A major suppressor to fighting ability- authority

I was bullied a lot in my early years of high school.

One of the things I have learnt about bullies is that they thrive in those dark corners where no teachers or other adults are present.

Later on in life you quickly learn who rules the workplace when the boss is away.

Well- now it seems we live in a country where the Deputy President's bodyguards and the police have learnt that they can get away with a lot as long as they can't be identified.

All of it is just another variation of cowards feeling safe in an environment where what they do cannot come to light. Recently the story told in the newspaper clipping took place near my home town. The offenders here went through all this trouble of threatening innocent people at gunpoint because they did not want to their wrong doing to be on video.

A couple of years ago a large group of uniformed pigs wanted to confiscate my phone because I have photographed their vehicles' licence plates and themselves while they were wrongfully arresting my client. I was forced to delete the photos, but Piggy and his pals did not see me write down their number plates.

Later on my client was released from custody the next day without even having been taken to court. 





So- these things do happen. You can't trust anyone here anymore- not even the police (yes- the pigs are policemen- rotten excuses for that, but their salaries still get paid by the SAPS out of our tax money of course.)

In these two incidents the attackers were what we normally perceive as authority figures. In a democratic society that operates under the rule of law they are expected to be held accountable for their actions and they know that.

For this reason we have seen that police officers have in some cases made sure they are out of uniform when they harass motorists or that their name badges (in South Africa they have to wear them) are removed when they start any unlawful activity.

Normally- none of us want to fight a policeman, a teacher, a parent or any kind of authority figure and these perpetrators take advantage of this inhibition and milk it for all its worth.

Still- there is a flipside to it all...

For instance- a policeman who is not wearing a name badge or who refuses to identify himself, but who wants to come making trouble within your personal space without following any due process (like showing a warrant) is just trash that can be shot like a rabid dog where he stands, because a real policeman would have the decency to identify himself and explain what he is doing.

Also- some high and mighty government official's bodyguards who threaten people with automatic rifles and who particularly do not want any evidence thereof to be found are trash that can be killed where they stand without any criminal liability whatsoever.

Fact is- they are criminals who threatened innocent lives.

And this is one thing I believe that anyone needs in order to fight effectively- even if it just to defend oneself: a clean conscience.

The above explanation can help to assure oneself that you will be able to handle any legal action taken against you after having dealt with the human filth that dared to threaten you or your loved ones, but conscience goes far beyond just the law. What if your government passed laws that allowed their actions...?


Then- the other thing we need in order to fight. The courage to take risks.

From a scene in DC's Batman 493 where a group of schoolgirls had to deal with a serial killer in their dormitory.

 

I won't lie to anyone- no matter how well you are trained or how strong you are, once you decide to fight you are taking a risk. Well- so is your attacker.

If you are going to reserve your fighting skills for use only in easy encounters then you might as well quit and choose to fight only people you feel you are certain to beat up. Thing is- wrongdoers only attack people when they feel it is safe to do so. Still they take risks even when they do that. In the incident with the bodyguards the wrongdoers were in an area with more than just two onlookers. They were outnumbered, but none of the onlookers dared to make a move. One can write a whole paragraph about whether a group mentality was present or not, but what it comes down to in the end is that any of the innocents present could have taken the risk.





In a martial art like Aikido you might get the feeling that being overly aggressive is not a good thing- and it is true to a certain extent, but funny enough- what a style like Chen-style Taijiquan teaches you is that the best mindset to have for self defense is one where concern for safety gets replaced with pure intent to destroy the enemy. (Yes- Tai Chi can actually be very badass!)

Whether you live in a civilised country where your worst kind of attack is likely to come from a criminal or whether you live in a banana republic like ours where the local authorities themselves are likely to make a move on any civilians that they deem vulnerable enough- I still think that self defence training is essential for anyone. 

We may not all want to be professional fighters and we may not even enjoy fighting itself, but whenever you make yourself an easy target you are giving wrongdoers the courage to attack others as well.

I'd rather see a day when the bullies of the world would rather not bother to mess with any of us...

I think I have now gotten all of the anger out of my system with this article. 

In times of peace- train hard.

When it's time to fight- don't hold back!