Author: junk

Excellent quick article cautioning what we take for granted. Our tendency towards normalcy bias.

http://recoiljunkie.com/normalcy-bias-can-be-a-deadly-deception/

 

People ask me what the best way of doing something is.  The best way to take a turn or the best shooting position or the best combative for a situation. Obviously if we had perfect information we should be able to come up with the best solution, right?

So why is there SO much disagreement? Which is the best martial art? Are you kidding? Buddha would smack you for asking such a question. Everything depends! Not only that but our information is lacking, sometimes to the point of embarrassment.

So you do what you can with what you have while always trying to learn more.  If your fight is with an idiot, it doesn’t take much to win. If it’s with a SEAL team gone bad (because there’s no reason good people should need to fight good SEAL teams 🙂 ), you better have great answers AND be Superman. Real experts have lots of knowledge, but sometimes lots of ego. The quest for truth instead should guide them to being better ‘experts’. Look for the truth. Let nothing else get in the way.

In response to this same type of question I was asking, a friend and mentor of mine once told me ‘you can do everything right and still get killed’. This is a guy who would know. That’s truth. It depends. Prepare, practice, process. Pretty sure no mere human knows the correct answer. The results depend.

No it is not! A thinking society is a polite society whether armed or not.  Same as ‘guns don’t kill people, people kill people’. Guns don’t make people safe, people make people safe. How many people think they are alpha dog walking around with a gun and they’re not going to get taken or abused. If you think you’re not going to get taken or abused, shoot somebody and see what happens after that. Whether or not you are in the right.

The thinking gun owner sheepdog knows he will have hell to pay and therefore is careful about  what he does and says. He is realistic, logical and polite. There is always some moron out there who wants to get into a fight or wants to prove you wrong or teach you a lesson. And it’s getting worse.  Opinions and facts are just that. The only thing worth fighting for in a violent and physical way is your life.

Be careful out there and think.

This is a pretty simple concept. Attributable to Jeff Cooper. Look him up. I’m quite sure he just coined the idea as humans have known this and done this throughout time. Still, it’s nice to have it codified.

The concept has to do with different levels of awareness. Basically white is non-aware. Sleeping or maybe watching TV.  You’re not paying attention. Maybe trusting everyone else around you to do what they are supposed to. But it doesn’t matter if it’s the other person’s fault when they run over you. You’re still dead.

Yellow is the state where we should usually be. This is prepared and aware. Looking around you,  whatever you are doing.  If you were bicycling down the street for instance, be aware of everything around you by looking around you and listening around you. For many, this is a practiced  exercise. To do this, you can’t have the blinders on that they give the horse for a race to keep it from being distracted. Don’t be the horse.  You must know how much of any one or set of thoughts you can fit in with your attention. To state this another way, people get caught up in and distracted by other things. You must know your level of abilities in multitasking. As you practice, as with anything else, you will get better at this. But you must consciously practice to make it a subconscious ability. You cannot be consumed by any one thing, be it thought or action.  Realize also that you cannot possibly see everything. Only a small fration. So see and think what is important. Practice.

Moving to orange, this is a heightened level of yellow where you may need to react quickly because you’ve noticed something while in yellow. A car getting too close or a person for instance. Perhaps some lightning or thunder. Someone or place looking somewhat suspicious.

The last and highest level is red. This is when you decided to do something and are doing it. Getting out of the way of the car or the person. Turning away from the suspicious place.  You have ramped up from your orange into action.

I’m focusing on yellow though because that’s what most people forget. Most of us are in white most of the time. White and orange and red are pretty much taken for granted. Yellow is where we should be and we should be comfortable in that space. Not paranoid, but aware. Personally, I even find that space enjoyable because I notice more around me and I’m able to enjoy what’s around me more. I can multitask in thinking and in watching and seeing all at the same time. Yellow is good. Be in yellow.

As I sit and relax on my back porch this Thanksgivings Eve, armed, I reflect on how wonderful it is to be in a relatively safe place.  For the vast majority in this world are not in this place. Even most of the ones who think they are. I am here because  I have worked hard to create a safe life for myself and my friends and family. This includes  where I live, where I work, who I am with, and ultimately what I do and how I prepare for the future.

To be the proverbial sheepdog in a world of sheep, wolves, and other sheepdogs  is to live by the creed of prepare, practice, process. This will mean different things to different people and if you’re not having fun with it  then you may just be living in a very paranoid place.

Prepare: learn what you can about the things you need to know to stay safe. This could be survival in a Third World country or suburbia  or the deep woods. Preparation in my world is learning  skill sets like martial arts, shooting, and driving. Awareness, avoidance, running,  deterrence, and fighting when one must which should be never.

Practice: practice what you have learned. Diligently and perfectly. So that if you need the skills they are there on command. So that if you need the skills you can think faster and more efficiently then your adversary.  This takes time and you must realize that there is much that you can be prepared for and some things that you cannot  based on the time that you put in.

Process: you must always concentrate on the process. This means putting 100% of your mind into the process while you are doing anything. Practicing must be done with the mindset that there is  nothing else that matters. People watching, other thoughts getting in the way are not part of the process.  The process involves only what you are doing at the time. Nothing else matters. This is the mindset and when you must call on that, it needs to be there, without hesitation.