Run At The Fear

When I was much younger, I spent the majority of my time running away from fear. I was perpetually afraid of doing the wrong thing, appearing out-of-place, or being unprepared. In the 7th grade, I was at a new school with hundreds of people I didn’t know. I didn’t wear the right clothes, talk the right way, or even give a damn enough about my appearance. And then I had bullies to deal with so I spent a lot of time figuring out intricate methods of avoidance. I’d walk out of my way to avoid place I knew they’d be at. I spent so much time rocked back on my heels that I really felt on the defensive for a majority of the time.

I finally realized something when I was about fifteen years old: I didn’t like how my life was unfolding. Being forever tied up in knots of anxiety is not a pleasant way to go through the day – and even as horrible as puberty can be, I was making my own excursion through that time even more hellish. I spent a lot of time looking for some miracle solution that would remove all the fear from my life. I wanted to be bold. I wanted to let troubles bounce off of me. But I didn’t know how to find real courage, or – for a while – even where to start to look for it.

I’d always been intrigued about martial arts. I’d seen the all the Kung Fu flicks of that time. And so I started training – first with friends and then with actual instructors. I still remember walking into my first martial arts school, halfway terrified that I was going to get the snot beaten out of me and never be able to recover. But that didn’t happen. And as I trained, I grew more confident in myself. I was less risk-adverse than I’d ever been. I wanted to test myself under duress. The primal satisfaction that comes from trading punches and kicks or grappling with an opponent and then emerging from that test weary but still alive; sweaty and exhausted but toughened up. I still love that feeling and yearn for it even all these years later.

But at the same time, martial arts didn’t remove fear from my life – and I realized nothing could ever take fear away. Indeed, nothing should take fear away.

Instead, martial arts changed my attitude toward fear.

As I grew more aware of my surroundings and what my body was capable of doing to another human being, I started enjoying the idea of being tested more and more. There’s a certain primal exhilaration in stepping on to the dojo floor and testing your technique. Sometimes, things go well. Sometimes, you find mistakes that need to be improved upon. But that fear that once crippled me, now assisted me in learning to truly live my life and take control of my personal destiny.

I know many people who have dreams. But fear of failure, or of self-sacrifice, or of some perceived notion that society has pounded into their consciousness of what’s appropriate behavior for someone at a certain age…it ensures those things remain just that: dreams.

As a result, these people do what I used to do – they run away from the fear. They go out of their way to self-sabotage their success using excuses or rationale that overrules their desire. They squander bold opportunity in favor of the comfort of mediocrity.

There are precious few who adopt the opposite response and actually run at the fear. These are the people who act in the face of adversity. They are the ones who acknowledge their fear or insecurity but go for it anyway. They refuse to let fear be the crippling entity it can be. Instead, they use it as a barometer of how well they’re steering their destiny toward the success they believe they deserve. If they aren’t afraid, then they’re not trying hard enough – they’re not taking enough risks to achieve their dreams.

This isn’t to say that if you’re afraid of sharks that you should chum the waters and go swimming. Instead, what I’m suggesting is you look at the things you want from life – goals or dreams or what have you. Then honestly look at what might be holding you back from achieving them. Are you afraid? If so, the only way to achieving your goals is to blast through the fear. Run at it. Go through it. Don’t stop. Never quit.

One of the scariest situations I’ve ever found myself in was when I was walking with my wife and one of her relatives through Chinatown. Ahead of us were two men walking slowly and taking up the majority of room on the sidewalk. I made the decision to move ahead of them, but as I did so, I realized that we were being set up for an attack. The two men were the funnel and ahead of them were three more men situated in such a way as to form a half circle perimeter. The realization was one that happened in nanoseconds – only in looking back at it from the safety and comfort of many years later can I even describe it. But I knew – even in that split-second – that if I hesitated or tried to avoid the situation, it would be catastrophic for the three of us.

