BOOK REVIEWS – Page 3 – Conflict Manager

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger – Review by Erik Kondo

I just finished reading Tribe. At one hundred thirty five small sized pages, it is a quick and entertaining read.

I think this book is relevant to divisive modern times. The main takeaway I received from this book is of the importance of “belongingness” to human beings. Modern humans are the result of our long evolution. For most of this evolution, we have existed in small tribes in which our survival was directly linked to being a member of a smoothly functioning and cooperative tribe. Modern life has changed all of that. We no longer need a tribe to physically survive. The problem is that while we may not “need” a tribe for survival, our well-being still requires this feeling of “belongingness”.

Throughout the book, Mr. Junger provides examples of how belongingness benefits people even when their circumstances are grim due to warfare, natural disasters, and more. In fact, in many cases it is the very existence of these adverse circumstances that created the tribal bonds.

In my opinion, many of political/social/special interest groups have become the default “tribe” for those people lacking this feeling of belongingness. The unfortunate result is many people whose very identity is bound to increasingly radicalized tribal views. At this point, the benefits of the tribe are far outweighed by its many disadvantages to both the tribe members and society at large.

The Law of Self-Defense: The Indispensable Guide for the Armed Citizen by Andrew F. Branca – Reviewed by Rory Miller

Recognizing that Conflict Manager has an eclectic readership from many countries and with many interests, a book on the legalities of self-defense focused on firearms and specific to United States law may have limited appeal. That said, most of the board members of CRGI know each other through the personal protection community and self defense is a subject that has touched all of our lives. Also, The Law of Self Defense is a good and important book.

That’s the most salient thing. If you have anything to do with self-defense, either as a student or an instructor, the legalities are important. I’d go so far as to say it is negligent to teach self-defense in any form without a solid grounding in force law.

Let’s dispense with something right away. The old saw, “I’d rather be tried by twelve than carried by six.” For those unfamiliar it means, “I’d rather go on trial than be killed.” In logic, this is what’s called a “False sort.” How about surviving AND not going to prison? Embrace the power of and. There are also a few who will argue that thinking of legalities in a deadly force situation will paralyze you. I disagree. Every thinking person knows that there will likely be legal consequences after a violent encounter. It is my experience that, when a problem is known to exist, ignorance creates a deadlier freeze than knowledge.

The Law of Self-Defense takes an intimidating subject, one that has a long history, with sources written in obscure legal language, and nuanced over many jurisdictions and makes it accessible. Practical. It was actually kind of fun to read. And I never got the feeling it was dumbed down.

The chapters take important concepts like, “What is innocence?” and breaks the concept down into common sense language. And gives actual incidents. And quotes relevant case law. At the end of almost every chapter, there are tables that give the exact wording for the specific aspects of law discussed in the chapter for all fifty states. Well written and concise overviews combined with stories and combined with technical details makes a powerful and simultaneously easy to grasp tome that should be on the required reading list for self-defense instructors, students and anyone who carries a weapon.

Branca gives the legal details of a perfect world, but also gives the gritty details of how the cases sometimes go. It’s not always pretty, and that should keep you cautious. Caution is usually a good thing.

Read the book. For an understanding of the legal principles, for an understanding of the legal process (from arrest to booking to trial and the civil side as well) and for the keys to planning a legal strategy well in advance, read the book. If you intend to teach self-defense and want to answer your student’s questions, I don’t know of anything better available.

Editors note. This review pertains to the second edition published in 2013. The third edition is now available.

Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters by Charles Remsberg – Reviewed by Tim Boehlert

Get the book

Charles Remsberg

Calibre Press – Kindle Edition 2016

If you want to step up your game, improve your security stance, and increase your chance of surviving a violent encounter, you owe it to yourself and your family to educate yourself. Reading this book would make a great start.

It was first published in 1980 for the Law Enforcement Community, and I am assuming that it was written after too many Police Officers had been killed in the line of duty. Studies had been conducted that found their mistakes and identified the source of many of those mistakes made.

