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Day of Rage: Problem Solving vs Decision Making

We have seen several protests over the last week, many leading to blocked traffic and violent encounters. Dozens of police officers have been injured, some very badly, roads have been blocked, urban unrest has become violent, assaults have occurred. This is only one reason why the prudent person should have a plan of action and the tools necessary to react and appropriately respond should things go awry.

Note the use of the words prudentnecessary, and appropriately in that sentence.

A number of “news outlets” are reporting that today is to be a “Day of Rage.” The Day of Rage will be one wherein synchronized Black Lives Matter protesters gather in 37 cities across the nation to burn police cars, trash businesses, scatter Legos across the carpet, rape the horses, ride off on all the women and in general foment chaos. I put the term news outlets in quotation marks because most of them fall into the sensational-headline-clickbait-title-Jade-Helm-is-still-real-GO-TO-DEFCON-OMEGA category. Some are simply repeating what they've read elsewhere, without additional dramatization. A few breathlessly ask, “Will there be civil war in America?” Some are so over the top you leave the article wondering if President Obama's younger genetically modified illegitimate brother — you know, the one trained alongside Aaron Cross by Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer and Operation Blackbriar — was in fact solely responsible for the deaths of five Dallas policemen a week ago in preparation for the declaration of martial law before announcing Obama's 3rd term in office.

A few of course might actually be legitimate sources of information, but it's hard to take seriously any site that promulgates information like those described above.

The thing to remember is that none of their thrilling headlines (or for that matter any sensationalized dire warnings) do anything to promote an intelligent, measured response, and an intelligent, measured response is exactly what any event like this calls for. That is, of course, their prerogative, as are the comments such pronouncements frequently provoke from their readers. The thing is, those comments can be very problematic, not least to the the people making them, whether there is really going to be a Day of Rage or not.

“I hope someone blocks the road where I'm driving today. We'll find how many protesters it takes to clog my axles.”

“One of those guys comes at my car screaming that way I'm shooting him in the face.”

Who knows — that sort of response might be entirely appropriate. Quite possibly it could be an overreaction. Even more likely, the person making the statement is just a bombast beating his chest.

As much as I enjoy watching these gifs over and over, I'd hate to be the driver against whom charges were filed if I'd posted my intention to do so on InstaTumblFace ahead of time, even if when I posted it I wasn't actually being serious. Preparation has been interpreted by a jury as premeditation in less likely cases before.

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Most importantly however, a predisposition to react a certain way might just have an effect entirely counter to what is intended.

 

This brings us, by way of the long way around the barn, to this short but significant piece by the Tactical Professor. Read it and mull its contents, regardless of the exigent event you might be worried about.

Problem Solving vs Decision Making

Claude Werner

“Never bring the problem solving stage into the decision making stage. Otherwise, you surrender yourself to the problem rather than the solution.” Robert H. Schuller, Nightingale-Conant

How does that apply to us?

“I’m going to shoot anyone I find in my house.” That’s repeated so much by gunowners, it has become a meme. It’s a perfect example of bringing problem solving (gunfire) into the decision process (how to best protect my home and, by extension, my family). As I bring up on a regular basis, doing so periodically results in Negative Outcomes.

We make many decisions ahead of time, and that’s generally a good thing. What we have to be careful of is thinking like a hammer in search of a nail.

You can find the original article here.

Follow the Tactical Professor on Facebook here.

Violent Criminals and You Class

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Violent Criminals and You Class-2

 

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