Instead, as the attack unfolded and the lead man drew the knife he’d been concealing and tried to distract me by asking, “Hey, you got a problem?” I moved through and beyond the arc of his cut and checked his shoulder so he could not cut back, while simultaneously pushing my wife and her relative ahead of me and out of the ambush, all the while repeating, “Nope, no problem. There’s no problem.” I kept us moving – always moving – until we were well clear of the attackers. And thanks to my training, the incident was over so quickly that the attackers simply turned and walked the other way. I don’t know if they were even fully aware of what had just transpired. I was still fairly confused myself.

But I knew one thing: I’d run at the fear.

I moved forward when any other choice would have meant my downfall and possibly that of my wife and her relative. Backpedaling, circling, even engaging – all of it would have been wrong. I would have been trapped in a circle of five armed attackers (I only saw one knife, but you *always* assume the attackers are armed) with two innocents to protect as well as myself. It would have been disastrous.

I use that example to illustrate the need to always keep pushing ahead when it comes to achieving goals. Yes, there will be setbacks. Yes, there will be failures. Yes, it will be uncomfortable and you may spend a night or two worrying about the future. But the payoff – that same visceral exhilaration that I get when I test myself in the dojo – of finally reaching a goal is so worth it.

Whatever your dreams and goals, I hope you run at the fear and never let it cripple you. Be bold, move ahead. Don’t let fear – yours or that of anyone else – stop you from realizing your true potential.

What a Black Belt Means…

One of the more interesting things that I always watch for is the change in a person once they earn their first degree black belt. With a good practitioner, earning that shodan is usually a humbling and moving experience – especially if the tests they had to overcome involved a great deal of sacrifice and cleansing of improper skills physically, mentally, and spiritually. They gratefully acknowledge the grade and when they wrap that piece of cloth around their waist for the first time, they perhaps feel empowered and as if they have reached the top of a mighty summit.

But as they stand atop their peak, they must also realize that just beyond their mountain are many, many more mountains – each of them significantly higher than the one they just climbed. The sheer size of these peaks in no way detracts from the hard work the new shodan did to reach this point; rather these peaks serve as a strong reminder that there are many more challenges – many more mountains – that the practitioner has yet to climb. And the view should serve to humble the practitioner. It should remind them that their journey is only just beginning; that mastery is still far from their grasp and their quest will take them to even loftier heights, provided they have the emotional and spiritual maturity to accept the forthcoming challenges.

The catchphrase around the dojo I attend, is that earning your shodan is like getting your Learner’s Permit when you’re starting to figure out how to drive. You’ve got the very minimal basics down, but now it’s time to get out on the road and put those skills to the test. You’d never think of jumping into a NASCAR upon getting a Learner’s Permit thinking that you could even control such a vehicle. The same applies to the first degree black belt. You aren’t suddenly invincible, nor are you particularly gifted. What you have is a very limited set of skills that have been tested to a certain extent. Now it’s time to see what you do with those skills that determines how far you will travel in the art.

Or how quickly you will get sidetracked and defeated by your own ego and sense of entitlement.

What sometimes happens is the newly-minted black belt starts thinking they are a gift to the world of taijutsu. They decide that since they have reached this level, they should now teach others and bestow upon them their “immense wisdom” or physical gifts. Their whole attitude changes from one of a humble practitioner, to a cocky, swaggering braggart too quick with a critique and too certain of their own awesomeness.

Inevitably, they start to fall. Unable to look into the mirror and objectively see their own ego hamstringing their future success, they project their inadequacies upon others. If asked to sit on a testing board, they are often the harshest judges, dispensing cruel sentences without taking into account the many, many factors that go into assessing an individual’s performance and progress within the art. If asked to teach class, they are so certain their method of teaching is the best, they refuse to listen to criticism (let alone learn from it) and focus instead on propping themselves up even further. And with every passing day, their skills falter even more. The individual starts to slide backward in terms of physical talent. As the blinders of their crushing ego close even further, they are able to see less and less until they only see through the tiny pinhole of delusion that remains. Their behavior becomes surly; they feel a sense of entitlement and will do things like forget to show respect to their seniors and even to the Chief Instructor himself.

