level.
When adrenaline hits your system, your ability to think rationally is greatly reduced. You will suffer degraded motor skills, experience tunnel vision, and may even suffer temporary memory loss too. In essence, you become a one-task, knuckle-dragging troglodyte. Combat breathing techniques can alleviate some, but not all of these symptoms. As stress goes up intelligence goes down.
Breath control techniques can help you recover from the effects of adrenaline to a large degree, though it takes much practice to control your breathing in an actual fight. The preferred breathing method is similar to
• Inhale for a 4-count.
• Hold for a 4-count.
• Exhale for a 4-count.
This process helps you oxygenate your blood while psychologically calming you during extreme stress. Nevertheless, it’s important not to take unnecessary risks. Since it’s really tough to focus on more than one thing, escape should be your primary goal. As stress goes up, intelligence goes down.
Beware of Crowds
The host thus forming a single united body is it impossible either for the brave to advance alone, or for the cowardly to retreat alone. This is the art of handling large masses of men.
It is better to use two swords rather than one when you are fighting a crowd and especially if you want to take a prisoner.
While most violence you need to worry about takes place one-on-one or among small groups, larger clashes can occur. Military engagements and conflicts between nations are beyond the scope of this discourse, yet you may find yourself caught up in a riot or tangling with members of a crowd some day, so we’ll briefly discuss how those sorts of things play out.
Mobs are dangerous. Highly emotional, unthinking, unreasonable, and quite likely to erupt into violence, you really don’t want to get caught up in one. Crowds can turn into mobs if members become indifferent to laws, choose to disregard authority, or take advantage of the perceived anonymity that a large group can provide and follow instigators into unlawful, disruptive, or violent acts such as a riot. Most riots explode out of an event, things like perceived racial incidents, jury verdicts, rallies, or protests, particularly if agitators stir things up, though they can certainly arise from other causes such as out-of-control celebrations, or even develop spontaneously as well.
Riots don’t happen every day though. While it is easy to plan a demonstration, it is somewhat harder to instigate a riot. Nevertheless, anarchists try to do so all the time. Even when they don’t, irrational exuberance can turn darn near any large gathering into a riotous mob too, leading to situations where people overturn cars, set fire to buildings, damage property, and harm people. Alcohol and other intoxicants play a critical role as well.
For example, on June 20, 2007 an angry crowd beat a 40-year-old man to death over a slow-speed accident in Austin, Texas. According to police reports, a driver inadvertently bumped a three- or four-year-old girl while driving through a car park near the site of the annual Juneteenth festival, a celebration that commemorates the freeing of American slaves. The driver stopped his car to check on her well-being, discovering that she was scared but not seriously injured.
The passenger, David Rivas Morales, also got out of the car but he was almost immediately set upon by a group of about 20 people and beaten severely. He collapsed to the ground and was subsequently pronounced dead from blunt force trauma upon arriving at the hospital shortly thereafter. While the girl was shaken up a bit, the man died.
Crowds can turn into mobs if members become indifferent to laws, choose to disregard authority, or take advantage of the perceived anonymity that a large group can provide and follow instigators into unlawful, disruptive, or violent acts such as a riot.
The crowd mindset of being one face among hundreds can be a very dangerous thing. It’s quite easy to get caught up in the fray, not truly thinking about what is going on. It can even be fun for those involved, particularly when they don’t consider the consequences, an adrenaline rush that rivals any amusement park ride. Consequently, things can get out of hand pretty quickly. When they do, they are very difficult to stop, even once law enforcement officers arrive to take control.
According to Loren Christensen, there are five psychological influences that affect rioters, their targets, and the police who try to break things up. These include (1) impersonality, (2) anonymity, (3) suggestion/imitation, (4) emotional contagion, and (5) discharge of repressed emotions. Here’s a brief summary of how these factors play out.
1. Impersonality — So-called “groupthink” is an impersonalizing factor that makes it easier for people to lash out. Rioters do not see their victims as individuals with families, hopes and dreams, but rather as objects on which to vent their rage. Impersonality makes it easier to attack victims because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or any other factors that set them apart from the mob.
2. Anonymity — The large mass and short life of a mob tends to make many of its members feel anonymous and faceless. Participants can more easily convince themselves to act without conscience, believing that the moral responsibility for their behavior belongs to the entire group. Consequently, in their own minds they are not responsible for their actions.
3. Suggestion/imitation — The massiveness of a mob discourages many of its members to act as individuals, making them more susceptible to follow others like a bunch of lemmings diving over a cliff. There is a powerful instinct to follow the crowd. Only those with deeply ingrained convictions are strong enough to repulse this urge.
4. Emotional contagion — The size of the mob and its activities generates a building emotion that can be felt by each member of the mob. It is a powerful influence. Often called “collective emotion,” even bystanders can be caught up in this wave and soon find themselves involved with the mob.
5. Discharge of repressed emotions — As a result of the other four influences listed above, certain individuals feel a sense of freedom to discharge any repressed emotions they harbor. They are free to release pent-up rage, hate, revenge, or a need to destroy, acting out accordingly.
Mobs are dangerous. Highly emotional and unthinking, they often erupt into violence. Crowds can turn into mobs if members become indifferent to laws, choose to disregard authority, or take advantage of the perceived anonymity that a large group can provide and follow instigators into unlawful, disruptive, or violent acts. Five psychological influences—impersonality, anonymity, suggestion/imitation, emotional contagion, and discharge of repressed emotions—affect rioters, their targets, and the police who try to break things up. If you stumble across a violent crowd, your goal should be to escape to safety, remaining anonymous, and avoiding as much of the conflict as possible in the process.
The good news is that these psychological influences don’t impact everyone. The bad news is that the
