4th December 2012, 9:15am in a train from Bromley South to Victoria. I am entering a packed train with no seats free except in the first class. People are squeezing. The 1st class section with 12 seats has only one person sitting. Looks like no passengers has a first class ticket. The only person sitting in the first class section is a woman age 35. I decide to sit next to her. She says: - I have no 1st class ticket but I sat here anyway. - Me neither but I have never seen anyone checking tickets on this route – I say. We joke a bit in a relaxed way and loud enough for everyone else to hear. So she is a leader of the new social movement and I am her first follower and we are having a good time. After about 10 seconds the first wave of followers starts entering the 1st class carriage and in 20 seconds the carriage looks like this:
So now we have 12 people committing the same “crime” and there is no way the ticker inspector can fine us all even if they did come around.
The non-aggression principle is clear about non initiating violence but it says nothing about responding once violence has already been initiated.
There are basically two opposite defences against violence - submission and assertiveness. They have opposite affect when applied to different types of violence. For example submission is the ideal response to monkey dance but it could cost the victim its life when used as defence against a process predator.
Below defence strategies are recommended by a number of practitioners who look credible to me and whose books I recommended in a previous post (Gavin de Becker, Rory Miller and others).
General approach
All authors on the subject recommend the following three steps:
1. The most effective defence is to avoid dangerous situations. Choose safe routes, go to safe places, avoid dangerous people, lock the doors, do not stay in abusive relationships. Prevention is effective and cheap.
Surprisingly, many victims either fail to effectively identify or fail to exclude dangerous people from their social networks. This results in the tragic fact that majority of violent crimes in the USA are committed by people the victim knew?
2. If it is too late for prevention, the second best thing is to run away. Do not try to defend your property or dignity or to teach anyone a lesson. Do not wait to see what happens. Do not cooperate by letting someone tie you or move you to a different location.
The video below shows a situation where a victim is too shocked or to confused to leave and thus exposes himself to more violence. Luckily in this case there was no serious damage.
3. If it is impossible to run away then fight. Fighting is worse than prevention and running away because it is risky. In a fight you can loose your life or the ability to enjoy it. If you have to fight be committed to damage the attacker sufficiently to be able to safely escape.
Here is the same advice from Sun Tzu:
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Defence against resource predators Resource predator is someone who wants to steal you wallet, phone or car.
The defence against resource predators is simple. Give away the resource and run away. Do not defend the property.
Here is a video showing a correct response to resource predation. The man lets the thugs take his car to avoid damage to himself.
This advice is difficult for me to swallow. But I cannot deny the logic - putting your life at risk for the sake of an object is not wise. I think that it only makes sense to violently defend your possessions if your life depends on them. Otherwise it makes more sense to insure against theft instead and to seek justice only once you are safe.
Defence against monkey dance
Monkey dance is a violent social ritual for establishing status.
You are in a monkey dance if you are in an escalating conflict with someone who is disrespectful and if you are being watched by other people.
The defence against monkey dance is to disengage, accept lower status and leave the place. If it is just a monkey dance, the aggressor will not pursue you as he has already proved his dominance. If he does, you are dealing with something more evil.
To leave the monkey dance you can say "I'm sorry, it has been a long day", keep your head down and drop eye contact. Do not be assertive. Here is a perfect example of a correct reaction to monkey dance. The man hides inside his SUV and does not let the other one provoke him.
If you have friends who could devalue you for a withdrawal, find smarter friends because your current ones are a danger to you. With the right friends you will actually gain status by handling such a situation correctly.
Defence against process predators
Process predator'a purpose is to physically harm you. Process violence includes murder, torture, rape.
The best defence is prevention. Avoid dangerous people. Be alert to aggressive behaviours and violent language and stay away from people who engage in it.
If you are attacked, run for your life.
If you cannot escape, the defence against process predators is the opposite to the defence against resource predation and monkey dance. You must be assertive and not cooperate. Do not let them move you to a secondary crime scene. Do not get into a car if they order you to, do not help them tie you up.
One should do everything possible to interrupt the attack. For example if you a being driven away in a car, it is better to crash the car than to let the kidnapping continue. If you decide that there are no other options then fight with all you have.
Similarly, if your home has been invaded by an individual who knew you were inside, run away if you can. If you cannot then fight.
Here is an example of an effective, determined defence against a process predator.
And here is another example.
Defence against group monkey dance Group monkey dance is when a group attacks one person to establish internal hierarchy based on who can be more violent.
The way to prevent a group monkey dance is not to let the group "other" you. Be perceived as a member of the group, not an outsider. Maintain relationships with other group members. It is sad, but true or pretended conformity is one way to not be "othered".
Again, if you are attacked, run for your life if you can.