They assume they have it all when, in fact, they have nothing.

Over the years I’ve been at the dojo, I’ve been very fortunate to see a lot of good practitioners come up through the ranks. I can recount the black belt tests that were truly awe-inspiring to watch and help grade. For some of those people, their black belt test served to propel them onward to leap at new opportunities and accept new challenges. They used their success to breed more success. And today, as they quest ever further down the path, they are bright spirits full of ever-expanding potential and talent. They help out in the dojo; they help others; they serve to reinforce the strong ideals that are important as black belt students at the dojo; and they have a strong sense of community – grateful for the learning they have obtained and humble in their quest to acquire more; they show proper respect to those who have come before them and – most importantly – to their Chief Instructor.

Others? Well, unfortunately, this is not the case. And most disappointing are the practitioners who might have once shown such promise.

As senior students at the dojo – we watch everyone. We don’t always say much, but we always observe. And when we spot a talented practitioner, we grow hopeful. We love to see students coming up who display talent and perseverance – we want to see people succeed who will then help elevate the dojo to new heights through their skill. Usually, when we stand around or teach a class, it will be a parting comment, “Nice ukemi.” Then a nod. That’s it. We’ve said all we need to say to know that we saw that spark and that we hope the practitioner continues to train hard. Among ourselves, we’ll talk about who is coming up that we think is particularly talented.

And when we see someone we thought was talented start regressing instead of progressing, it’s a shame. Personally, I just write them off. Any inclination I had to train with them, or perhaps show them something, or make a correction – it stops. They become insignificant – just another body in the dojo unworthy of respect. If they can’t be bothered to understand and accept responsibility for their mistakes, I can’t be bothered to give a damn about them.

This might sound heartless, but the fact is (thankfully) there are always new people coming in – and many of them will turn out to be great practitioners who don’t let their immaturity and their ego trip them up.

Those are the people I want to train with; those are the people I would go into battle with.

Those are the people who will understand what a black belt really means.

Willfully Ignorant

Let’s face it: there are a lot of unintelligent people in this world.

Being ignorant – that is to say, uninformed or lacking knowledge – may have some genetic basis for certain people. Or perhaps they have some mental condition that inhibits learning. They may have a low IQ. In those situations, ignorance can be excused as a preexisting condition not entirely within the control of the ignorant person, who may or may not aspire to improve their situation.

But there’s an epidemic sweeping this country right now of what I like to call willful ignorance. Normal people of average or above-average intelligence actually willfully accepting misinformation and displaying an almost allergic reaction to the notion of using their brain to reason and rationalize.

Example: the other morning I was out to breakfast with my lovely wife. The waitress was down the way talking to other customers about President Obama. The slant of their conversation was decidedly anti-Obama, but the rationale behind it bordered on absurd. The waitress mentioned that the Obamas hadn’t been invited to the Royal wedding and she found it amusing that the British monarchy obviously had such a dim view of the President. Now, rather than actually take five minutes and figure out that the Obamas were not the only heads-of-state that hadn’t been invited, or consider the notion that by attending the wedding they would only be increasing the pressure on an already over-taxed security service, this waitress simply accepted the the first notion that entered her head and used that to buttress her own negative feelings about Obama. In other words, instead of acquiring the correct information, she simply assumed (falsely) a number of things that made her own kneejerk stupidity sound plausible.

Example 2: let’s talk about Obama’s birth certificate. The rallying cry of these same willfully ignorant people has been that Obama wasn’t born in the US. This is so utterly ridiculous on so many levels, it’s fairly comical how stupid this theory is. I mean, really. The President of the United States undergoes a security background check that would leave most people quivering in their boots. Given the unprecedented access the President has to our nation’s most trusted secrets, is it even remotely intelligent to suggest that this guy hasn’t been so thoroughly scrutinized that the birth certificate issue wouldn’t have been addressed years ago?