This book also served to launch a travelling road-show called Street Survival, which sought to correct a lot of the common mistakes that officers had made in the field. To that end, the Street Survial series of books served for many years as required reading in many academies.

I was lucky enough about 6 years ago to come across more than one reference to these ‘lost books while doing my own research to keep myself safe. These books contain a lot of great information. In these books you will find much of what we study and take for granted today. The adage, “Study the Old, to Understand The New” applies here. We didn’t invent this stuff.

One of the biggest challenges of learning anything is that you need to look behind the curtain and question many aspects of it – why does it work, what makes it work, why is that knowledge perhaps more important than the knowledge itself? If you want to learn anything, take ownership for your own endeavors and effort. Ultimately, only you are responsible for you. Own that.

Much of what we train today, is not new, or original as you may be lead to believe. Exploring older books can lead you to some ‘new’ discoveries – tactics, techniques, philosophies, principles. This book is 36 years old, and yet there is a ton of relevant information in it that still applies and holds up today.

Below I’ve highlighted just a portion of what I think is still relevant and useful for self-defense, and I hope you do too!

Some of the many ideas found within the first volume of this series and which are worth reiterating here are:

The combination for survivability in the street is a combination of your abilities and what you have been taught. That is NOT a one-way street. You will be provided with only so much based on budgetary restrictions, the rest is on you. Too many professionals rely strictly on what they will be provided by their employer. In our world, that’s you. You may need to justify what you think is a reasonable amount of funding to keep yourself and your clan safe, but don’t sell that short. Here’s an example: I work five days a week trying to keep myself safe, my company safe, and our clientele safe. I spend annually between $1k-$2k to achieve that goal. That money is mostly for training. That training consists of books, videos, seminars primarily. This fits my needs, but does not maximize them necessarily. This will hold true for all of us. BUT, I am making the effort to keep my education moving forward, and ever-expanding, and honing in on specific skill-sets that I require due to environmental needs. That leaves holes in my plan that you could drive a semi through, but that’s life. You can’t possibly plan for everything, but if you can narrow down your specific threats, you can assure that you will prevail under those sets of circumstances, and MAY be prepared for others based on your learning.

Just because it hasn’t happened doesn’t mean it won’t or that it won’t happen to you. Complacency affects all of us in some way. Don’t let it settle in. Don’t tell yourself a story that just because statistics say it’s likely to never happen that it wont or that you aren’t the one it will happen to. Take a reality check and let that sink in. You, and only you are responsible for yourself.

Be prepared. Again, that falls into several categories, but in my opinion being prepared mentally is at the top of that list. This covers awareness, but it also cover physical and emotional realms as well. Don’t be that guy/gal.

You don’t get to decide that the BG (Bad Guy) is going to do, UNLESS you can. Violence is a very broad set of rules and you don’t get to know which ones are in effect, nor which ones will be on the table when the SHTF. Know that you dont know, and be good with that. Make peace with that and move forward with your plan to shut it down.

Come to terms with your moral and psychological considerations BEFORE you get into it. Really spend some time examining yourself and your capabilities and responsibilities. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just because you should, is it legally justifiable? Spend a lot of your time doing what-if scenarios in your head – where it’s safer to make mistakes.

Force is not the answer to everything – there are alternatives that you need to arm yourself with. Learn some basic verbal skills, de-escalation, tactical communications, verbal judo – it’s all about NOT having to use your physical abilities on another, and it’s legally your required first step of use-of-force when it’s applicable.

What you think about violence isn’t necessarily the reality of what it will be – for you. Many things happend during ‘an event’ that you haven’t even begun to consider. Add to that mixture the fact that you haven’t practiced much of what you know nearly enough to handle this situation. Throw in your reactions – chemical dump, emotional upheaval, environmental booby-traps, multiple goals, etc… it gets complicated in the blink of an eye, and a lot goes through your head or it doesn’t. Have you prepared yourself for any of that?