Fighting back against a group monkey dance is much more difficult than in any other form of violence because the victim is outnumbered. If there is no other option but to fight, you have to take on the strongest of the attackers first. This way, if you succeed, there is a chance that the rest of the attackers will back up.
Conclusion
The best defence is always prevention. If violence breaks up anyway, in most situations the best approach is to deescalate it. However, if the objective of the attacker is to do physical damage to the victim, the response must be assertiveness and even counterattack.
This shows that one needs to understand which of violence one is dealing with to choose the correct method of defence.
My wife and I are working on a new gadget. We ordered the artistic 3D design and we found a factory in Shenzhen, China to make the physical thing out of it. After investing two months of work and $2,000, we have found out today that the factory is not able to do what they said they would. Here is the post-mortem of the situation.
1.We correctly selected a factory which seemed the most capable. We gave them good, detailed artistic design and precise functional specification.
2.Because the gadget consists of two components: an electronic core and a silicone stand, someone had to do a technical design so the two fit together. We wanted the factory in Shenzhen to be this someone. This was because we are not competent in such stuff and we thought that a factory would be. This seems to have been a reasonable decision.
3.At some point the sales rep from Shenzhen said that they are not very comfortable doing the technical design.
4.We ignored this signal of discontent and we told them to do it anyway. This is where the NAP violation alarm failed to ring.
5.Two month later they completed a prototype and the two bloody components do not fit.
Here you are: NAP in action. You cannot force a Chinese factory to do something they do not want to do...
Obviously they breached the NAP in a more serious way by giving us incorrect information about the quality of the product, but this is different story.
There are open problems related to the non-aggression principle (NAP) which I would like to find answers to. If you are aware of a good answer to any of those, please let me know and I will be endlessly grateful. I will even buy you a drink if you want. OK, so here are the seven big questions: 1. In what sense is NAP a 'principle'? What happens if you break it? What happens if you follow it? 2. In what situations (if any) is it worth to or ethical to breach NAP? 3. How to respond to people violating NAP?
4. What other ethical principles are natural extensions of NAP?
5. How to precisely define violence? Is violence just one thing or is it many different things?
6. How does NAP spread?
7. Is the state just one thing or is it many different things?
Understanding violence is necessary for survival. I feel let down when I think that I spent endless years in school where I did not learn basic facts about violence. As a society we need to start clearly recognising the individual and institutionalised aggression which surrounds us if we want a peaceful future.
Today's experts on physical violence work for private security agencies and for governments. Their work is very empirical and is worth reading. This post is a summary of how I understand the classification of physical aggression proposed by these practitioners. There are reading recommendations at the end of this article. Not all violence was created equal. Violent people have different purposes and can use violence in different ways. Different defence strategies work for different types of violence. There are four major types of physical aggression: resource predatory violence, process predatory violence, monkey dance and group monkey dance. Resource predators
The purpose of a resource predator is to gain control over victim's possessions.
A typical example is a mugger pointing a knife at you in a dark alley. He does do not want you. He just wants your money, phone, car, etc.
In general a resource predator prefers to use intimidation and threats to physical violence because these are safer ways of obtaining the loot. But she can choose to use physical violence instead.
Resource violence usually happens when there are no witnesses or if the witnesses are too scared to respond. Resource predators are usually solitary and may be masked.
The video shows an example of a resource predator in action. The attacker is after the money in the cash register. She threatens the clerk with a knife, she gets the money and this time nobody gets hurt.
Process predators
Process predator sees other humans as commodities and uses violence to access them. Examples of process predation include: murder, rape, ritualistic torture and serial killings.
Process predators usually, but not always, act alone. To do their nasty business they need privacy and time so they often move the victim to a secondary crime scene which provides both. Many home invasions are perpetrated by process predators because homes offer them privacy.
Process predators often rely on the victim's cooperation or lack of assertiveness at the initial stage of the attack. They may use charm or a threat. For example they can threaten a victim with a gun to get him into a car which will then take him to a remote location where the assault will end very badly. Or they can offer and provide unwanted help in carrying a heavy shopping bag to a woman's house and then assault her when they are inside.
You know that you are dealing with a process predator if they do not go away once they have your wallet. Also if they try to move you to a secondary crime scene or they have invaded your home it is a solid indication. Process predation usually ends very badly for the victim if she does not manage to escape.
You can find examples of process predatory violence in Gavin de Becker's book I reference at the end of this post.
Monkey dance
Some people use monkey dance to establish social status. It most often happens between young males, especially if females are watching. But it can happen to everyone. On some level both parties escalating a monkey dance to physical violence do it voluntarily. On another level they are hormonally unable to quit a monkey dance once it starts. It is primal. You can tell you are in a monkey dance if you feel that you have to defend your status.