No, and it’s frankly pretty damned stupid to suggest there’s a conspiracy afoot to bend the rules for one guy to gain access to the highest office in the land. Come on, already. Do any of these birther conspiracy nuts even have one iota of knowledge about what happens during a background investigation? Or how many people are involved in carrying it out? Too many to keep quiet, that’s for damned sure.

But again, rather than use their brain to reason this out, the willfully ignorant choose to ignore common sense and knowledge because doing so would refute their kneejerk subjective opinions about a topic that they feel strongly about.

In Ninjutsu – and likewise in many modern intelligence operations – operatives were taught to be able to objectively report on situations and circumstances. The frontline agents were not expected to form opinions about what they were assigned to uncover. They were simply supposed to report back what they saw. It was then up to the wiser higher-ups to determine what those frontline reports meant and how they might be construed. A lack of objectivity in reporting intelligence leads to faulty assumptions, inaccurate data, and catastrophic repercussions.

As a modern-day student of Ninjutsu, I try to always view things objectively – I gather facts and data and then make up my mind independently about what these things mean to me. Basing a belief system on kneejerk reactionary thought isn’t wise. Nor is it revolutionary.

It is simplemindedness masquerading as zealotry, pseudo-patriotism, and idiocy.

More people than ever before seem willing to put their brain on screensaver mode because it’s too hard to think, or it takes too much time to engage the gray matter. They want their world condensed into tidy sound bites that echo their primal, childlike fears. This makes them feel secure in their beliefs and they’d rather be willfully ignorant than risk being challenged and forced to use the ol’ noggin.

We’ve seen the results of such a mindset. More nutjobs are entering politics than ever before. And they’re winning seats in power because they know that most people simply will not take the time to research them or find out the disturbing truth about them. The willfully ignorant allow themselves to be controlled via their primal reactionary subjectivity. This mindset of willful ignorance is dangerous and more than anything else we’re facing right now, this alone can reduce our great nation to the laughing stock of the global community.

Objective, rational thought is what is desperately needed in the United States of America.

Don’t be willfully ignorant. Don’t be swayed by fear and conspiracy theory and all those other little things that tug at you like the strings on a marionette. Remember: if you really believe you’re intelligent, then you are required to use your brain in an objective manner to fully discover facts and truth before deciding on a conclusion. If all you’re doing is listening to talking heads and regurgitating mindless fear-speak, then you’re not using your brain…

…you’re being controlled.

How does such a thing relate to self-protection? Very easily. If I know, for example, that you’re a rabid anti-Obama Tea Partier, and I have to take you out, I might be inclined to use that to my advantage. If I want you to make the first move, I might suggest that Obama is the greatest thing since sliced bread and infuriate you with my glowing praise of our President. I know that with enough talk, I can get you to flip out and commit to making an attack.

Or maybe, I want to get closer to you. So I take the opposite approach. I rave about what a crook Obama is and how he’s ruining the country. All the while, I subtly draw the distance down between us until I’m in your kill zone. But you don’t see me as a threat because, after all, I’m appealing to your subjective mindset. And before you realize the danger, it’s too late.

And really, it’s just that easy. Those are only two examples of methods I could use on a one-on-one situation to take you out. Can you imagine how many more methods there are for controlling the masses based on appealing to a subjective mindset such as what willful ignorance encourages? Objective, rational thought is the enemy of mass mind control. If you’re truly interested in self-protection, you owe it to yourself to see that ALL of your tools are fully developed – not just the punches, kicks, joint locks, and throws.

Real self-protection begins with your mind. Keep it girded in the armor of objective, rational thought that allows truth to shine through. Willful ignorance is like a rust that undermines the integrity of everything you rely upon for protection.

Don’t compromise your safety.

Mistaking Being Nice for Being Weak

One of the greatest failings in human behavior is a recent trend of mistaking being nice for being weak. Somehow, if you are not rude to someone, but instead treat them the way you might like to be treated, it’s considered a sign of weakness by a lot of very misguided people.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the most dangerous people I know are also the nicest. They always treat people with kindness. Their Facebook profile pictures are smiling and convey happiness and security with who they are as people. And it takes a lot to rile them up. They are forgiving and tolerant of people with less character, honor, and intelligence.

