Bad Guys 101: White Belt Dreams, Suburban Nightmares

Preface

It was story time. The Edgelord ™ self-protection trainer told grim tales of blood and bones, his acolytes ready to worship his badassery. I wasn’t sure what we were learning but the stories were interesting. Daydreaming, I reflected on the standard range of bad guy analysis: anemic nonsense to worthless fan service. 

Too often Bad Guys are either the Keystone Kops or Gods of War. The former exhibits comical idiocy, falling instantly before the tool, tactic, or technique du jour. The latter is unstoppable, inescapable, (literally) incredible. Rare is the complex human. 

As the Edgelord ™ completed his treatise, I pondered functional models for understanding bad guydom, minus useless value judgments and assorted nonsense. The “Bad Guys 101” series was born. 

For clarity: “Bad Guy” equals “violent criminal.” Rory likes “threat” but I prefer this tone. Because, ultimately, he’s just. a. guy. I also agree with morality therein: Good and Evil exist.  Many aren’t Evil but I’ve never met a Good, currently active, BG. That said, they often have understandable reasons for their behavior and if not for the grace of God there go I. Literally. 

What follow are thought experiments, primarily. I make no excuses and pass no judgment; I merely examine the culture(s.) There are many themes worth understanding.

White Belt Dreams

“I ain’t buying his survivor bullshit…he’ll drop from a skull shot like any other man”

-Way of the Gun

At some point I recall debating with a martial artist online about whether SD/MA teachers held back teaching students their “secrets” due to fear. I perceived it as misplaced, though prevalent, concern: no matter what you teach/know, you can die. Skill and strength don’t make you invincible. My debate partner believed it wasn’t fear; it was a focus on survival. His instructor assumed a rogue student could use his secrets against him. I silently wondered which 70's Kung Fu movie I'd wandered into and whether someone had discovered effective parries for AK rounds.

The survivors I know didn't prevail primarily because of classified skillsets. Violence at their levels wasn’t a secret, nor overly technical. When guys with pistols snuck into your love nest or poisoned your cocaine, your patented pak sao didn’t mean much and outside knowledge of secret techniques accounted for precisely shit.

Make the wrong people mad enough and you'll need a lot more than good handspeed or a set of expensive toys. Preparing for violence is shaving dice; SD/MA folks furiously apply nail files while belt sanders sit dormant.

Priorities

One of my superpowers is that I’m assailable. I have black belts in exactly zero martial arts. I could list on one hand the number of “martial” certifications I currently hold. There are (more than likely) students who could make me look like an ass in a training environment. And it all matters…but none of it does. 

None of the murderers I know have black belts. I can only think of one acquaintance putting hot metal through lukewarm flesh with anything on paper validating it. And they're more likely than most grandmasters to be willing to put some copper coated candy in your son’s brainpan as he leaves lacrosse practice. Because very few martial art obsessions matter in the real world. 

Everybody Dies

That’s the thing about assailability: it applies to all of us. Your favorite designated badass is a meat bag with a computer attached whose off switch works the same as the rest of them. So don’t let your martial proficiency go to your head. If your instructor presumes invincibility, remember that the strongest and slickest fall off eventually. They all go soft. Assuming they ever *weren’t*. We will too.

That’s why I emphasize the "boring" stuff: creating allies; recognizing problems hours, days, months, or years beforehand; collecting intelligence; and presenting as somewhere between significant threat and food. Because a .00003 second draw won't matter when you’re unlocking the door with hands full of groceries and the last thing you hear is a pop. Even skillful teenagers don't fight; they hunt.

I'm not railing against physical skills. They’re fun to practice and, in a limited way, extremely useful. Cars with brakes and steering wheels still need airbags. And when it’s airbag time, accept no substitutes. Just be thoughtful about priorities and understand how violence occurs in the real world. Because the hitman your wife hires to kill you for insurance money probably doesn’t want to spar.

Violence isn’t all that complicated. Avoidance, if you're not born into it, isn’t either. It’s the dream worlds where we can live for 90 years as careless, comfortable badasses that create problems. 

Everything costs. 

