Know Your Attacker

Know Your Attacker – The Attributes of the Sociopathic Predator

“Wherever you are, death will find you, even if you are in towers strong and high!  So what is wrong with these people,  that they fail to understand these simple words?” – Mohammed (Qur’an: 4:78)

H-140x140ow do you prepare yourself for an attack by your enemy?  Let’s first take a short look back in history.  

Prior to World War II, the French Military built a line of defenses, a wall called the Maginot Line as a bulwark defense against an attack by the German Military.  The Germans simply went around using a different route, and over the line via the Luftwaffe.  My point?  The French strategic planners and military advisors failed to anticipate technological advances made by the German military.  They failed to realistically evaluate all the possible strategies that an enemy could employ to subvert the defense. They also ignored the fact that the way wars would be fought had evolved and changed.  In short, they did not know their enemy and as a result could not prepare an effective defense.  Their efforts were futile.

The simple lesson here is: Unless you “know” your potential enemy, you cannot prepare effectively for his assault.

The principle here as it applies to self-defense and hand-to-hand combat is the same.  You need to “know” your attacker so you are ready and properly prepared should that attack ever come.

Who is Your Enemy?

“I didn’t feel nothin,” said Tommy Lynn Sells – when asked what he felt as he cut the throats of two ten year old girls.

With all of our training, our technology and our knowledge, why do the bad guys win?

Do you know what a sociopath is?  In simple terms, I would define it as someone who has no empathy, no feelings for others – no conscience.  We’ve been aware of and perhaps have had contact with obvious sociopaths our entire lives, ranging from the grade school bully all the way to the serial killer with all degrees of sociopathic behavior in between.  In fact, many bullies actually grow up to be adult sociopaths.

It is commonly cited that 4 percent of the general population are born as sociopaths and never have any chance to be “normal.” That means that that at least 4 out of every hundred people you encounter on any given day are sociopaths, people without conscience.  When it comes to criminals, it is also cited that about 25 percent of all criminals are 100 per cent sociopathic.  That means that they are capable of doing really bad things without hesitation. And even more dangerous to society is the psychopath. Not only are they generally sociopathic, but they are not even living in the same reality as us.  You might think of it as sitting next to someone in a theater yet they are not watching the same movie as you. Their whole world is different and only they know what’s going on in their head but I guarantee it is much different what we consider normal. You cannot go through life assuming that everyone you meet is another good guy just like you. In fact it’s one of the main reasons that so many people get “caught off guard.”  Hell, they were never on guard.

As the father of two beautiful blonde daughters, I have warned them time and again that no young man that they ever meet, just wants to be their friend. I never, ever want them to let their guard down. In this case I’m not saying that all the young men that they meet are sociopaths, I’m just saying that they’re all just being young men. Yet, the terrible unarguable truth is that women are most often the victims of the actions of both the sociopathic predator and the criminal psychopath.

We, on the other hand, are the good guys.  We have a conscience.  We care about what happens to others. We do not want to cause pain or suffering, let alone death to anyone.  In this contrast lies the bad guys’ biggest advantage.  My question earlier to you was, “Why do bad guys win?”   There is a phenomenon called “hesitation shooting,” an all too real scenario in which a police officer has his gun drawn and pointed directly at the bad guy.  The bad guy also has a gun pointed at the officer.  The bad guy pulls the trigger.  The officer dies.  How does this happen?  Forget about your training.  Forget about department policies about justification of force.  Forget about rules of engagement.  Putting yourself in the officer’s shoes, it happens because he’s not a sociopath, even at the expense of his own life.  But the even bigger reason is this. The bad guy is a sociopath and he’s done this before.  You have not.  A sociopath will stove your head in, grab your sandwich finish eating it and wonder what flavor the cheese is.  His behavior started with pulling the wings off flies, kicking dogs, or beating kids in the schoolyard. He’s done this before, a thousand times before.  The only difference was that this time he had a gun.  Tomorrow he might beat the hell out of an 85 year old grandma just to get her eight dollars and change.

In simple terms they are a product of their environment and we are a product of ours.  You might say, Good Vs Evil.

This is your enemy.  Understand, I’m not talking here about a bar fight over a girl’s honor.  I’m talking about a stone cold killer who will climb through a window into your house, crush your head with a hammer and rape your wife right next to your dead body.

This is the enemy you must prepare for.  If you are prepared, truly prepared, mentally prepared, to face an opponent like this, then all lesser opponents will pale in comparison.

“Let him who desires peace, prepare for war.” – Publius Flavius Vegetius

How do you prepare for the sociopath, perhaps a gang member who will kill you just so he can tattoo a tear drop under his eye for status in the gang?

Unfortunately to beat this opponent you have to become a sociopath.  This is the point where a majority of people fall short in the totality of their preparation.  Will you gouge someone’s eye out?  Will you tear their throat open with your teeth?  Will you smell his stale breath as his eyes glaze over from your arm around his throat?  If you’re not willing to answer “yes, hell yes,” to these questions, then the day you meet one of these guys is the day you are going to die.

Are you a Sociopath?

I am a sociopath.  Well, let me soften that a bit by saying, “a justified sociopath.”  What I mean by that description is; my decision, my mind set, my foregone conclusion is simply this.  If you threaten my life or the safety or the lives of my family, I will do anything and everything to prevent you from succeeding.  No restrictions – no conditions.  Period.  You also, had better be able to be that “justified sociopath,” when the time comes.

It is with this singular clarity of purpose that you must approach the reality of true life or death combat.  The British SAS that I’ve known often describe it as the switch.  You’ve got to be able to turn on the ruthlessness when you need it and turn it off when it is not needed.  That is what separates “us” from “them.” I will go into more detail about the “switch” and also the psychological/physiological response to such extreme violence in upcoming articles.  But for now I want you to consider how you stand when it comes to a “what will I do to survive?” moment.  Otherwise if there is any part of you or your conscience holding you back when a bad guy is bent on your destruction you’d better be able to turn that switch off and the other switch on.  If you don’t, you may personally find out the answer to the question “Why do the bad guys win?” And the answer may be one you can’t live with.

 

Copyright 2016 Ernest Emerson

The post Know Your Attacker appeared first on The Guardian Shepherd.


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