Conversely, some of the weakest people I know are also the rudest posers imaginable. They never have a smile to share or a kind word about anyone. They spread lies created by others without having the courage to go find out through personal experience what the truth of the matter is. Their Facebook profile pictures are leering tough-guy-wanna-be frowns, or them bedecked in firearms, or wearing ferocious samurai armor, or some equally pathetic attempt at conveying some supposed degree of machismo. As they strut about puffing themselves up with their own hot air, espousing their own hype (and believing it) they try their best to project a rough-and-ready attitude, when they are anything but.

And when these rude posers talk trash about others, they then make a very bad mistake: they assume that just because the nice person doesn’t immediately put them in their place, or cave their face in, that those people are actually weak somehow. They don’t see the fact that the nice person has no reason to crash down on them. From the nice person’s perspective, there’s nothing to be gained from swatting an annoying little pest. After all, the annoying little pest will always be just that. Annoying and little. Their capacity to grow has been permanently crippled by their willingness and need to be self-delusional. The nice person, on the other hand, secure with who they are knows that there is always more to learn and explore; that there are always people out there who know more than they do. Rather than try to inflate themselves fraudulently, they instead seek the truth and aspire to always make themselves better.

Meanwhile, the rude people fly around buzzing about this and that. But then they make yet another, more serious, mistake.

They get too close. Or they become too annoying. Or their lies start spreading to the point that they begin infecting other people.

That’s when the nice person stops being nice.

Roadhouse was a truly awful flick, but I’ve always liked one particular line from it, when Swayze said, “I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice.”

People who would equate being nice with being weak need to remember something: eventually even nice people reach their limit. Eventually, even the nicest soul imaginable says, “enough.” And eventually, that person that you talked trash about for years and years and years will grow weary of listening to the same old bullshit.

And then that nice person will stop being nice. Instead, they’ll pay the rude person a visit one day. And a lesson will be handed out.

So, in the spirit of the holiday season, here’s a wee little reminder that if someone’s nice to you, it isn’t necessarily because they’re weak – indeed, they may be more than capable of squashing you like a bug.

Be nice to them in return. You’ll be better off for it.

The Strategy of Chaos

A few quick questions to start this post:

If you were a big organization looking to maintain control, which would you prefer: a cohesive, well-run, well-integrated company, or a fragmented, mismanaged environment rife with ego-battling?

If you were a shadowy conspiracy type, do you think the powers that be would have an easier time controlling and manipulating the populace if they pitted multiple factions of the bitter, angry folks against each other or if the people were living in harmony with one another?

If you were a boxer, do you think it would be easier relying solely on a one-punch knockout, or would you rather use a series of combinations to set up your opponent for an eventual knockout shot?

In each of the above situations, the element of inducing chaos is one of the strategies that might be employed. Chaos, by its definition, is great disorder or confusion. And perhaps more than ever before, inducing chaos is a strategy being relied upon by anyone looking to control or manipulate something or someone.

The martial art of ninjutsu, which I’ve had the great fortune to study now for over twenty years, is a system of espionage and intelligence gathering as much as it is about actual physical fighting. In some respects, the importance of espionage and intelligence gathering is even more important, because if through objective observation one can determine the scenarios which might unfold, then a physical confrontation may never even be necessary. And it’s always nice to win a fight without having to fight.

The lessons within ninjutsu are both common sense and profound, but only if one sees the lessons being presented. Within the Bujinkan organization, the grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, is the ultimate spymaster. He knows what makes every person who walks into his dojo tick. And he often gives them exactly what they’re looking for. Back when the rest of the world was just beginning to learn about ninjutsu, Hatsumi-sensei’s organization was a small, type-knit group of core practitioners. These men were his original circle of trusted students and friends. But when “The Ninja Boom” of the 1980s happened, Hatsumi-sensei was faced with a great task: how to manage an organization that exponentially exploded almost overnight? Was it best controlled through a series of stringent guidelines that produced a cohesive student body governed by an established hierarchy?

