posted July 01, 2011 10:38 AM            

“Well most people never go to that edge,” he said. “But I’ve been there and I am telling you when you get all the way out there, self preservation kicks in.”

“I don’t know if I agree. If that’s true, then what about these women who don’t fight a rapist? Why doesn’t their self preservation kick in? They just get raped.”

“It does kick in but it’s too late. It does kick in but they wait too long. They wait until the guy is on top them, he’s got her pinned and when he starts choking her… now he’s going to kill her, then it kicks in but by then it’s too late. She’s thinking I’ll just let him do this and it will be all right. But then he starts choking her and she starts fighting at that point. And he gets his jollies from that and then she gets killed. And this is what the military trains you for. To self-preserve in time. You have to have that instinct kick in while there is still something you can do.”

We discussed suicide in relation to this rule and later, this:

“What about a guy who remains defiant while he is tortured to death?” I asked. “I know for a fact this happens.”

“It does happen. Yeah, that can happen.”

“So how does he break the rule? Why doesn’t his self preservation kick in?” I asked.

“Because it’s different. That’s a guy who is going to fight. That’s a fight to the death.”

I could not argue with any of this. You?

posted July 01, 2011 11:25 AM            

Self preservation yes its true it kicks in, in any such adverse situation. But again one can get numb or blank out of shear shock, disbelief. So where would the resistance be? And secondly, in a case where one party could be very very weak compared to the other how much could they resist?

As far as suicide is concerned i wonder what the discussion was because i dont know where self preservation works there, i mean at what time from the mulling of the idea to its actualisation. I am curious to know.

posted July 01, 2011 03:32 PM            

It covers stuff from hostage situations, plane crashes etc, it's an interesting and easy to read book. I think it's appropriate to what you're asking about.

posted July 01, 2011 04:15 PM            

He said about three quarters of them actually just charged en masse through the glass windows of the station getting cut to ribbons.
A small minority were helping others injured in the blast and like the guy who saved him remained calm.
And one woman was just running aimlessly in a big circle screaming her head off.

So he began to investigate after the event the three responses flight, fight and freeze that people experience when in a life threatening situation.

When that plane landed on the Hudson river there were reports of all types of behaviour.
Two guys apparently ended up having a fistfight in the aisle, some had to be prised out of their seats, some ran down the wing nearly slipping in the river and bizarrely some people were calmly getting their luggage out of the overhead lockers.

There is apparently a rational explanation for this.
When a shocking event happens the brain will immediately look for this event in the past to see how you survived it then (because obviously if you are still here you did)
If it can't find the exact experience it will search for something similar.
Which explains the bizarre getting your hand luggage out.
The brain thinks....have we been in this situation before?
No. Have we been in a similar situation before?
Well we've been in a plane that landed before.
And what did you do?

We got our luggage out of the overhead lockers!
Then let's do that shall we...

It's a very interesting piece.
I have been in a situation like that.
My response is to trample anyone and anybody underfoot to get to safety.
Nothing heroic about the bunnies