The cost of using a knife...

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The cost of using a blade

The following was a letter I posted to the Animal list. A young man had narrowly avoided being mugged by some street rats and initially asked the list about the legal issues involving knife use. He was advised to get training in judicious use of lethal force, given advice on awareness and told tips on strategic avoidance. Which -- aside from going miles to keep you from having to use a blade -- is both an integral part of a solid legal defense and a external set of standards to assist you do what you need to do to survive a situation of  immediate threat of death or grave bodily injury.  

Although the last sentence is very clumsy and hard to read, it says something very important. And that is there a strong correlation between acting and legal self-defense.

We disagree with the often spouted idea that knowing the laws of self-defense will cause you to freeze from  fear of prosecution instead of defending yourself.  

Basically we feel this is an attempt by individuals -- who revel in the macho fantasy of knife fighting -- to dismiss the importance of knowing legal requirements and standards of self-defense. Knowing when you are justified to use force and when you are not justified force doesn't interfere with you defending yourself, in fact it helps you. That's because it isn't based in emotions and fear. It is based in knowing what is and isn't an immediate threat.

The only time it would interfere with your ability to move would be when you are in the wrong. In other words, when you are fighting, not defending yourself. Many instructors, who make their bread and butter off selling the warrior mythology and the espousing the deadly street effectiveness of their art, are very guilty of promoting this misconception. We consider this to be a dangerous dismissal of reality by people of questionable motivations, whether student or instructors.

In short, the young man was told to get this training before he even considered carrying a knife on the streets. Then ... the young man asked what we call a "27 Ninjas question." 

The term 27 Ninjas is an abbreviation of the all too common, What if I am walking down a blind alley with $20 bills hanging out of my pockets, and I get jumped by 27 Uzi-wielding ninjas? type of question. Twenty-seven Ninjas questions are commonly asked on self-defense forums and at knife fighting seminars.

By their nature, they are worst case scenarios where the questioner has no choice, but to resort to violence.

More realistically though they are What If Monkey types of questions. They are devoid of common sense. In order to have found yourself in such a situation in the first place, you already have committed many errors in avoidance and strategic movement. People who ask 27 Ninja questions are -- in essence -- asking: Now that I have done everything else wrong, how can I get out of this no-win situation that I've put myself in without injury?

. Putting it bluntly, these kinds of questions often are asked by the young and inexperienced--or worse cyberwarriors, people who fantasize about getting cornered, and therefore have the excuse to unleash the deadly fighting/knife fighting skills they think -- in the safety of their homes and dojos -- they possess.  Now, in a blaze of commando, kung-fu, killer prowess, keyboard warriors and dreamers fantasize fighting free of the mess.(1)

One older man who answered was a member of a Special Forces team in Vietnam. Who had killed several people with knife during sentry removals. Unlike what the crop of knife-fighting experts and their cults of uber-warriors loudly preach about the idea, the use of knives on other human beings traumatized him. The young man's inexperienced question irritated him; because it seemed that the youth was actually seeking an excuse to--next time--bravely fight off a horde of evil doers with his knife.

In his defense, the young man was scared and thought it was a reasonable question. What he didn't realize was that the extent of his question went no further than his immediate fear. It did not take into consideration long-term, post traumatic stress disorder issues that arise from violence.

What follows is my reply. It is an attempt to build a bridge of understanding between the inexperience of youth (and its fears) and the nightmare of experience. Names have been removed.

The cost of using a blade

From: Marc MacYoung
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003

***** said
> What do you mean by gray area? Are you stuck? Are you in the place that you are not supposed to be? >Or your ego makes you want to stay?

It doesn't go away...and it is very, very real.

As Barry Eisler recommended The Gift of Fear, I recommend Dave Grossman's On Killing. In it, he talks about the resistance to kill anyway and resistances about killing at different ranges. Knife work...well...let's just say, it's too fuckin' close. The resistances get stronger the closer you get. And that is the case for many, many reasons. I tell you what, even if you don't believe in it, it's like being at ground zero of a bad juju explosion. You may not even know that you have a psychic basement, but, after that kind of situation, the lock on the door to it has been picked and, guess what? Amityville Horror time.