Maybe.

After all, there are rules for “participation in the Bujinkan,” that spell out what is expected of the practitioner, his or her ethics, morals, etc. (And there is some degree of hierarchy, but it’s frankly rather silly. Westerners with a tenth of the time training in the art are promoted to obscenely high ranks and then attach titles like “shihan” to their names in an effort to make themselves look better than they actually are.)

But Hatsumi-sensei uses a better technique for controlling his organization: chaos.

How does he do it? Pretty easily, actually. His understanding of human nature is so refined that he knows what a little bit of disinformation will do if placed in the appropriate ear. All it takes is a few insecure individuals puppy-dog eager to consider themselves as close confidants of the grandmaster and you have all the messengers you need. Hatsumi-sensei then plants a small seed of suspicion, or an opinion, or some other statement. Then he sits back and watches it work.

Perhaps he says something like, “Teacher X doesn’t visit me that much in Japan anymore.” It’s a pretty innocuous statement. But when placed into the ear of an insecure person, it becomes much more than that. That recipient then starts spreading this nugget around. “Well, I heard Hatsumi-sensei say that he’s concerned that Teacher X doesn’t visit him in Japan anymore.” And knowing how gossip grows and spreads, the rest is history. Before you know it, the internet is abuzz with people declaring that Teacher X is no longer part of the Bujinkan or some other equally silly notion.

Consider this: if Hatsumi-sensei knows he’s got someone nearby who happens to be among the most vocal of gossipers, he might just wait until they’re getting ready to leave the dojo. Hatsumi-sensei will then ask for their help “removing some of the highest ranks name plackets from the rank board.” The student dutifully does this for Hatsumi-sensei and then leaves, already texting that he saw Hatsumi remove Teacher Y’s name stick from the board. Of course, Hatsumi-sensei may just have been dusting the board, or he may have removed it at Teacher Y’s behest. Or he may have done it to further induce chaos into his organization.

Perhaps Hatsumi-sensei has a particularly annoying visitor always hanging around his office. This guy just doesn’t know how to take a hint that Hatsumi-sensei would like some alone time. So, rather than simply telling this guy to take off, Hatsumi-sensei uses it as yet another way to control his organization. So he shows this clown some of the scrolls from one of the schools we study from and says something like, “This is the only way this kata was done.” Now the clown goes around telling practitioners that Hatsumi-sensei told him the kata was only done this particular way. Further, this clown now states that anyone training with him should only be training with him because he alone knows the true correct way to practice the art. (Of course, you’d have to be pretty stupid and naive to actually believe this, since this is a combat art and there is no ONE way to properly apply this art in the midst of combat. You do what works and what gets you home safely – if you’re bitching about whether your rear hand is properly positioned to approximate the Gyokko-ryu, you’re probably already dead – and mercifully so.)

So now, the grandmaster of ninjutsu has an organization that functions exactly the way he wants it to. There are rival factions, massive egos belied by even more massive insecurity, and rampant silliness that produces a mockery not seen before in the martial arts world. The vast majority of students fall for this manipulation because they forget what the nature of the art is. And this is perhaps the biggest lesson of all: Hatsumi-sensei isn’t doing this maliciously, per se, (although he is most certainly interested in keeping things under control) but he’s offering students of ninjutsu a tremendous opportunity to learn how they might ensure they aren’t manipulated by others in this fashion. And how to include this technique in their own arsenal.

Of course, you’ve got to be able to see it and most of these people never will. Which is fine. And even though some of the people this article speaks of will read this, they will just as quickly shake their heads and discount it. Because if they acknowledge the theory that this might be true, then the foundation of lies they’ve built their shaky house of fantasy on comes toppling down and what they’re left with will be a truth too brutal to bear.

But what if you don’t practice ninjutsu? Does this concept hold true elsewhere?

Let’s look at the political world. We’re less than one week away from midterm elections and the airwaves are filled with more attack ads then ever before.