-M

Castles and Cornerstones: The Process

True self-protection is a castle with layered battlements and buildings. The castle’s individual structures represent unique and essential subject matter areas, contributing individually while reinforcing the whole. A cornerstone is the first set stone around and upon which the rest of a building’s foundation forms and, for our purposes, Cornerstones are central concepts or themes upon which areas of self-protection rest. 

Four central areas form the most important structures in our self-protection castle, each with its own cornerstone. These areas are Bad Guys 101, Becoming, Level Up, and Beyond Power. 

This Cornerstone is central to the internal growth toward that produces our strongest selves: Becoming.

Preface

While physical training can certainly build up skill sets and even reinforce mental and emotional strength, overt focus of becoming more integral versions of ourselves will make us harder to kill. A possible side effect is having more awesome lives. What follow are thoughts and ideas about becoming our strongest selves internally because that's where the fight that life can be is routinely won and lost. Strong minds survive better.

Toxicity in Our City

Too much of self-defense and martial arts (SD/MA) instruction rests on toxic, rotting foundations. Anxiety should not dominate students lives nor should they spend thousands of dollars and hours in fear's service. Thus, a new proposal for driving us all toward strength I call "The Process": a series of realizations that prompt requisite actions, forming the core of any serious consideration of self-protection.

The Realities

1.       No one makes it out alive

Death is promised. The strong and skilled die like the rest. Thus, self-protection is primarily a means to live, and ultimately die, on the best terms possible. Living and dying well are worthwhile goals in and of themselves.

2.       Life can be cool

Life, while filled with obstacles and dangers, can be pretty awesome, especially when I embrace the gifts of challenge, growth, and purpose. My niece’s laughter, my fiancée’s love, and my triumphant moment are all evidence of how cool life can be.

3.       You are worth defending

My potentially awesome life, despite its inevitable end, is worth defending for myself, others, and Justice. Completely independently, my life can be worthwhile; even more so when I incorporate my positive influence on the world around me. Beyond that, Justice is worth defending. Self-protection rests on the foundational premise that someone should stand up for the decent. Those “someones” are me, you, us.

The Actions

Several actions follow naturally from the aforementioned realities.

1.       If you stay ready…

If my time is finite, I should live well and serve what’s most important, focusing my limited resources on the True and Lasting and Good.

2.       Build the life

If life can be awesome, I should build one worth defending. All human life is worthy, a fact easily overlooked when mine *feels* miserable, making defending it from difficult and dangerous threats a harder sell. Building an awesome existence filled with contributions to myself, my loved ones, and the world is a healthy and effective motivation for self-protection.

3.       Fortify the structure

Once I've built a life worth defending, I must protect it; developing martial skills can be helpful in that effort. Other awesome lives may also benefit from my skills and being able to intervene when needed is a cool bonus.

These truths and actions may seem obvious but they are conspicuously absent in most SD/MA media. A student going through such a process would obviously be more motivated to defend themselves and would become (or continue to be) an extremely solid person which, while beyond the scope of what most would consider “self-protection”, is an end unto itself.

Think about it.

-M

Castles and Cornerstones: Bad Guys 101

True self-protection is a castle with layered battlements and buildings. The castle’s individual structures represent unique and essential subject matter areas, contributing individually while reinforcing the whole. A cornerstone is the first set stone around and upon which the rest of a building’s foundation forms and, for our purposes, Cornerstones are central concepts or themes upon which areas of self-protection rest. 

Four central areas form the most important structures in our self-protection castle, each with its own cornerstone. These areas are Bad Guys 101, Becoming, Level Up, and Beyond Power. 

This Cornerstone is central to understanding the “problem” theoretically solved by most self-protection methods: Bad Guys. 

Preface

It was story time. The Edgelord ™ self-protection trainer told grim tales of blood and bones, his acolytes ready to worship his badassery. I wasn’t sure what we were learning but the stories were interesting. Daydreaming, I reflected on the standard range of bad guy analysis: anemic nonsense to worthless fan service. 

Too often Bad Guys are either the Keystone Kops or Gods of War. The former exhibits comical idiocy, falling instantly before the tool, tactic, or technique du jour. The latter is unstoppable, inescapable, (literally) incredible. Rare is the complex human. 

As the Edgelord ™ completed his treatise, I pondered functional models for understanding bad guydom, minus useless value judgments and assorted nonsense. The “Bad Guys 101” series was born. 