It looks like this: you walk down the street with your girlfriend and you pass two guys. One of then says 'what are you starring at?'. You say 'what are you starring at'. He comes closer. You stop. He pushed your chest, you push back. More shouting. A fight starts.
Monkey dance usually ends just with bruises and broken noses. Unless somebody's head hits a curb when they fall, it is normally not deadly. A fight ends when there is a clear victor and the looser accepts his lower status. Because its purpose is to gain or maintain social status, a monkey dance usually happens with other people watching.
Here is an example of a monkey dance. One guy accidentally blocks the road, the guy behind him shouts, an argument starts and eventually one of them assaults the other one.
Group monkey dance
Group monkey dance can be as bad as process predatory violence. It happens when a group establishes internal hierarchy by picking on someone who is not a member of the group. The more damage a group member does to the victim, the more loyalty he proves to the group. Examples include random victims of gang violence, racist, religious or ethnic violence and mob lynches. Being a victim in a group monkey dance is a a terrible thing because the victim is outnumbered which makes it very difficult to escape and fight. The video below shows a group attack on an outsider. Multiple group members hit the victim using overwhelming violence. Warning - this video is quite brutal.
Other types of violence
In addition to the four major types of violence, there are rare situations when an individual establishes his reputation for being crazy by brutally assaulting a random person. This can happen in extreme social environments and it does not fit into any of the major categories or aggression I described above. There are additional types a of violence identified by some of the experts but I think that most of them fit into one of the above broad categories. However, for completeness, here is the terminology: educational beat down, which is a form or monkey dance or non lethal process predation sanctioned by the group. Sexual violence, which is a form of non lethal process predation. Status seeking show, which is a type of group monkey dance. There are also gang jumps and other initiation rituals which, since they are voluntary, I am not sure if they can be properly called "violent". Different types of violence can mix together. Also, in every violent group some members may just be interested in resource violence while others may find pleasure in the act itself. The video below shows a situation where a group of attackers steals money from a safe. They threaten multiple people with guns and they physically assaults two people to get what they want. Then process violence starts: after they looted the safe, they decide to imprison their victims. Warning - this video is quite brutal.
A post on defences against the different types of violence to follow up soon.
Book recommendations
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin de Becker
Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected by Rory Miller
Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence by Sgt. Rory Miller
The Little Black Book of Violence: What Every Young Man Needs to Know about Fighting by Marc MacYoung, Rory Miller, Lt. Col. John R. Finch and Lawrence A. Kane
I like the non-aggression principle (NAP) and I believe that people benefit from using it in the world as it is today. Since discovering NAP, I am constantly looking for new areas of life where it can be productively applied.
It seems obvious to me to me that people who are less aggressive are on average more successful and happier. They may not have heard about the non-aggression principle, but their behavior is somewhat in agreement with it anyway because of the way they were raised or because of what they leaned later in life.
NAP says that it is good (in some sense of the word - to be explored later) not to initiate violence against other people. This is a radical notion and one not widely accepted in the society. I suspect that one day it will be though.
Below is a definition of violence which I will be working with. It is a comprehensive definition. Usually by aggression people mean initiation of physical violence against persons, property and fraud but I prefer a broader definition because it makes NAP more applicable to every day life of an average person.
Violence is:
1. Non consensual physical interaction and threats of it. Examples include:
- hitting and throwing objects at people,
- physically restraining people,
- killing, shooting, poisoning, war,
- kidnapping,
- spanking,
- extortion, including taxation.
2. Any other unwanted interaction with a person:
- interrupting sleep,
- interrupting work,
- interrupting or destroying a conversation,
- invasive selling of ideas to people who do not want it,
- trolling communication in a verbal or non verbal way,
- sharing negative attitude if this is not welcomed,
- making demands (as opposed to communicating consequences),
- spamming.
3. Interaction with an object unwanted by a person who created or obtained it:
- removal of a parked car,
- taking away a mobile phone when the person who created or obtained it is not watching,
- vandalising a bicycle,
- reading somebody’s secret communication.
4. Spreading false information if it does damage:
- deceiving and defrauding, including propaganda,
- misleading using verbal and non verbal communication,
- labelling people and calling them names,
- making false promises,
- libel and slander,
- claiming authority and making demands.
Aggression is the initiation of violence.
Not all violence was created equal. Obviously a physical assult is more serious than theft of a small amount or an uninvited non verbal comminication of disapproval.
Not all violence is aggression. For example recovering damage from a perpetrator by withdrawing money from his bank account without his conscent is a violent act does not breach NAP.
Not all damaging behaviour is violence because some damaging behaviour can be welcomed by the subject. For example giving someone a cigarette damages the person's lungs, but is not violent.