“Training to face reality takes extra time, extra energy, extra creativity.” A direct quote from Carl Remsberg. It’s not only important in formal training, but in what you do everyday. You need to make the effort to move yourself forward on your on time as well as when you’re ‘in play.’

Have you truly assessed your capabilities and your dependence or independence of deploying a weapon? Do you know your weapon intimately? DO you know your ability to use that weapon on another human being intimately? Do you understand the aftermath? Some very heady things to work on, now!

Hands. They are what will hurt you. Agreed, but there is a larger picture to consider as well – being blind-sided is one of those possibilities. You can’t always be ON, but you need to raise your level of awareness, and educate yourself on everything that MAY keep you safe. Whether it’s learning more about knives and knifers, or guns – handguns, long-guns, ammunition. Try to educate yourself to the extent that your friends will get a little uncomfortable about how much you know and the things that you find interesting. THEN you might be ahead of the game, just a little.

Educate yourself not just in Martial Arts, but in Military Martial Arts, and Police Marital Arts. Learn about the OODA loop, about the Awareness Color Code. OODA alone will make you more capable IF you have digested it, and keep it in the forefront of your mind.

Practice is always good, and the more realistic it can be, within reason where injuries are uncommon, but not unexpected, but it’s not the same thing. Realize that it’s not real, but a pale substitute. It’s not like being there, and doing it. There are many, many aspects of being there and doing it that you’ll only get after you’ve been there and done that, that’s when all of the training starts to make sense, to make you go back and revisit or reassess.

You will find that one guy that is willing to die rather than to submit. Have you even considered that his goal is not your goal?

Don’t be afraid to criticize yourself. We’ve all done it. Try not to be your own worst critic, but take a healthy dose of ‘I told you so…’ and learn from it, move forward.

Keep moving. Don’t wait for reaction or results. MAKE results happen. Overwhelm and win.

Weapons – study them, get intimate. Learn as much as possible, for you may end up having one in your hands when you least expect it.

Study your adversary. Learn what makes him tick, try to put yourself in his/her shoes, and understand what their motivations may be. Study your enemy, for they’ve already studied you.

Learn your targeting. Understand as much as possible what the right target is and what the right weapon is for that target. The goal is usually to stop the violence as quickly as possible, but do you have a solid legal foundation for that goal? Is this social or asocial violence? The targets and tools will be different perhaps?

Train under stress, fear if possible. No one can really tell you what that is like – it’s different for everyone, and likely different under every circumstance.

‘Practice at surviving.’ Don’t become complacent.

‘Patterns of instruction’ should ‘match patterns of encounter’ – train for the most likely encounters?

Under the stress of combat, and that’s what fighting encompasses, you will ‘revert without thinking to the habits you have learned in training.’ Agreed, and one important thing to consider here – if it ain’t working, move on. Don’t be the guy that continues to repeat the same ‘move’ and expects different results.

Don’t fight like you train, and therein lies the rub. As an example, don’t spar. Sparring trains into you some very bad habits – pulling your strikes – only hitting at X% of power, stopping after scoring a point, and other ‘rules’ that will work against you. It may cost you dearly. This also includes – don’t WAIT for results – keep moving, keep doing damage until the threat stops.

Learn about spatial relationships – proximity. Test your variables, test your ability to work within certain distances and environmental constrictions. Rory Miller is a proponent of ‘In Fighting’ – I’d only heard that once before in my years of training, and it didn’t make sense the first time, until I explored the larger possibilities behind that simple phrase. Explore.

Most confrontations are over quickly – seconds at best. Work smartly within that time constraint. Work to that goal as well.

Reaction to recognition is key to victory. The quicker you can respond, the better your chances are. Get beyond the DENIAL hurdle and your over the first large hurdle in your way. This takes practice, practice, practice. It starts with excellent awareness, and anticipation. Don’t daydream when you’re ‘on.’