Ignore your own political leanings for a moment and consider this: when President Obama was swept into the presidency, there was a real groundswell of optimism brewing in a significant chunk of the population. Those who voted for him were enraptured, to some extent, by his promises of a brighter future, change, and prosperity. He had the charisma, the ideas, and the oratory skills to make his case for occupying the highest office in the land. And he won.

If you agree with the idea that the real power in this world isn’t held by politicians at all – but by various consortia, corporations, dynastic types, the ghost of Elvis, whatever – then can you imagine what they must have felt seeing that emerging sense of unity and optimism? I’d wager they saw a significant amount of their control slipping away. After all, a unified people are much harder to control, much harder to sway. So what to do?

The Tea Party.

Independents.

No longer do we have a political landscape dominated by two parties (some might argue this, but both parties have been endangered by the emergence of these new players). The Republicans and the Democrats now have other things to worry about from both a new third party wanna-be and disgruntled members of both parties going Independent. An undercurrent of fear – which the previous administration used so adeptly to finagle nefarious legislation through Congress – percolated until it was ready. Now we have a nation that is being subjected to the most divisive extremist thought being espoused by candidates in decades. We have long-time incumbents being accused of ethical violations. We have a voter body so exhausted by the continuous mud-slinging that many of them don’t know who to vote for, just so long as the advertisements and robo-calls stop. And nowhere in this election cycle do we have candidates actually fielding solid plans for making things better. Every one of them is engaged in countering attacks, redirecting attacks, ducking the mud, and just trying to not look as bad as the other guy long enough for Tuesday to get here.

And you know what? That hope and optimism that endangered the control of this country is now gone. It’s been replaced by fear and division.

Chaos.

Those in control know that the vast majority of people won’t take the time to actually get the truth about things. They know that a whispered snippet of suspicion, that a sound bite that hits a primal fear, or that just the right look of contempt, are all the majority have time for. “President Obama is a Muslim.” “Christine O’Donnell is a witch.” “Sarah Palin is an idiot.” “Nancy Pelosi cohabitates with a transvestite koala bear named Zippy Garlin.” So that’s exactly what they give us. They don’t want one party in command because that’s simply too dangerous. They want a divided union; one easier to sway and manipulate and bend to their own actual agendas.

For the boxer who relies on the single knockout, it can be a dangerous road to victory. He’s got to bob and weave and jab and position himself just so perfectly in order to unleash that one single juggernaut shot that will end the fight. While some have the skill to make it look easy, it’s anything but.

Most boxers work combinations. And for good reason. A series of shots to various parts of the body overloads the nervous system, inducing chaos within the opponent. As the opponent’s nervous system struggles to catalog and address all the impulses flooding it (registering the hit, the pain it causes, the physiological reaction to the shot, etc. etc.) the boxer sees other openings – other targets to attack. And the tidal wave crashes down on the opponent again and again until a knockout is achieved or the fight is stopped. The boxer divides the body of the opponent; he breaks up the harmony that his opponent has trained so hard to achieve; and he uses that to ultimately control the opponent with a KO.

The inducement of chaos is brilliant strategy for controlling and manipulating situations and it’s literally all around us. What makes it so hard to defend against is our own human nature.

In the case of the ninja grandmaster, he knows that people want to feel like he’s confiding in them, that they are “special” or that they need to be “protectors of the lineage.” The truth is the lineage doesn’t need them; it’s been around for a thousand years and will be long after they’re gone.

In the case of politics, those really in control understand that most people are easily swayed by that which requires the least effort on their part to understand. The truth is they don’t care how we vote, provided no one party/ideal/attitude has too much sway. A divided union is an easily controlled one.

In the case of the boxer, he knows that a string of hits is going to be harder to defend than a single KO shot. The truth is if he can overload his opponent, then the KO shot will come naturally.

Using chaos to control a situation, a body of people, or even a nation is a pretty fascinating concept and by studying it, it allows us to objectively understand how others might be trying to employ it on us. Then we can take steps to make sure we don’t fall prey to its incredible power.

Thanks for reading!