Violencia

I am here to indirectly prevent a murder.

Yours. And perhaps those of the people around you.

I won’t be there if (God forbid) it ever happens to you. It’ll just be you, by yourself, armedonly with what you know, what you practiced.

It’s one thing to hear about the true victims who wanted nothing more than to escape… and another thing entirely to hear about those who turned tofight—but had no idea what to do. Lives lost for want of a little bit of information.

The motivation is there, the intent is there, as well as the physical ability to get the job done. The only thingmissing is the knowledge of what to do with all of that, where and how to put it for maximum effect.

I have heard too many stories now of people with the will and the strength to survive being overcomeby raw ferocity and insanity, engaging in a wrestling match for their lives and losing because wrestling is hard when you’re out-massed and untrained. It’s like trying to stop a moving car bygetting in front of it instead of turning off the ignition.

In an objective, physical world knowing what to do is such a small thing. Like most life-changing fulcrum points it’s a matter of mere inches.In a subjective, psychological world the difference is a yawning gulf between our comfortable, everyday lives and a frightful alien landscape beyond the horizon. It’s not just unknowable, butunthinkable.

Seeing a person as a machine—and then acting to shut it off—goes against everything we are and everything we love. It is a failure of our humanity and our society. But when it’s that orthe grave, you know what you must choose.

Lethal motivation, unfortunately, does not confer ability. There is no secret beast within you waiting to be unleashed, no Hulk or Hyde to transform intowhen your existence narrows to a choke point. You will only have what you brought with you.

You know how to run. You know how to hide. Conventional wisdom says to “do whatever it takes” when...