Don’t expect your assumed authority to work in your favor – bouncer, security, owner, etc… that may be the impetus to action and the fuel for the fire that is about to light you up.

Criminals train more than you do, most likely.

Don’t expect rationality or compassion from your opponent.

Their desperation and your constraints are not equal but are opposing forces internally.

Don’t hesitate to act based on what you think. Your gut feeling may be the only thing that saves you. For the uninitiated, read Gavin de Becker’s THE GIFT.

If you are to survive, you need to be aggressive, and take chances.

Don’t give up. It’s been proposed that many officers died in the line-of-duty because they ‘thought’ they were going to based on some subconscious ‘understanding.’ Being hurt is not the same as being out of the fight. It’s time for Plan B!

Never let your guard down. Even if you’ve overcome one or many opponents/threats, don’t become blase about your abilities to overcome. Always be vigilant. There is always someone that will surprise you and possibility defeat you. Be realistic, not complacent.

You should walk out of your house/business with survival as the most important thing on your mind.

‘Let the circumstances dictate the tactics, not vice versa.’ True Dat!

Always be rehearsing mentally. It’s as important if not more-so than hitting the gym or the Dojo, in my opinion. As an example, I have personally watched a video on a specific technique, that I only mentally rehearsed before having to actually deploy it, on more than one occasion. In Japanese culture, I believe that that is referred to as Mushin – without mind. It works, and don’t let anyone persuade you otherwise. Your mind is your best tool – develop it. Survival instinct is string, and your mind WILL take over when all else fails.

“Whenever possible, you want to cultivate tactics that are unexpected, to be ‘systematically unsystematic.'” HUH? Yeah, something more for you to explore! Have fun!

There will always be a clue, if you’re aware, that it’s about to go down. Learn those clues – body language, non-verbals, physiology. If you have a better understanding of your opponent, knowing them perhaps more intimately, you have your baseline to gauge by, otherwise… pay attention and look for the subtle, micro clues.

“Uneventful familiarity breeds complacency.” Just because it hasn’t happened, doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t. Keep your wall up!

Keep your head on a swivel and your ears on. Always be ‘scanning.’

Watch for the ‘grooming’ or ‘comfort’ touch – signs of nervousness. Grooming is done to comfort the person doing the grooming, perhaps to work up the courage to strike. A Comfort touch is to reassure the threat that his weapon is still there.

Always look for the most likely places that someone would carry a weapon when being approached. Do it to everyone to stay in practice and make it a part of what you do as your norm.

Keep a safety zone around you at all times. They have suggested 36″. I think it depends on you solely, and whom you face.

“Repetition of good tactics forms good tactical habits.’ Amen, right?

Control what you can.

“Human nature is very predictable.” Maybe in context, or maybe if you have studied it in depth. I think otherwise mostly sometimes. Does that even make sense?

“you must be ready to execute it without hesitation.” In the context of use of force – you must commit fully once you have decided to act. Totally agree. I have done otherwise, and gotten what should have been expected results. If you don’t fully commit, then you are holding back. If you hold back, you lose advantage. If you lose advantage, you also lose surprise. Its a crap shoot after that. Good luck, you’ll need it!

I’ll explore Volume 2: The Tactical Edge in a future article!

tim boehlert

tim@avinardia.com

The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon – Reviewed by Garry Smith

I first came across this book in my studies at the University of Warwick in a class called Social and Political Movements taught by Professor Jim Beckford. Jim was a great tutor and a really nice guy to boot, his classes were always looked forward to although his rigorous analysis of ideas may upset some of today’s precious petals. The first class looked at the work of Le Bon and his study of the psychological nature of crowds. I remember liking it at the time but feeling that it was just too much guess work and overtly influenced by the authors experience of a turbulent and frightening period of French history.

