how to deal with them.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Just caught a glance at this; very similar stuff talked about by a character called Marc “Animal” MacYoung. He has a nice page - amongst others - called Robbery Avoidance. Avoid the stairwells, keep a 5 foot buffer and so on. Worth a glance.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Thanks for this Steve. MacYoung’s site is not bad, although I dislike his hyperbolic approach and some of his war stories are a little silly. That said his advice there is correct. He is absolutely correct that basic avoidance can solve the majority of problems. As Jeff Cooper, another US Self Protection author, said: if you avoid going to stupid places with stupid people and doing stupid things then you should be OK.