Making The Case For Violence As Your Ultimate Survival Tool
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Politics > Current Events
Dec 6, 2007
thl144
Making The Case For Violence As Your Ultimate Survival Tool
Since the events of 9/11 we have been bombarded with scenes of violence. Terrorist attacks, two back-to-back wars and the ongoing war on terror have given the 24-hour news channels an endless supply of images to fill their screens. New warnings and color-coded alert levels only heightened this atmosphere of fear.Just when we thought we'd seen it all, things reached a saturation point with the video images of innocent contractors beheaded by hooded thugs in Iraq. As someone who's life work is teaching people to correctly use violence as a survival tool, it truly distresses me to see the fear-based responses many people have to this relentless assault on our senses. There's no need for this to happen to you! If you'll explore this taboo subject with me for just a bit, I think you'll find you are not as helpless as you might think when it comes to violence. More importantly, by actively learning how violence should be viewed you can live a more calm and peaceful life, no longer held hostage by the emotional jolts of random fear the media loves to barrage you with. Violence - A Different View In our culture, violence is viewed as evil and those who advocate its use in any way are seen in some way as a "criminal". Unfortunately, this stigmatization has worked very well for only one group in our society -- the predators. Look at it this way: if someone grabbed a butcher's knife from thier kitchen drawer, then walked out into the street and stabbed the first person they saw in the neck (killing them in the process), I think we'd all agree that was a horrible criminal act and they should be punished to the full extent of the law. But what about the situation where an intruder, brandishing a weapon, breaks into your house and you're able to intercept him as he attempts to go upstairs (where your spouse and family are sleeping). Everyone understands your willingness to fight in this case. And if, during the fight, you grabbed your butcher's knife and stabbed the thug in the side of the neck (again, killing him) before he could use his weapon against you or your family, then most everyone, and society in general, would applaud your bravery and determination to protect your loved ones. Here's the thing: we all formed judgments about the 2 knife-wielding acts I just described -- based on the surrounding facts. The first was an unprovoked murder; the second a justified act of self-defense. But now I'd like you to shift your focus, to see those acts through a completely different lens. I want you to NOT judge either act, instead just to view them objectively. When you step back and view them in this manner you'll see something else -- BOTH were successful! The violence used (butcher's knife to the side of the neck) worked perfectly in each case. The murderer in the first scenario was as 'successful' as the protector in the second. A Classical Mistake Here's the point: if you shift your perspective and view violence as just a tool -- one that is neither good or evil -- then you can evaluate it separately from the surrounding facts. Why do this? Because it's the crucial first step in eliminating unnecessary fear from your life! People often confuse 'using a tool' with the actual tool itself. Take violence, for example. Just because we view someone using violence on another human being does not mean we need to fear him or her. Anyone is capable of using this 'tool'. All it requires is one thing: intent. That's all. Sure, society has struggled mightily to deal with the existence of violence with many people today simply choosing to ignore it altogether (a big mistake). While we all can agree that violence is rarely the answer in any situation, here's what I challenge you to consider... When Violence IS The Answer...It Is The ONLY Answer! I realize this is uncomfortable for many, possibly even you. Everyone has no problem discussing an array of inappropriate uses of violence like the beheadings mentioned above. It's easy to condemn such brutal, needless acts. But to dismiss violence as a viable tool, to unquestioningly accept that it has no valid place in your life, is to forever expose yourself to the risk of being on the receiving end of violence in a true, life-or-death confrontation. Here are the facts. Besides individuals, I speak and train many business groups around the world. The theme of many of these talks and seminars is using and understanding violence as your ultimate survival tool. I share with these CEO's and other highly successful professionals that my typical client base consists of a '70/30' ratio, that is, 70% of my clients seek me out only after asocial violence has entered their lives!! And those who experience true violence all tell the same story:"I live in a great neighborhood, a gated community. My friends and I have never been in fights nor even exposed to violence whatsoever. Etc, etc, etc...' Then they get to the, 'but', 'That's when they tell me how the unthinkable occurred: asocial violence happened to them -- and they were totally unprepared. Not only didn't they prepare for violence, most refused to acknowledge its existence. The results are usually devastating and often un-repairable. It's very difficult to help someone get over asocial violence. The psychological scars are simply too deep. It's much better when people get this training prior to such an experience. Then they're educated about violence and they know how to use it as a survival tool. Most importantly, this knowledge allows them to make better decisions in their daily