Thugs

Yes I'm referring to the scum who jumped me, but to more than them. 

There are roving bands of low lifes who roam, sometimes let out in a particular area, looking for a crime of opportunity.  It usually involves assault and theft.  It may include burglary, home invasion and rape.

These pukes don't care.

I told my tale to a few folks on Facebook.  Among the responses I noted were the ones that asked why.  Why.  Who would do this and why did they do it.

I answered simply that there were 'people' (though these have given up their humanity) who didn't give a fig about anything but themselves.  They take what is not their's, and the price can be fatal or at least injurious to others.  And these thugs hope they meet folks who wonder why. 

I can't do more than tell people that thugs exist.  I hope I help wake them up before they themselves get jumped and that they prepare to defend themselves, family and property.  I don't think I'd be here if I hadn't used some of my skill, though not enough.

Matt Bracken's trilogy illustrates what might well happen when civilization collapses.  I believe these rovers are readying themselves.  They fancy themselves street soldiers.  Don't over or under estimate them.  For when it comes down to it, they will find out what war is all about.

Mind you, I am not seeking them out.  But if these schmucks make a second mistake, I will stop the threat.  The warrior has indeed reawakened in me -s-. 

Again, I have debriefed with some whom I trust.  I have practiced and will continue to do so close quarter skills both armed with gun or blade and unarmed.  My awareness is back up, having dwelt among the lotus eaters too much.

I will talk of gangs soon.  They are a cancer which needs to be excised from the Republic.

The scheisskopfs who jump people are of course cowardly.  Three on one is their usual number, but there is always more than one.  Exceptions in there being just one on one can happen, if they think they can take someone.  Don't let em.

Learn.  Spread the word that these creeps exist.  If folks turn their back and blitely ignore the thug factor, it is at their own peril.

Perhaps my event serves as proof to a few at least.

Know these thugs are around.  Spread the word.  Be ready.  Let them know they don't have an easy path ahead.  Give em the hell they deserve.

Also, I'll be letting people know what developments come from my assault.  There will be some interesting revelations in a few weeks.

Watch your six.

Everything Is Going To Be OK

I watched The Beaver with Mel Gibson.

Whatever you think of Mel, this flick is pretty good.  Directed by Jodie Foster, it's well done all around.  It is a tale of descent into mental illness and denial with tragic then better results, in that people emerge from their problems facing things head on.

Rather than a critique, I suggest you get it and see for yourself.  It'll cost you about 90 minutes.

What caught my attention was the short sentence that is the title of this piece.

At the end there is a note about the value of truth.  One of the points is that 'everything is going to be ok' is misleading.  It is often not the case.

We cradle, hold tight, a child in our arms after something bad happens, whatever it may be.  It's a natural tendency to say everything will be ok.  We want it to be.  But we cannot take back whatever occurred.  All we can do is go forward.  I think that's what we really mean.

Things are going to shake us up, rock our world.  What does remain is being there.  We can't take back something bad.  We can be with people and help them through the aftermath.  We can rebuild.

Maybe, just maybe, everything will be ok from that point on.  It's likely to be an uphill battle however.

Facing problems including fears and dealing with them will point us in the direction of making it right.  Things can only be ok when we are indeed honest with ourselves and others.

It's true for kids, family, friends etal. 

It's true for this Constitutional Republic.

Forgiveness

It popularly means to overlook, let go, give up resentment.  It is a primary part of of many faiths/religions.  What does it mean?  I will tell you my view.

Mistakes are made, either by ourselves or others around us.  We can allow them to gnaw away at us.  We can obsess.  Then, we fall into either blaming other people or damning our circumstances.  Or we can let it go. 

That doesn't mean we actually forget.  We must remember or else how can we truly learn?  It's what we learn and how we deal with it. 

Maybe mistakes is too light a term.  Rape, assault, collectivism destroying the Republic are sins against humanity.  There are many more.  Cheating on many levels, lying and many more could paint a very dark picture. 

Should we understand these things, the good and bad of human condition?  Of course, for it's our nature to understand.

Should we limit this understanding?  Let me explain.

I was attacked a few weeks ago.  You can read about it under the post 'Mugged'  Three thugs, who were black, jumped me.  They shouted racial epithets.  What to do as a result?

There is the liberal bleeding heart answer which entails the 'woe is me' entitlement view that these guys were just acting out frustations because the system oppresses them.  That's crap.  Liberal/collectivist solutions exploit social malfunction and high jack it.  And all the social babble in the world isn't going to help you when three slugs are attempting to beat you up.

There is no excuse for such behavior.  Understanding it comes down to this:  There have always been predators who use said excuses to maraud.  They deserve punishment.  They respond only to 'stimuli', if I may use a psych term much abused by those who try to control us.

You see, there is understanding after all -s-. 

Can some people be helped?  I used to work on the street as a student minister.  Yes some can be helped to help themselves, if they are willing to do so.  There are some kids, criminals all, who have been turned away from that life.  But, some are hardwired.  And the way it's been ingrained as with gang society, there are some who, like child rapists, stay predators.

