That was it. Next day Barry had cooled down, and I never heard any more about it. I've never been mugged, never had my house invaded. I've never been confronted by another driver in road rage, although I witnessed an incident once. After parking at work in California, I was surprised to see another employee who was driving in being followed at high speed by another car. The driver of the second car got out, ran to the employee's car, pulled open the door, dragged the driver out, and punched him a couple of times. I'm glad he then got back into his car and drove off, for I don't know what I would have done.
But what if I were confronted by a mugger, or someone invaded my house while we were home?
What would you do? What would you do if you were accosted in a dark parking lot by someone who said, "Get in the car, and you won’t get hurt"?
Well, getting in the car is the last thing you should do, according to author Sam Harris in his blog article, "The Truth about Violence: 3 Principles of Self-Defense." I highly recommend it to you; it could save your life. An excerpt:
However bad your options may appear in the moment, complying with the demands of a person who is seeking to control your movements is a terrible idea. Yes, there are criminals whose only goal is to steal your property. But anyone who attempts to control you—by moving you to another room, putting you in a car, tying you up—probably intends to kill you (or worse). And you must understand in advance that your natural reaction to this situation—to freeze, to comply with instructions—will be the wrong one.
This is a great public service you are providing. As much as I have enjoyed the back and forth on your blog about the theoretical impact of religion here on earth and in whatever hereafter may or may not exist, it is great to see you address a topic which is unquestionably important and is as real as it gets. Situations like Harris describes are the sort of things people don't like to think about, even though they for some strange reason love to watch movies and TV shows overflowing with them, and that not thinking in advance can create a disaster if the fateful moment comes. As Harris points out, even though people in America are statistically unlikely to face a personal threat at any given moment or even in any given decade, they stand a good chance of encountering such at some time in their lives. Having been targeted twice in my life, once on a NY subway and once in a restroom in a DC office building - most likely because I was carrying pricey camera gear on both occasions - I concur with the advice Harris gives. Do what you have to do to get away, then get away!
ReplyDeleteMotomynd, thanks for seconding the post, and please forgive me for being so tardy in responding to it. Another reader, a young mother, heartily endorsed Harris's third principle. She commented (on Facebook), "I always tell my kids to do whatever they to do to get away—scratch, punch, bite—but don't ever go with [a potential abductor]!"
ReplyDeleteMovies & TV dramas present the irony that even though people usually identify with certain of their characters and enter into the story in their imagination, they usually don't map the world of a story to the reality of their own lives.
Or at least I don't. I tend to objectify story worlds and analyze them in terms of plot, theme, dramatic arc, etc., as well as of writing, acting, directing, editing.