That was back in September 1990, much water has passed under the bridge since then, so why come back to it now? Well it all comes back to a conversation with Rory early in 2015 about ConCom and the triune brain and I mentioned Le Bon and his theory. The simple analysis is that once subsumed in a crowd an individual surrenders their individuality and a psychological mind is formed through contagion, emotions spread throughout the crowd and freed from individual responsibility the baser instincts take over. The individual ceases to think about the consequences of their actions as emotions take over and acts of both barbarity and heroism are possible. Le Bon describes the ‘spinal cord’ as being in control and not the intellectually reasoning brain.

Ring any bells? Well it rang mine. The thing is in the PC days of the 90’s this became a bit of an Aunt Sally, by the students that is, to be fair Jim used it in its historical context to begin a much wider and deeper exploration of the subject at hand. For the students, fresh out of some of the top schools in the UK, it was to be belittled, corny, out of date, lacking in evidence etc. I was 31, I had been involved in a lot of crowd violence involving a full on riot with flaming barriers, thousands of people mobilised and hand to hand fighting with specially trained units of riot police, plus the occasional football riot, I thought differently.

Though written in a voice from a different age and though the criticisms raised were in part valid, it was not enough to write it off as a whole, I thought all along there was something of value here, by its presence on his curriculum so did Prof Beckford (nice man but a Spurs fan, sigh).

In his book ‘The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt revives the work of several theorists who were also sacrificed at the stake of political correctness and shows how resulting evidence almost conclusively provides the evidence they lacked which allowed the ‘PC mob to grab their pitchforks and light their torches. I am not claiming that much for Le Bon but he sure saw something the others did not want to see.

There is another parallel I want to draw with Haidt’s work that also prompted me to go back to Le Bon, Le Bon was here first and Haidt never heard of him, or if he did he never recognised him.

Maybe because Le Bon was last in some pseudo academic backwater is what I would think, forgotten and unloved. However, I suggest you go get your free copy from Kindle now, read it, read it in the full and tell me that it does not describe how the world is today. As I reread it I saw all the arguments, and candidates, in the forthcoming presidential election in the USA, it frames the rise of Islamic State, I will not prime you too much but this is a really interesting read.

There are bits that lack intellectual rigour, it is more polemic than analysis and his biases are obvious, BUT, that is not a reason to ignore it. Go get a copy and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Pine Wave Energy by Robert Norton – Reviewed by Garry Smith

This is a short review for a short book. I read Pine Wave Energy in just a few hours as I found myself beginning to coast over lots of very familiar material, which is hardly surprising given the vast amount of reading I have done as part of my studies and personal development. Personally I finished the book having learned very little that was new to me, but not disappointingly so, this is still a really nice find.

The great thing about this book is its accessibility, it really requires no prior knowledge of the field of conflict management, it does not go into great depths of subject specific bodies of knowledge either, it is a smooth read and sensibly organised. This is exactly the book I want o offer to my students who want an introduction to the topic, it is not a manual of how to do things, it is a guide to how things can be done. I covers most of the key points in a logically ordered format.

I teach students Ju Jitsu, I also teach students self defence, in both cases I think they should understand the dynamics of conflict situations beyond their own personal experience, often this is all they have, that and a million messages from TV, film and other media. Sometimes they need to move beyond their own perception and popular myths and take a bit of a rain check. This is what Pine Wave energy offers, a quick, easily digestible collation of benchmark information that does not require a degree to understand or a couple of weeks of your life to get through.

Most o my students are not professional conflict managers, they have businesses, jobs, families and whole lives of which their training is a part. Those in the trade may need and want more detail and depth but not everyone does, so read this book(let), find out if you agree if it is of use to your students and if so put it their way. Sometimes bite size s the right size.

Availabe for purchase at the CRGI Bookstore.

‘The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do and how to change’ by Charles Duhigg – Reviewed by Garry Smith

This is an incredibly interesting book. It combines scientific research into human behaviour and psychology with great story telling to unravel how we for habits and how they run our lives. I was particularly fascinated with the incredible amount of research done by marketing companies and the big corporations and not that surprised to find that they often know more about us than we do.

