http://www.nationalreview.com/node/435592/print Criminals Are Unicorns
And that’s why it is so difficult to stop them.
By Kevin D. Williamson — May 19, 2016
Ed was a great big bruiser, which made his job — working as a bouncer on Austin’s Sixth Street when he wasn’t in classes at the University of Texas — fairly easy. Ed’s imposing profile, combined with the generally pacifistic nature of Austin Man even after a few too many Shiners, ensured that he very rarely had to do any real violence. But a curious thing happened when he did have to get physical with a patron: He’d take care of things quickly and generally without too much trouble, but afterward he would shake, grow anxious, and have trouble sleeping. It wasn’t that he was in any danger himself, but that violence was for him traumatic.
If you’ve ever been involved in martial arts or boxing, or even a relatively violent sport such as football, you’ve probably noticed a curious related phenomenon: Even among the self-selecting groups of people (overwhelmingly young men) who choose such violent recreations, there persists some hesitation about violence per se. Beyond the cultivation of physical prowess and technical skill, what’s really difficult about training young men in these areas is overcoming the deeply ingrained disinclination to hit someone in the face. A krav maga instructor of my acquaintance forbids the use of the words “I’m sorry” in his facility — if you accidentally punch someone in the nose during a training exercise, you can stop to make sure that they are uninjured, but such risks are part of the deal. The rare odd men born liberated from such inhibitions often become great athletes and disastrous human beings. Mike Tyson the great boxer and Mike Tyson the awful man are a package deal.
The natural disinclination to violence is the reason that so much military training, especially in elite units, is accompanied by emotional stress and psychological degradation: One must interrupt the ordinary mental equilibrium of emotionally normal and high-achieving men to train them to do the things that military men must do. There is probably a good evolutionary reason for this: We are great apes closely related to the relatively antisocial, nonconfrontational orangutan — but even more closely related to the intensely social and often horrifyingly violent chimpanzee. The H sap. model of highly cooperative primate society requires both focused violence and a general brake on violence.
continued
