#readwise # The Truth About Violence  ## Metadata - Author: [[Sam Harris]] - Full Title: The Truth About Violence - URL: http://www.samharris.org/blog/the-truth-about-violence ## Highlights Why can’t civilized people like ourselves simply rely on the police? Well, look around you: Do you see a cop? Unless you happen to be a police officer yourself, or are married to one, you are very unlikely to be attacked in the presence of law enforcement. The role of the police is to respond in the aftermath of a crime and, with a little luck, to catch the person who committed it. If you are ever targeted by a violent predator, whether you and your family are injured or killed will depend on what you do in the first moments of the encounter. When it comes to survival, therefore, you are on your own. Once you escape and are in a safe place, by all means call the police. But dialing 911 when an intruder has broken into your home is not a reliable strategy for self-defense.[[“2”](https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-truth-about-violence#footnote-“2”)] ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfgcdgs9d54brhrpfcepsw4)) --- Self-defense is not about winning fights with aggressive men who probably have less to lose than you do. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfggteh27xbn0da9d3v2hq9)) --- Whatever your training, you should view any invitation to violence as an opportunity to die—or to be sent to prison for killing another human being. Violence must truly be the last resort. Thus, if someone sticks a gun in your face and demands your wallet, you should hand it over without hesitation—and run. If you look out your kitchen window and see a group of youths destroying your car, you should remain inside and call the police. It doesn’t matter if you happen to be a Navy Seal who keeps a loaded shotgun by the front door. You don’t want to kill a teenager for vandalism, and you don’t want to get shot by one for hesitating to pull the trigger. Unless you or another person is being physically harmed, or an attack seems imminent, avoiding violence should be your only concern. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfgp822j6df4n821h3vxm0j)) ^ex1g8o --- *Do whatever you can to avoid a physical confrontation, but the moment avoidance fails, attack explosively for the purposes of escape*—not to mete out justice, or to teach a bully a lesson, or to apprehend a criminal. Your goal is to get away with minimum trauma (to you), while harming your attacker in any way that seems necessary to ensure your escape.[[“6”](https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-truth-about-violence#footnote-“6”)] If you find yourself in such a situation, you should assume that your opponent is a career criminal who has victimized many others before you.[[“7”](https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-truth-about-violence#footnote-“7”)] ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfgrt3m85x82kp4ykvrg7f6)) --- If someone puts a gun to your head and demands your purse or wallet, hand it over immediately and run. Don’t worry about being shot in the back: If your attacker is going to shoot you for running, he was going to shoot you if you stayed in place, and at point-blank range. By running, you make yourself harder to kill. Any attempt to move you, even by a few feet—backing you off a sidewalk and into an alley, forcing you behind a row of bushes—is unacceptable and should mobilize all your physical and emotional resources.[[“8”](https://www.samharris.org/blog/the-truth-about-violence#footnote-“8”)] If you find yourself in a situation where a predator is trying to control you, the time for listening to instructions and attempting to remain calm has passed. It will get no easier to resist and escape after these first moments. The presence of weapons, the size or number of your attackers—these details are irrelevant. However bad the situation looks, it will only get worse. To hesitate is to put yourself at the mercy of a sociopath. You have no alternative but to explode into action, whatever the risk. *Recognizing when this line has been crossed, and committing to escape at any cost, is more important than mastering physical techniques.* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfgwvj33rwd8sc17pw3fr6g)) --- One of the most common and disturbing features of home invasions is how the victims’ concern for one another and desire to stay together is inevitably used against them. By exploiting these bonds, even a single attacker can immobilize an entire family. By merely holding a knife to the wife’s throat, he can get the husband to submit to being tied up. Again, it is perfectly natural for victims in these circumstances to hope that if they just cooperate, their attacker will show them mercy. If you get nothing else from this article, engrave this iron law on your mind: *The moment it is clear that an assailant wants more than your property (which must be assumed in any home invasion), you must escape.* What if your attacker has a knife to your child’s throat and tells you that everything is going to be okay as long as you cooperate by lying face down on the floor? Don’t do it. It would be better to flee the house—because as soon as you leave, he will know that the clock is ticking: Within moments, you will be at a neighbor’s home summoning help. If this intruder is going to murder your child before fleeing himself, he was going to murder your child anyway—either before or after he killed you. And he was going to take his time doing it. Granted, it is almost impossible to imagine leaving one’s child in such a circumstance—but if you can’t leave, you must grab a weapon and press your own attack. Complying in the hope that a sociopath will keep his promise to you is always the wrong move. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gmfh1xfyt3rpdb53054zc8hz)) ---