If you train yourself and more importantly if you train others in anything at all, no matter how much you already know, this book will deepen your understanding on how we develop skills by building complex neural networks. Not only that, but what is involved when we try to rewire the brain, how it can go wrong and how to do it successfully.

This is as good an introduction to the architecture and functioning of the brain as most people will need in an incredibly easy to access format. Whilst focusing in p[art one on the individual, part two looks in depth at organisations and part three at societies.

The scope of this book is enormous but it is so well written you are both informed and entertained throughout, and every now and then up pops a dinky little diagram to reward the reader (oops, is that me revealing something). You will learn about camouflaging kidneys, placing sticky tunes on radio playlists and how the shops know a woman is pregnant before she does. In fact this is the kind of book that will have you annoying your significant other as you keep reading bits out to them.

It is also full of really useful anecdotes that will help you understand your training and your teaching better and I have used a few of them times over to explain otherwise technical concepts to students. People love stories more than jargon.

Treat yourself, by it, read it, read it more than once and keep it handy as a reference, I do.

Available for purchase at the CRGI Bookstore.

A Woman’s Toolkit for Recovery from Violence and Trauma by Anna Valdiserri – Reviewed by Toby Cowern

I have followed the blog writings of Anna Valdiserri for some time now and have been consistently impressed and interested in her observations and conclusions drawn, around a number of aspects of violence dynamics and conflict management.

When I heard she had written a book, I must confess, I ordered it straight away, without a second thought, despite the title leaning heavily towards female readership. If ever there was a case of ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ this would be the epitome of it. Valdiserri herself writes early on:

“What I am trying to do with this booklet is… to provide women with some of the recovery tools we are not taught we may need. Having said all this, I don’t think there is anything in this book that men can’t use too”

That statement is astoundingly accurate. My first thought when sitting down to read this small book was that it would help give me an insight into some of the issues that women may need to address or have concerns with following trauma. This is a vital area of development and understanding I personally need, not only as a self-defense instructor, but also as a husband and father (too girls) On diving into the main sections it felt very akin to reading the “Armored Rose”, this small guide having a power in it’s detail, message and delivery to give me many things to think about and reflect upon.

I found the structure of the book to be excellent. A list of key headers is provided in the beginning and taken in turn and expanded upon as the book progresses. The power of this book, in my mind, is Valdiserri’ ability to get significant concepts and depth of ideas over to the reader in such minimal writing. With so many writers getting wrapped up in overly expressive styles or wrestling with political correctness, Valdiserri goes straight to the heart of an issue and tells it exactly as she sees it. Not only does this make for a refreshing change (especially in the genre of ‘Self Help’ books) but it enables the reader to understand and engage with the strategies being laid out in appropriately sequential steps, without confusion.

I was reading this book ‘out of interest’, but can imagine how it would feel for a reader to open this book out of necessity, having been the subject of violent trauma and looking for a path to heal. The brevity of this book, I do believe, makes that journey far easier for any reader who may literally be reading and then trying to apply what they have just read.

At only 79 pages long, the author refers to her writings as a ‘booklet’ and that could be a fair description. With that in mind I actually hope that this ebook can find it’s way into physical publication, as I can see it taking an essential and much needed place on desks and side tables through doctors surgeries, hospital wards, police stations, support centers and other venues where those that need the advice most can receive it the quickest and most discreet way.

All in all I found this book to be compelling reading, offering excellent, well thought out strategies, presented in a clear, concise, unambiguous manner in enough detail, but as few words as possible.

I have already purchased copies for friends of mine (The highest endorsement I know how to give) and would definitely recommend this book. Gender regardless it’s content informative and of value, exceptionally well priced and can be read and assimilated quickly.

It is rare a book is released that achieves so much in such few pages. I hope you get as much benefit from reading it as I did, and it’s worth noting, some of the strategies contained within “A Woman’s Toolkit for Recovery from Violence and Trauma” even worked for me…

Available for purchase at the CRGI bookstore.