Mastodawn

GershonBenKeren Aug 29, 2023

This is a short article on how emotions effect decision making, and our rationality.
https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/decision-making/bounded-rationality.html #KravMaga #selfdefense #selfprotection #security #safety

Bounded Rationality

We have all had moments when we lost it , when we allowed our emotions to take over from our rational thinking. In most cases this switch involves a decision e.g., if someone deliberately cuts us off in traffic, and we decide to aggressively chase them, flashing our lights, slamming our horn etc., we decided to lean in, and hand over control of events to our emotional self

GershonBenKeren Aug 21, 2023

Short article on de-escalation and the various ways to control range, and physically position yourself when dealing with an aggressive incident as a result of a social interaction. https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/krav-maga-stances-movement/range.html #KravMaga #security #SelfDefense #safety

Range

I have written a lot over the years concerning de-escalation. I believe it is an extremely important skill to learn and develop as most acts of aggression/violence are a result of social interactions. Whilst we may spend a lot of time and effort devising personal safety and protection strategies to reduce the risk of being targeted by persistent and hardened offenders (which isn't a bad thing), we may do so at the expense of thinking about and training to deal with the more likely aggressive incidents involving everyday social interactions

GershonBenKeren Aug 14, 2023

Short article on the "Survivor Bias" and how it effects our decision making and attitudes regarding personal safety and self-defense https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/psychology/survivor-bias.html #KravMaga #SelfDefense #PersonalSafety #SelfProtection #SurvivorBias

Survivor Bias

Sometimes when I'm presenting to a group on personal safety, there will be an individual who will claim that the advice I'm giving doesn't match up with their experience(s) e.g., if I advise that you should always lock your front door, they will state that they always leave it unlocked and in 30 years nobody has ever broken into their house etc.

GershonBenKeren Aug 12, 2023

I have written before on using mantras and repeated sayings to prevent peripheral doubts i.e., those negative thoughts that often come to use when we are dealing with violence, however I thought I'd write about how the military uses a similar method.

https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/mantras-and-dealing-in-violence.html #KravMaga #army #SelfDefense

Mantras and Dealing In Violence

The vast majority of human beings have a natural aversion to kill, even in combat settings where survival depends on killing another person. However, the further away – geographically - we are, and the less personal it gets, the easier it becomes e.g., it is easier to fire a mortar round, or drop a bomb, than it is to look a person in the eyes and pull a trigger etc.,

GershonBenKeren Aug 7, 2023

We all think we are skilled in detecting a "scam", however not all scams are directed at us, and the ones that are we may be blind to. This short article looks at the psychology behind the scam.

https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/scams.html #KravMaga #SelfDefense #personalsafety

Scams

When I first received an email from a Nigerian prince, with a ridiculous story about him needing to get $300 000 out of his country, and that if I helped him, I would be entitled to get a cut etc., I clicked trash, and thought to myself - who would fall for that? Then the stories started to come out about people who had fallen for this exact, or similar scams.

GershonBenKeren Jul 25, 2023

Short article on why we use stereotypes, and how from a personal safety perspective they can trip us up. https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/decision-making/stereotypes.html #SelfDefense #KravMaga #personalsafety

Stereotypes

The term/word stereotype originated in the print industry. It refers to a metal plate that printers used to hold an entire page of print. This enabled them to print identical pages over and over again. The journalist, Walter Lippmann, brought the term to public attention in the 1920's, when he used it to refer to pictures in the head.

GershonBenKeren Jul 20, 2023

Short article looking at Stalking in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Counterman case. https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/stalking-and-the-counterman-case.html
#Counterman #Stalking #supremecourt

Stalking And The Counterman Case

On June 27 (2023), The US Supreme Court threw out the conviction of Billy Raymond Counterman, who had been sentenced (in Colorado) to a custodial sentence of four and a half years for stalking a female musician. The case is significant a one and has some potentially far-reaching effects, concerning not only stalking, but also possible claims regarding self-defense.

GershonBenKeren Jul 10, 2023

On July 4th, 2023, there were sixteen mass shootings, resulting in fifteen people being killed, with another 94 injured. This article looks at some of the reasons behind them. https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/krav-maga/krav-maga-active-shooter/americas-violent-holidays.html #KravMaga #GunViolence #Criminology #SelfDefense

America's Violent Holidays

On July 4<sup>th</sup>, 2023, there were sixteen mass shootings, resulting in fifteen people being killed, with another 94 injured. The shootings occurred across thirteen states as well as in Washington DC.

GershonBenKeren Jul 5, 2023

This article looks at how experiencing violence as a group can create social identities, which act as a form of social bonding. The article looks predominantly at this in regards to hazing rituals that some sports teams and fraternities engage in. #hazing #university #college #campus #safety #kravmaga

https://www.bostonkravmaga.com/blog/personal-safety/hazing.html

Hazing

Up until the 1960's it was thought that chimpanzees were largely vegetarian and somewhat peaceful creatures. It wasn't really until Jane Goodall's groundbreaking research into chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park (Tanzania), that it was understood that chimps can be highly aggressive

GershonBenKeren Jun 27, 2023

The term narcissist and narcissism get used colloquially a lot, usually in reference to people who seem in love with themselves. However, there is still a lot of discussion around this personality disorder e.g., as to whether certain attributes and/or behaviors are more important than others etc. There are also subclassifications referring to different types of narcissism.

https://www.bostonkravma.com/blog/forensic-psychology/personality-disorders/narcissism-three-subgroups.html #kravmaga #forensicpsychology #criminology #narcissism

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