Animals

"In the face of desperation, human beings become animals." Always leave and adversary a way out, a way to save face. It is imperative in avoidance and deescalation. At least in a social conflict. Predatory ones work off a different paradigm. In the social monkey dance physical violence tends to stem from desperation due to a loss of face and being cornered. Like an animal that instinctually tries to run from danger until they are left no way out, i.e. backed into a corner. Then the true animal instinct for survival comes up out of the deep recesses that is survival.

The one thing that distinguishes us from the animal kingdom is repressed so that instinct for survival can dominate. This is why people in desperate situations sometimes do things that in normal situations would not even occur to them. When faced with desperation we do become animalistic and the fangs and claws come out of hiding.

Those fangs and teeth are our proverbial tools of defense. This is why training in reality based scenario's is important. We then expose ourselves at different levels to those things that would normally result in desperation. It is the training that provides us the mind-set that can resist. Desperation is lessened in perceived dangerous situations through the confidence in our ability to handle things nor normally encountered in modern life. 

Denial is allowing our life of comfort to fool us into thinking things like, "it can't or could not happen to me or the one's I love." In truth, these types of things can happen to anyone at anytime - mostly due to ignorance and denial. 

Ignorance, denial and desperation all contribute to that reversion to animalistic survival behaviors. These are often controlled by our lizard brain unless we have trained and practiced and achieved experiences that forgo the need for the animal to rear its fangs and claws. 

Do you think of such things when you teach, train and practice? Do you consider these things when confronted by conflict? Do you know that considering these things will help you train and practice in both avoidance and deescalation?