For clarity: “Bad Guy” equals “violent criminal.” Rory likes “threat” but I prefer this tone. Because, ultimately, he’s just. a. guy. I also agree with morality therein: Good and Evil exist.  Many aren’t Evil but I’ve never met a Good, currently active, BG. That said, they often have understandable reasons for their behavior and if not for the grace of God there go I. Literally. 

What follow are thought experiments, primarily. I make no excuses and pass no judgment; I merely examine the culture(s.) There are many themes worth understanding.

Lost Boys

Urban education is weird. You meet students with behavior patterns comparable to violent criminals. Partly because, often, violent criminals share ideological frameworks with errant children. Take others’ things? Check. Respect power, almost exclusively? Check. Manipulate to avoid consequences? Check. It’s almost like this stuff was human natu…I digress. That said, understanding BG behaviors and philosophical underpinnings can be useful for seeing the distinction between mischief and criminality and addressing the problems BG’s pose.

At-risk kids are children who may become BG’s. The line between the groups is blurry: there are adolescent diehard murderers. I know kids with multiple felony-level offenses that I don’t yet consider full BG’s, though they’re technically violent criminals. I distinguish based on their affordances. Diehards see school as a collection of victims, associates, and enemies. ARK’s ape the attitudes but haven’t fully committed and may want (formal) education. ARK’s also crave structure; they don’t yet love the chaos. Take these definitions for what they’re worth; the map is not the territory.

Do Or Die 

BG rules are different. School is analogous, featuring two rulesets: peer and institutional. School rules, established by bureaucrats…er…responsible adults, promote institutional safety and continuity. Peer rules (arguably) exist for individual safety, differentiating victims, noncombatants, and predators. Society’s statutes and street law work similarly and street law often dictates peer rules. BG’s and ARK’s common assumption is their peer groups watch, always, responses to boundary violations, meting out respect levels, regardless of institutional expectations.

BG’s and ARK’s constantly “interview,” reconnoitering potential victims for their boundary breach reactions and weighing cost-benefit analyses. Meek responses greenlight manipulation or attacks; the target is marked as “sweet,” denoting that he or she is a good victim. My father, a former gang member himself, reminded me, constantly: “the appearance of weakness invites aggression.” Violent responses to boundary breaches build respect, diminishing necessity for future enforcement. Since enforcements often risk freedom or safety, respect is paramount. It’s why helping ARK’s is tough. A kid approaches a line; is he playing or probing for weakness? Usually, it’s both; finding and exploiting weakness are second nature.

Respect can separate life and death. Society, represented by teachers and cops, visits communities where street law lives. The street often dominates: society won't rape a sister to send a message. Thus, BG’s and ARK’s employ violence, flouting legal consequences, as peer group communication: “violate my boundaries and no one can protect you. Leave my boundaries alone.” Because they know the truth: society can’t, in most cases, truly protect you. ARK’s spend 8 hours in school; the hood owns the other 16. 

Equal Opportunity 

Bad guys are twistedly egalitarian; it’s about what you will do. If A wants B’s stuff, he must weigh B’s resources against risk of resistance and retaliation. If B is willful, connected, and reckless, he’s a bad “vic”, likely to turn robbery to murder. B’s resources may not be worth killing or dying for, especially with retaliation by B’s associates and legal consequences factored in. For BG’s, appearing (or being) willing to stay the course in the face of grave consequences is the one true qualification. For victims, the interview is the process by which BG's and ARK's assess said willingness to do. Failing the interview balances on small breaches of, and responses to, BG and ARK models of respect; elements often completely ignored or misunderstood by those outside of street contexts and cultures. BG victimization is also equal opportunity to a degree; the idea that BG's won't victimize particular profiles is often proven false. BG's and ARK's rob each other; chances are they're more visibly threatening than the average soccer dad in a Krav Maga class. Being big or male or "scary" looking doesn't make you exempt; in the words of Joel Ortiz: "anybody can get it."

With all of that said, there are various dynamics, victim profiles, and predatory purposes out there in BG land; exploring your target profile can be extremely valuable to understand what you're actually at risk for.

