Your enemy's OODA loop and you.

 The OODA loop, for those of you who might not know, is Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. In essence it is the mental part of our fight or flight response. Anything you can do to disrupt enemy's is going to shift advantage in your favor. Anyway.

  I started having an e-mail conversation with a friend and fellow blogger earlier. (I won't name who.) Anyway, she had mentioned an exchange she'd had with a subject outside a court room. I thought that her reply was on the money and timely. I replied that my dad, being a corrections officer, has regularly gotten inside their minds and tinkered with their world view in similar fashion. At any rate, anything you do that disrupts the flow of events which your enemy/opponent has planned out (typically prior to making contact) is going to help. It isn't the be all end all of the encounter but every little bit helps. And surprise is a deadly weapon.

  For instance, a mugger steps out of an alley directly in front of you holding a knife, up and toward your face. What he expects to happen is for you to be shocked into immobility. What he doesn't expect is for you to turn that last step you were taking into a solid kick to his wedding tackle. He is now well outside his OODA loop. Matter of fact, his loop at this point more resembles a figure 8. The planned events didn't go the way he thought. You may now turn and run in the opposite direction and get to a location to safely call 911, or you have now given yourself adequate time to draw your CCW and you may now safely call the police to come collect the wayward miscreant. Or he may decide that without cowardice there is no such thing as courage and remember that he really should be singing hymns at church right now. Which ever way, you have now won this battle.

  Similarly if you have an unwanted verbal exchange with a half-melted, unlit candle of humanity. Anything you can say that is either off the wall or out and out hilarious is probably going to make them stop and have to think, or more often, them having to come up with something off the cuff (which doesn't work out so well when you are either slow to respond, or your IQ is around room temperature, even better is when it's both). One example of this comes from my dad. Him having to do random pat-downs of inmates on a regular basis is the start of some of his more hilarious stories. This one is no different.

Inmate: "So how does it feel to be touching a real man?"

My dad: "Dunno, go find one and I'll let you know."

Inmate: "Man, f*ck you."

My dad: "You're not my type. Go to your cell."

The inmate in question then became a subject of mockery to his fellows for sometime afterward. Mainly for being both new to prison in general, and my dad in particular. He also had the unfortunate luck of this happening in front of several of the "old hands" who have known Dad since he started. They both liked (as much as inmates like guards, but more importantly) respected him. They were not kind to that young man. The last dad had mentioned, the inmate was requesting a transfer to a different prison due to the ridicule centered around him not being a "real man." Sometimes it really sucks to be stupid. But then again as dad has always said, "If they were smart, I'd never meet them."

At any rate, always be ready to fight, even if it is just verbal judo. Because the best possible outcome is that you are able to walk away. Stay ready my friends.