SURVIVING INSIDE THE KILL ZONE

Since an early age, we’ve been conditioned to believe that there are clearly identifiable good guys and bad guys. Your first experience with this concept may have been a game of cops and robbers played with your friends, or a fairy tale where the dastardly villain is always out to get the kind-hearted prince. These stereotypes are woven into our psyche, and although as adults we realize them to be an oversimplification of reality, it’s hard not to think of bad guys as irrationally evil. After all, those of us who play by society’s rules struggle to truly understand someone who would rob, rape, murder, or commit other violent acts with no hesitation. But understand them or not, they exist among us.

Preparing to defend yourself against these predatory individuals means you must be realistic about their actions, their motivations, and even their thought process. They’re not so different from the rest of us. They’re rational and motivated. You might train and practice your defensive skills a few times a month, as permitted by your career; they train and practice daily because victimizing others is their career. And it’s entirely possible that they see you as the villain in their life story — the obstacle impeding them from reaching their goals.

Accepting the reality of a complex adversary is the first step to surviving an encounter with one. As Ed Calderon puts it, “If you dehumanize the enemy, you become blind