Nothing to Believe In

BG’s and ARK’s perceive a world of unending self-interest and corruption, validating their behaviors. It’s similar to what educators see: kids “getting over” on those would impose order upon them. The social manipulation attempts, the tantrums when demands aren’t met, the self-justifying nonsense are all par for the course. The core element is entitlement: “mine!” is the motto, “gimme!” the battle cry.

BG’s are the ultimate individuals. They form alliances and feel affection for others but actual loyalty is rare in their world. The lack of fidelity stems from a combination of factors. First, they have far fewer illusions about human life, generally. Many of us have notions of what we’d do under pressures we’ll never encounter. Many BG’s and ARK’s don’t have to fantasize and, often, seeing individuals and structures fail produces understandable cynicism.

Many BG’s started out as victims, pressed into lifestyles they’d rather have avoided by family ties or other circumstances. Most were abandoned, trapped between powerful institutions like society and the street. Plenty come from extremely poor parenting, learning early that trust is stupid and power is everything.

Possibly unnecessary sidebar: when I say “raised poorly,” I mean “raised to fail in modern American society.” Bad guys and at-risk kids are socialized pretty well to survive their circumstances but extremely poorly to escape them. 

So, parents (assuming they’re in the picture) discipline their progeny when angry, demonstrating to the children that structured consequences are fiction: people act primarily out of emotional self-interest. “There is no justice; it’s just us.”

Just. A. Guy. 

None of this changes the cost of tea in China. When you’re staring down the barrel, you won’t (and shouldn’t) give a flying fuck through a rolling donut…or should you? Stuff gets sticky here. You may not recognize the fearful adolescent behind the trigger but noticing could facilitate talking him down. Will you fix his inner child’s problems? Nope. But fighting the mind is strong strategy, especially when overmatched. Most humans are better talkers than fighters.

The other benefit of “getting” bad guys is the reminder: they’re people. Skilled at violence? Sometimes. But they bleed, shit, and die like the rest of us. They’re. Not. Special. And understanding their world makes seeing their motives and maneuvers easier.

-M

Castles and Cornerstones: Laying the Foundation

True self-protection is a castle with layered battlements and buildings. The castle’s individual structures represent unique and essential subject matter areas, contributing individually while reinforcing the whole. A cornerstone is the first set stone around and upon which the rest of a building’s foundation forms and, for our purposes, Cornerstones are central concepts or themes upon which areas of self-protection rest.  

Four central areas form the most important buildings in our self-protection castle, each with its own cornerstone. These areas are Bad Guys 101, Becoming, Level Up, and Beyond Power. The fifth area, Teaching, focuses specifically on instruction issues and ideas. 

Bad Guys 101

Bad Guys are the perfect place to start any Self-Protection efforts because they’re the “problem” many SD/MA methods “solve.” If you don’t look at problems in context, solutions become useless or even harmful. Understanding how and why BG’s hunt and live provides a variety of advantages and insights. 

Becoming

Bad Guys prey on more than physical weakness; they look for those easily influenced or manipulated. Thus, worthwhile self-protection training is, primarily, emotional engineering toward greater strength. Stripped of pretense, that emotional engineering changes *who* the student is by challenging them to grow. Becoming is about the internal process of becoming stronger, alone and together.

Level Up

Mentally and emotionally strong people may need to apply their internal strengths to the physical world. Moreover, good training processes simultaneously build physical skill and mental/emotional power. Leveling up is developing skills and training methods to build stronger humans to help solve the Bad Guy problem. Planning, Moving, Fighting, and Communicating are the central pieces.

Beyond Power

Self-Protection against serious threats really only enhances degrees of choice in when and how we die; death’s inevitability remains. The power to prolong life; devoid of purpose, responsibility, or direction; is meaningless in a world where mortality claims us all. Thus ‘Beyond Power’ examines the “why’s” of self-protection and the power it cultivates. 

Teaching

Though all of the previous areas of self-protection apply to instructors as well, there are issues specific to those who would teach. Teaching is about ensuring student growth while maintaining the various balances between ethics, efficacy, efficiency, sustainability, and the like.

Each of these “structures” could serve as an entire field of study and often do. Our responsibility to examine them and how they fit into, protect, and enhance our lives. -M