These asses would have been delighted if I had tried to 'reason' with them.  They would have laughed, in there minds denigrated me and after robbing me possibly killed me.  And btw, these mokes were not newbies, having long rap sheets.  And even if this were initiation, the result is the same.  For them it was jail.  It was almost death or at least incapacitation.

Monsters on all levels, from street thugs to those in 'high office' are the same.  They hide behind good intention.  Even those whose reasons are good, they are useful to maintain tyranny.  Or they are wiped out.  Like Mike Vanderboegh says, paraphrasing, that the idea of Gandhi and his notion of passive resistance would have floated down the Ganges with his bayoneted, beheaded corpse, if the Japanese had invaded India.

So, this post has evolved even as I write it.  It's become more than it was originally.  Let's cut to the chase.

Forgiveness to me is not excusing bad things.  It is simply not letting them get to you, eating you alive.

In that case, I may 'forgive' but I sure as hell will NOT forget.  I remember and will do what is best for me to go on living.  Wrong is wrong.  I will not let hatred control me.  But I will defend myself on all levels.

Problem solved?  Well life goes on and I hold up my head, which thankfully, is still attached to my body -s-.

The Operant Word

Operant conditioning.  It is real.  A simple study of basic psychology reveals it.  How far it goes and what it does is the great murky swamp of possibilities.

Our behavior is modified by consequences.  That's the crux of operant conditioning.  Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment and extinction are the common terms psychologist B.F. Skinner coined.  The definitions below sum up this tool: 

1. Positive reinforcement (Reinforcement): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a stimulus that is appetitive or rewarding, increasing the frequency of that behavior. In the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus such as food or sugar solution can be delivered when the rat engages in a target behavior, such as pressing a lever.
2. Negative reinforcement (Escape): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus, thereby increasing that behavior's frequency. In the Skinner box experiment, negative reinforcement can be a loud noise continuously sounding inside the rat's cage until it engages in the target behavior, such as pressing a lever, upon which the loud noise is removed.
3. Positive punishment (Punishment) (also called "Punishment by contingent stimulation"): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a stimulus, such as introducing a shock or loud noise, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.
4. Negative punishment (Penalty) (also called "Punishment by contingent withdrawal"): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a stimulus, such as taking away a child's toy following an undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

I got these from Wikipedia and I know its track record for iffiness.  But my Psych background guarantees this stuff is accurate.  And whatever one thinks, these are applied in daily life.

Further, these are factors that alter effectiveness of consequences: 

1. Satiation/Deprivation: The effectiveness of a consequence will be reduced if the individual's "appetite" for that source of stimulation has been satisfied. Inversely, the effectiveness of a consequence will increase as the individual becomes deprived of that stimulus. If someone is not hungry, food will not be an effective reinforcer for behavior. Satiation is generally only a potential problem with primary reinforcers, those that do not need to be learned such as food and water.
2. Immediacy: After a response, how immediately a consequence is then felt determines the effectiveness of the consequence. More immediate feedback will be more effective than less immediate feedback. If someone's license plate is caught by a traffic camera for speeding and they receive a speeding ticket in the mail a week later, this consequence will not be very effective against speeding. But if someone is speeding and is caught in the act by an officer who pulls them over, then their speeding behavior is more likely to be affected
3. Contingency: If a consequence does not contingently (reliably, or consistently) follow the target response, its effectiveness upon the response is reduced. But if a consequence follows the response consistently after successive instances, its ability to modify the response is increased. The schedule of reinforcement, when consistent, leads to faster learning. When the schedule is variable the learning is slower. Extinction is more difficult when learning occurs during intermittent reinforcement and more easily extinguished when learning occurs during a highly consistent schedule.
4. Size: This is a "cost-benefit" determinant of whether a consequence will be effective. If the size, or amount, of the consequence is large enough to be worth the effort, the consequence will be more effective upon the behavior. An unusually large lottery jackpot, for example, might be enough to get someone to buy a one-dollar lottery ticket (or even buying multiple tickets). But if a lottery jackpot is small, the same person might not feel it to be worth the effort of driving out and finding a place to buy a ticket. In this example, it's also useful to note that "effort" is a punishing consequence. How these opposing expected consequences (reinforcing and punishing) balance out will determine whether the behavior is performed or not.

These factors and the whole ball of wax are used for weal or woe.  And the real crux is the lack of humanity involved.

Skinner treated people like, well the rats used in experiments.  The human factor is ignored.  We are not rats, robots or cattle to be herded with such tools.

Now these methods can be applied to us.  We do not have to accept them.  We have free will, self determination.

Oh yes.  You might look at Lost.  It's rife with Skinnerism.  Examine the faith, fate, fact angles.

Also, with self determination comes self respect.  We clean up our own messes.

So, study this stuff.  Take a peak at Marxism and its myriad spawn.  Study your enemies.

Bit by bit construct and undo them.

That way, you will not be put in a box -s-.