There
is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil
men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.
Laws
that forbid the carrying of arms... only disarm those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things
worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to
encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed one.
Any
man who is a man may not, in honor, submit to threats or violence.
But many men who are not cowards are simply unprepared for the fact of human
savagery.
Observe
your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why?
Naturally his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it.
He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with
irrelevancies. He's not thinking about his job or his image or his
income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical
security. Do likewise.
Use
your eyes. Do not enter unfamiliar areas that you cannot observe
first. Make it a practice to swing wide around corners, use window
glass for rearward visibility, and get something solid behind you when you
pause.
"What
would I do if?.." By thinking tactically, we can more easily
arrive at correct tactical solutions, and practice — even theoretical practice
— tends to produce confidence in our solutions which, in turn, makes it easier
for us, and thus quicker, to reach a decision.
When
under attack, it is necessary to evaluate the situation and to decide
instantly upon a proper course of action, to be carried out immediately with
all the force you can bring to bear. He who hesitates is indeed
lost. Do not soliloquize. Do not delay. Be decisive.
Never
assume that simply having a gun makes you a marksman. You are no
more armed because you are wearing a pistol than you are a musician because
you own a guitar.
If
it is ever your misfortune to be attacked, alertness will have given you a
little warning, decisiveness will have given you a proper course to pursue,
and if that course is to counterattack, carry it out with everything you've
got! Be indignant. Be angry. Be aggressive.
The
perfect fight is one that is over before the loser really understands
what is going on. The perfect defense is a counterattack that
succeeds before the assailant discovers that he has bitten off more than he
can chew.
Anger,
as long as it is controlled anger, is no obstacle to efficiency.
Self-control is one thing the sociopath does not usually possess. Use
yours to his undoing.
We
are fully justified in valuing the life and person of an intended victim
more highly than the life of a pernicious assailant. The attacker must
be stopped. At once and completely.
If
violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do
it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor
jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.
If
a felon attacks you and lives, he will reasonably conclude that he can do
it again. By submitting to him, you not only imperil your own life, but
you jeopardize the lives of others.
At
that time the Third Tokugawa Shogun Iemitsu had a favorite little
monkey. The monkey was very quick. One day Iemitsu let his
attending retainers strike at it, but no one could hit it. Iemitsu
ordered Yagyu, his Sword Master, to do the same, but it was so agile that not
even Yagyu could hit it.
"As
its movement is as agile as lightning the only person who can strike it would
be Takuan Osho of the Tokaiji temple," Yagyu told Iemitsu, who immediately
sent a messenger to fetch Takuan.
"Osho,
try to strike that monkey."
Osho
glared at it on Iemitsu's lap and then took out his nyoi (his priest's
staff). He was about to strike the monkey when it immediately cried out
and prostrated itself before Osho, as if begging for mercy. Iemitsu and
his attendants were amazed at his skill and praised Takuan. Whereupon
Takuan laughed loudly and said:
"This
is nothing. As long as Lord Yagyu and the other Lords worried in case
they might strike the Shogun if they missed the monkey sitting on his lap,
their stroke lacked spirit. Because I intended to strike even the lap of
the Shogun, the monkey felt my spirit and must have been frightened by
it."
When
you strike, just strike. Nothing else should be in your mind.
Nobuko Hirose The Invincible Spirit, "Immovable Wisdom", 1992
The
way to reason with a predator is to make it aware that it can live in a
cage, or it can die, but it can no longer prey upon us.
The
religious fanatic who practices terrorism cannot be reasoned with, because
there is nothing you can threaten him with, and no alternative you can offer
him that is more palatable than his genuine belief that if he dies fighting
you, he will be greatly rewarded in afterlife. Only swift and extreme
force can stop him.