Look Past Distractions
3 tips to switch from defense to offense.
If someone’s attacking you, the last thing you want to do is look at their eyes or their fists, even their feet. It’s so easy to fake someone out with the obvious. Distractions keep you on defense, while your opponent goes on offense and wins.
If you’re in a fight, you keep your eyes on their chest, because that’s the part of the body that tells you where the person is moving.
Put your hand on your heart. That’s where you need to keep your eyes if you are ever attacked. Middle of the chest, about even with your armpit. That’s your focus area.
Try moving around. Arms and legs move freely. Hands and feet move even more freely. But get that chest moving and the rest of the body has to follow. The head and shoulders are closely attached, they will follow first. The feet have to adapt to the shift in weight, with movement extending up through the hips. The power of a punch or a kick changes substantially when the center shifts. A punch from the end of the arm is like swatting flies, but an uppercut anchored by the feet, channeled through the strong chest core - that’s a TKO.
Distraction limits the power of activists.
Media, social media, and our own unhelpful addiction to adrenalin - delivered via the dopamine hits of fear and ever-looming crises - have conditioned us to watch the fists, not the chest. The focus on ‘culture wars’ and destruction of social norms in the last 40-odd years is a prime example. Make no mistake, stripping anyone of their human rights is a serious attack, but many of the laws being put forward, not to mention the talking points and outrage, are the fists. They are a diversion from the underlying goals, which appears to be increasing wealth inequality, achieved by surgically dismantling parts of democracy.
Newt Gingrich is widely recognized as the architect of the dismantling of social norms, starting in 1989. Other than a blip after 9/11, Americans’ satisfaction with how the country is doing has been trending downwards, with 71% currently unsatisfied. Economically, most of the U.S. has been stagnate for over 40 years. Hardly a successful strategy for most people, but how often have you heard the lament, “how can people vote for policies which hurt them?” Easy. Highly effective marketing of the fists, the diversions.
It’s time to shift from defense to offense using these 3 tips:
1. Shut your ears to the words. Turn off the TV. Step away from social media. When you are watching or reading, watch how fear is marketed. Notice when you feel the spike of adrenalin, the outrage, the anger, and especially the fear that you, your loved ones, your way of life are threatened. 99% of the time these are fists. Stop listening and do some old fashion research. Yes, learn what they are doing as a diversion, but dig further, what actions are your opponent taking quietly? Those actions are the chest.
2. Read the fine print. We’re supposed to be relieved that Congress did not run the global economy off a cliff by not increasing the debt ceiling on spending that they approved, instead of angry at their games.. Politicians are waving their fists over divisive issues. Read the fine print. What does the budget actually cover? Within the budget are their strategic cuts to key agencies that quietly erode their power? Where is the pork? The spending pushed by lobbyists and donors that meets the needs of the few, not the many? It’s not just laws. Read the balance sheet of corporations, not their external marketing. Identify the chest.
3. Follow the money. What are the actions and fine print telling you? Who benefits financially? Who is paying for change through donations, lobbying, and shell companies? Always, always, always follow the money. The money is the chest. Every time.
By focusing on the chest, not the fists, you’ll take the occasional hit, but relying on peripheral vision as backup instead of the main focus, you can switch to offense so you aren’t always playing defense, 3 steps behind.
p.s. Excuse the photograph. I”d have preferred a photo of a woman punching, but every single photo I could find showed a woman smiling, or throwing a pathetically weak fake punch, because women’s targeted rage scares people, so we minimize, divert, neutralize. We sure don’t crack open the door of possibility that the rage exists, and can be channeled. All those photographs are fists, shifting attention from the underlying rage.
p.p.s. I’ll be blogging sporadically this summer as I garden, travel, and relax.