And, yes, there are true sociopaths /psychopaths who don't feel this stuff...but statistically speaking, they are incredibly rare, even in "The Life." Most crims end up wrecked, warehoused, burned out, addicted or dead. And if this stuff can do it to them, what is it going to do to a normal person? Someone who doesn't have the egomania of a criminal?

I must admit, I have a serious problem with the current "knife fighting" trend...especially when it is these cyber-studs who roam the Internet and go to these stud-ly, knife fighting seminars where they practice committing mayhem on their fellow beings. I've watched tapes, and I've listened to what a lot of people promote as "knife use." Quite honestly, what too many instructors are saying will either get their students killed or thrown in prison. Killed, because if you are in a situation where you are legally justified in using a knife, then that move had better have a block inherent in it because something lethal is heading your way. In prison because they teach the guys to attack with a blade sans that kind of threat. That makes it murder or at the very least manslaughter, neither of which are justifiable or legal.

This is why establishing withdraw/evasion protocols is so important. It keeps you away from that door. No, it is not as emotionally gratifying or ego massaging as carrying a weapon and telling yourself "If I ever had to use it I'd...." but it is far, far safer on many, many levels. Your emotions can hijack you (read, Daniel Goleman's: Emotional Intelligence). What's worse is that they can set you up to catapult you into hell. If you just think carrying a knife and asking the list "would I be legally justified in doing this?" is enough then you are not seeing the full scope of the problem. The fear arising from that quick peek into hell is guiding you, not calm, rational, critical thinking.

Now on any other forum, you would have been bombarded with "Ook, Ook, slobber drool, see how big my dick is" responses. What I want you to see is the fact that you're getting solid, dependable advice about getting information from a credible source about the legalities of use of force. You're getting damn good advice on awareness and strategies to create a buffer between you and the criminals. As well as creating a rational, reasonable set of standards and behavioral track record (I did A, he did B) -- that you can articulate to the police and DA -- about what 
1) you did to avoid it,
2) what he did that told you it wasn't "innocent" and
3) why it was necessary to do what you did. And on top of this, you are getting a better understanding of the hell that lies in wait on the other side of the door. Once you understand that, all this other non-macho, practical, rational stuff is way more appealing because it keeps you out of that hell.

Marc

That's what I told this young man.

For people who want to learn knife fighting in order to "defend themselves," think long and hard on this post. It deals with the realities of using a knife on another human being. Before you've gone there, all sorts of things look more important. Once you've gone through that door, they are shown as nothing but silly pride and baseless fears. That's because what's on the other side of the door is far, far worse. Unfortunately, I speak from experience on this issue, and I would not wish this hell on anyone. Don't go through that door.  

Although I am talking rather poetically in this post, there is a serious psychological basis to the subject. It addresses post traumatic stress disorder, post traumatic event disorder, legal, criminology, social and ethical issues that lead to all kinds of problems. The long-term ramifications of these issues are seldom addressed by martial arts or reality-based combat proponents. Although they are not part of the fantasy of violence, they are very much the reality of the aftermath of violence.

Oh, for the cyber studs who will read this page and go off and rip me apart on their ultimate combat forums...well, Eric Hoffer said it best: Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Grow up, boy, this is real life we are talking about. And that goes beyond your fears, pride and fantasies. It involves people's lives and complicated adult issues. You aren't the first one to go down that road, and some of us have gone even farther. Do yourself a favor and don't scoff at the stories of trouble coming your way from further up the road. If you don't have the wisdom to do that, at least have the good manners NOT to lie to younger more inexperienced people than yourself about what it takes to be on this road.

'Cause you ain't made the trip yet...and we both know it.

Animal

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1) The answer to a 27 Ninja question is: "You die...what were you doing there in the first place?" While it is technically possible to survive the kinds of scenarios that are painted with these questions, the person who has the skills/commitment/ferocity to do so will hardly ever put himself into that kind of situation. Return to text.