While following the rabbit hole that is the internet I came across this article on slate.
I immediately believed the article was about Kevin Joseph Sutherland who had been killed on a DC train several days ago, stabbed to death by a criminal who robbed and stabbed him, while bystanders watched but did not help. The link above was about the author's own experience, being "attacked" "robbed" by a group of girls while other passengers on the train did nothing. Both instances are descriptive of the current climate we live in.
If you are reading this blog, you are probably a person who carries a firearm or at the very least, is an active thinker in the realm of protecting yourself and others. I wrote an article speaking about this, in part, "Get in the Fight" where I cover some of the concepts I will talk about here.
The author of the above article and the victim she related herself to, Kevin Sutherland are and were receivers. They were not ready for the reality of life and that which comes with it. They did not prepare themselves for what may occur, even to a very small degree. They lacked ability to use force, among other things, due to their lack of preparation. Ultimately, the author even said herself, that "I don’t want—no one wants—to get hurt. Despite my own experience and my lingering fury at the inaction of those around me, I’m not sure I would have acted any differently from those 10 eyewitnesses. If I’d been in that train car, I might have felt just like the woman who tried to become as small as possible. I might have been paralyzed with fear," projecting her unwillingness to save herself and others from immediate harm or felonious criminal actions.
Before some have any doubt as to what occurred to the author on the train, she was gang-robbed by several girls. Force plus theft equals robbery, which is a felony in any state.
The author ends the article with a nearly perfect receiver self-identifying statement; "I don’t want to be someone so passive and self-preserving that I allow a stranger to be killed right in front of me. I don’t want to protect myself at all costs. But fear is a powerful emotion. And just because we think we are brave doesn’t mean that we are." That's right, she was scared and she was fearful of things that may occur, because of her lack of self-understanding, preparation for the fight and overall grasp of reality. She never posted where she was riding the train, but it can be extrapolated that since it is DC Metro and it does not exactly run in suburban VA, you may find yourself at any time surrounded by the criminal element.
The author says she had pepper-spray but did not use it. Why not? Probably because she has never used it, not even for training. She probably did not know if it even worked, so she sat there, made statements like "leave me alone" and "stop touching me" instead of taking action against those girls, just like people sat in the train and watch Mr. Sutherland get beat and stabbed to death without lifting a finger.
This leads into the conversation about mindset, feeder and receiver mentality and dying well. I have used this video very often and that is because Kyle Defoor quickly summarizes the concepts.
There is a bigger self-conversation, for self-discovery, you should be having with yourself however. What does it mean to be brave? What does it mean to be self-reliant and willing to get in the fight. What does that all mean to you and how do you feed your surroundings before you ever make it out of your front door?
The PressureProject Ep #100, about Masculinity in 2015 has an interview with Tom Kier and Jack Donovan about his topic. The video below is around two hours long but completely worth the watch.
What are you doing to make sure you get home at the end of the day? Are you training hard enough? Or at all? Are you setting yourself up for success of failure?
You have to affect the situation before it effects you.