lives to minimize unnecessary exposure to avoidable violence. The Price Of Being Unprepared Let me give you an example. One man finally attended a live training after corresponding with me for over 3 years. He was extremely successful, someone who intended but never found the time to attend self defense training. Finally, he'd made it in. While there was no hint of a problem, he was an incredible disappointment! I mean, here he was in his early 40's and in incredible physical shape yet showing little enthusiasm for the training although he had shown excitement about attending from more than 3 years. Since he was barely going through the motions, by noon of the second day I had decided to give him a refund and ask him to come back when he could put more effort into the training. While this training deals with the use of violence in a life-or-death situation, it is, by design, a lot of fun with immense energy and people who don't put effort into the training need to be removed to protect the learning dynamics for the remainder of the class. As I went to my office at the lunch break, I was surprised by a phone call. It was this guy's wife! As I listened, she sheepishly asked how he was doing. I informed her of the situation and my decision to refund his tuition. She begged me to reconsider, and then explained this horrifying story. Apparently they had been victims of a home invasion six months prior to the training. It was not your typical home invasion.Four men in ski masks with automatic weapons appeared in their bedroom one night.As the man got out of bed he froze, realizing he had no idea what to do against such a group (this is why we always assume and train for multiple attackers). He was quickly butt-stroked by an attacker's shotgun, then expertly hog-tied with duct tape by another. With blood streaming down his forehead he was forced to watch (having his hair viciously pulled back to make sure he couldn't look away) as another attacker raped his wife. The assailants spoke only Spanish during the entire assault and seemed genuinely annoyed that the couple didn't understand them. Since the couple were gagged neither was able to explain they didn't speak Spanish. It was over in a flash. Later, the police were puzzled because this couple had no known enemies. Even stranger: nothing was taken from the house! The husband was a successful businessman who had just sold his company for hundreds of millions of dollars. In his whole career he had never had a legal issue of any kind -- not even a parking ticket. The house was a new custom home in an exclusive neighborhood. It was three weeks before police discovered the truth: the attackers had gotten the wrong house!A drug dealer lived 3 houses down. The South American goon squad that had been dispatched to send him a 'message' over a dispute with a rival dealer, had screwed up. Now it didn't matter. This client blamed himself for freezing in the face of asocial violence, and failing his wife in the process. The shame and guilt was eating him away. How To Guarantee Violence Is Minimized In Your Life So you ask, 'How could any training have helped him in this situation?' It wouldn't if it was merely martial arts or a typical self-defense course. The results would probably be the same. Only by learning to use violence as a survival tool would he have been better prepared to keep asocial violence from entering his life, and to deal with when it did. The approach to self defense advocated in this article means learning to use an effective, principle-based form of hand-to-hand combat training designed solely for use in situations where you must fight for your life during an unavoidable, asocial violent attack (without responding with violence you end up maimed, crippled or killed).Everything in this approach to self defense prepares you for a worst case scenario. Yet the real benefit is in realizing you never want it to get to that point! People trained in this manner take extraordinary measures to make it difficult for asocial violence to enter their lives. They understand violence is a fact of life and if they allow predators an opportunity to see them as easy targets, they become just that. The Failure Of Positive Thinking Back to my story; this couple had moved into their new home early. The security system wan not activated. They wanted a dog (the number one deterrent to home attacks) but hadn't gotten around to getting one. And worst of all, they had not locked the front and back doors, mistakenly believing they were safe in a gated community with rent-a-cops. That fatal night proved otherwise.They may have gotten away with these gross errors in personal safety had random asocial violence not happened. Not in a million years would this couple have considered they'd be mistaken for a rival drug dealer in a dispute over money. Yet I hear this story daily because most of us continue to view violence as 'criminal' -- rather than a tool that can save our life in a violent confrontation. Getting trained can guarantee it won't happen again but you'll never take away the rape or the physical trauma, nor can you undo the psychological damage that's been done. That's why I actively seek out the other '30 percent'! So what can you do right now? Start by changing your view of violence. See it for what it is -- neither good nor bad. Just the one tool that, should you ever need it, is always there to serve you in a worst-case situation.
Tim Larkin's Target-Focus Training system shows you how to defeat a sociopathic criminal.To learn why TFT has you focused on injuring your attacker -- not defending yourself -- visit Larkin's website at: http://www.targetfocustraining.com
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